Jefferson Elementary

Jefferson Elementary is one of the mid-sized primary schools in Shelby, North Carolina, part of Cleveland County Schools, with 439 students on its rolls from grades pre-K through 5.

Cleveland County Schools comprises 28 schools with combined enrollment of 14,504 students; Jefferson Elementary is among them.

For racial and ethnic makeup, Jefferson Elementary logs that the largest single group is Black at 45%, but no single group is in the majority. Beyond that, the school reports 38% White, 10% multiracial, 7% Hispanic. The wider county runs roughly 18% Black, putting the school's mix considerably more Black than the area baseline.

On the resource side, Staff filings list 30 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 14.7:1 students per teacher. That tracks the state average closely. Around 99% of the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price meals, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal.

On a demographically-adjusted basis, Jefferson Elementary performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 48.5%, the actual is 64.8%, a residual of +16.3 points.

Around the school, census data for Cleveland County shows the typical household earns roughly $58,534 per year, 22% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and the poverty rate sits near 12%. Across Cleveland County's 29 public schools (combined enrollment of about 15,682 students), Jefferson Elementary is one campus in the mix.

Elizabeth Elementary is the nearest neighboring public school, about 1.8 miles from this campus. Counting just inside five miles, 8 other public schools cluster around Jefferson Elementary. Ranking that nearby cluster on reported proficiency puts Jefferson Elementary at 2nd of 6; the average score across the group is 50.1%.

Geographically, the school is in a small-town area.

Over the past 7-year window. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at Jefferson Elementary has grew 14%, going from 384 students in 2018 to 439 in 2025. Over the same period, the White share fell from 43% to 38%.

Inside the community feed, the page collects discussion, questions, and updates around enrollment questions, classroom assignments, and PTA news. The community welcomes input from current and former families.