Plain View Elementary

Located at 4140 Plain View Hwy, in Dunn, North Carolina, Plain View Elementary is a close-knit elementary-level community that teaches 362 students (grades K through 5), part of Sampson County Schools. That puts it 22% smaller than the typical public school in North Carolina, which averages around 467 students.

Within Sampson County Schools, which oversees 18 schools and 7,986 students, Plain View Elementary is one campus in the system.

Looking at the student body, Plain View Elementary logs that White students make up the majority at 59%. The remainder looks like 27% Hispanic, 7% Black, 4% multiracial. The wider county runs roughly 51% White, putting the school's mix considerably more White than the area baseline.

In terms of school funding signals, On paper, Plain View Elementary has 20 full-time-equivalent teachers, translating to a class-load average of around 17.7:1. Statewide, the average ratio sits near 14.9:1, putting Plain View Elementary higher than the state norm the norm. Around 99% of the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price meals, a commonly cited indicator of low-income enrollment.

Adjusting for the school's free-and-reduced-lunch share, Plain View Elementary performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 48.6%, the actual is 57.2%, a residual of +8.6 points.

Zooming out to the county, census data for Sampson County shows median household income runs about $52,432, 16% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and census figures put the poverty rate at about 15%. In all, Sampson County runs 23 public schools (combined enrollment of about 11,001 students), of which Plain View Elementary is one.

Nearest neighbor: Midway Middle, around 4.8 miles off. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a ten-mile radius, suggesting a relatively low-density school footprint. On composite proficiency, Plain View Elementary comes 4th of 8 in the immediate cluster, above the nearby-schools average of 55.8%.

The school occupies a low-density site.

Five-year trend. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at Plain View Elementary has stayed largely flat, going from 365 students in 2018 to 362 in 2025. Over the same period, the Hispanic share grew from 16% to 27%. The student-to-teacher ratio rose from 16.0:1 in 2018 to 17.7:1 today.

On this page, posts here usually surface around school events, parent volunteer needs, and clubs. The community welcomes input from current and former families.