L J Bell Elementary

L J Bell Elementary is a K-5 school of average-sized scale in Rockingham, North Carolina, overseen by Richmond County Schools, enrolling 449 students in grades pre-K through 5.

Richmond County Schools runs 15 schools in total, collectively educating 6,504 students. L J Bell Elementary is one of those campuses.

Looking at the student body, L J Bell Elementary shows that the most-represented group is White (41%), with the rest of the student body spread across multiple groups; the rest looks like 36% Black, 12% Hispanic, 7% multiracial, 3% Native American. The wider county runs roughly 56% White, putting the school's mix considerably less White than the area baseline.

Looking at the economic backdrop, L J Bell Elementary reports 26 full-time-equivalent teachers, putting the student-to-teacher ratio at about 17.4:1. That figure is higher than the state norm's 14.9:1 average. An estimated 98% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal.

On a residual basis (actual vs predicted given the student mix), L J Bell Elementary performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 48.9%, the actual is 50.5%, a residual of +1.5 points.

In the surrounding community, community-level numbers for Richmond County indicate the typical household earns roughly $44,883 per year, roughly 16% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and the poverty rate sits near 20%. Across Richmond County's 15 public schools (combined enrollment of about 6,504 students), L J Bell Elementary is one campus in the mix.

Nearest neighbor: Rockingham Middle, around 0.2 miles off. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. Ranking that nearby cluster on reported proficiency puts L J Bell Elementary at 1st of 7; the average score across the group is 38.2%.

The school occupies a town-center site.

Over the past 7-year window. Over the past 7-year window, the student count edged down 20%: 560 students in 2018 compared to 449 in 2025. Over the same period, the White share ticked down from 46% to 41%.

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