Poe Elementary

Poe Elementary operates as a compact elementary school in Raleigh, North Carolina, run under Wake County Schools. Current enrollment sits at 324 students spanning grades pre-K through 5. That puts it 31% below the typical public school in North Carolina, which averages around 467 students.

Within Wake County Schools, which oversees 198 schools and 163,176 students, Poe Elementary is one campus in the system.

In terms of who attends, Poe Elementary logs that the most-represented group is Black (35%), with the rest of the student body spread across multiple groups; the rest consists of 27% Hispanic, 26% White, 6% Asian, 6% multiracial. The wider county runs roughly 19% Black, putting the school's mix meaningfully more Black than the area baseline.

On the resource side, On paper, Poe Elementary has 31 full-time-equivalent teachers, translating to a class-load average of around 10.3:1. That figure is tighter than the state norm's 14.9:1 average. About 49% of enrolled students meet the income threshold for free or reduced-price lunch, a commonly cited indicator of low-income enrollment.

On a residual basis (actual vs predicted given the student mix), Poe Elementary sits in the middle band of the BeatsExpectations distribution. Schools with this campus's student mix typically land near 63.9%; this one delivers 61.4%.

Zooming out to the county, ACS estimates for Wake County put the typical household earns roughly $105,768 per year, roughly 57% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and roughly 5% of residents live below the federal poverty line. In all, Wake County runs 237 public schools (combined enrollment of about 184,790 students), of which Poe Elementary is one.

Nearest neighbor: Enloe High, around 0.8 miles off. Within five miles, there are 8 other public schools. Among the 6 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), Poe Elementary ranks 3rd on composite proficiency, above the local average of 53.7%.

Geographically, the school is in a downtown area.

Five-year trend. Over the past 7-year window, the student count ticked down 20%: 405 students in 2018 compared to 324 in 2025. The Black share of enrollment contracted from 56% to 35% over that span. Class-load math has narrowed: from 12.5:1 in 2018 to 10.3:1 in 2025.

On this page, recent activity here tends to focus on pickup logistics, teacher feedback, and after-school programs. Members of the school community can share what they know.