North Topsail Elementary

North Topsail Elementary operates as a reasonably sized primary school in Hampstead, North Carolina, overseen by Pender County Schools. Current enrollment sits at 529 students spanning grades pre-K through 5.

Across the 19 schools in Pender County Schools (11,073 students total), North Topsail Elementary accounts for its share of the district's footprint.

Looking at the student body, North Topsail Elementary records that the student body is overwhelmingly White (85%). Other groups include 7% Hispanic, 5% multiracial, 2% Black. That is considerably more White than the county at large, where the share is closer to 75%.

On the resource side, Staff filings list 33 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 15.9:1 students per teacher. The state averages around 14.9:1, so this campus is higher than the state norm typical. An estimated 99% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal. Set against Pender County (around 70%), the school's rate is north of typical.

After controlling for student poverty, North Topsail Elementary ranks in the top 10% of North Carolina public schools. The BeatsExpectations model, a per-state regression of composite proficiency on FRL share, predicts schools with this student profile to land around 48.6%; North Topsail Elementary posts 75.9%, +27.3 points above that line.

Across the wider county, the surrounding county (Pender County) shows that the typical household earns roughly $80,396 per year, roughly 31% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and roughly 7% of residents live below the federal poverty line. In all, Pender County runs 19 public schools (combined enrollment of about 11,073 students), of which North Topsail Elementary is one.

Nearest neighbor: Topsail Middle, around 2.3 miles off. 4 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. Ranking that nearby cluster on reported proficiency puts North Topsail Elementary at 2nd of 8; the average score across the group is 70.7%.

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

Trend over the last 7 years. Over the past 7-year window, the student count declined 31%: 766 students in 2018 compared to 529 in 2025. The student-to-teacher ratio narrowed from 17.0:1 in 2018 to 15.9:1 today.

Within the allk12 community for this school, members of the North Topsail Elementary community share and discuss enrollment questions, classroom assignments, and PTA news. Members of the school community can share what they know.