Salem Elementary

Salem Elementary operates as a big elementary school in Apex, North Carolina, part of Wake County Schools. Current enrollment sits at 776 students spanning grades pre-K through 5. Enrollment runs roughly 66% bigger than the state mean of about 467.

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

On the student-mix side, Salem Elementary logs that 49% of students identify as White, with the remaining enrollment distributed across several groups. Beyond that, the school reports 25% Asian, 16% Hispanic, 6% Black, 2% multiracial. That is meaningfully less White than the county at large, where the share is closer to 58%.

Looking at the economic backdrop, Salem Elementary reports 57 full-time-equivalent teachers, putting the student-to-teacher ratio at about 13.6:1. That figure is tighter than the state norm's 14.9:1 average. Roughly 25% of students at Salem Elementary qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a commonly cited indicator of low-income enrollment. By comparison, Wake County runs at roughly 42%, so the school's eligibility rate is lower than the surrounding baseline.

After controlling for student poverty, Salem Elementary performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 71.1%, the actual is 70.8%, a residual of -0.3 points.

In the broader community, ACS estimates for Wake County put median household income runs about $105,768, roughly 57% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and census figures put the poverty rate at about 5%. Salem Elementary is one of 237 public schools in Wake County (combined enrollment of about 184,790 students).

The closest other public school is Salem Middle, roughly 0.2 miles away. Within five miles, there are 8 other public schools. On composite proficiency, Salem Elementary comes 7th of 8 in the immediate cluster, beneath the nearby-schools average of 77.1%.

Salem Elementary operates from a bedroom-community location.

Trend over the last 7 years. Over the past 7-year window, the student count grew 38%: 561 students in 2018 compared to 776 in 2025. Asian enrollment moved from 8% to 25% across the same window.

On the community side, posts here usually surface around pickup logistics, teacher feedback, and after-school programs. Members of the school community can share what they know.