Southern Wayne High

Set in Dudley, North Carolina, Southern Wayne High is a reasonably sized high school, one of the schools within Wayne County Public Schools. It enrolls 1,007 students across grades 9 through 12. That puts it 32% bigger than the typical public school in North Carolina, which averages around 761 students.

Wayne County Public Schools comprises 33 schools with combined enrollment of 17,150 students; Southern Wayne High is among them.

Looking at the student body, Southern Wayne High records that the most-represented group is Hispanic (44%), with the rest of the student body spread across multiple groups; the rest comes out to 33% Black, 21% White. By comparison, Wayne County as a whole is about 14% Hispanic, so the school skews noticeably more Hispanic than its surroundings.

In terms of school funding signals, Southern Wayne High reports 41 full-time-equivalent teachers, putting the student-to-teacher ratio at about 24.3:1. That figure is higher than the state norm's 19.6:1 average. Around 98% of the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price meals, a commonly cited indicator of low-income enrollment.

With demographic context factored in, Southern Wayne High performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 48.9%, the actual is 34.8%, a residual of -14.1 points.

Around the school, community-level numbers for Wayne County indicate the typical household earns roughly $59,733 per year, about 22% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and the poverty rate sits near 12%. Across Wayne County's 36 public schools (combined enrollment of about 18,481 students), Southern Wayne High is one campus in the mix.

The closest other public school is Brogden Primary, roughly 1.4 miles away. Counting just inside five miles, 4 other public schools cluster around Southern Wayne High. Ranking that nearby cluster on reported proficiency puts Southern Wayne High at 8th of 9; the average score across the group is 50.1%.

Southern Wayne High operates from a countryside location.

Five-year trend. Southern Wayne High's enrollment has decreased 8% since 2018, when it stood at 1,097 (now 1,007). Over the same period, the Hispanic share ticked up from 32% to 44%. The student-to-teacher ratio widened from 15.8:1 in 2018 to 24.3:1 today.

On allk12, posts here usually surface around sports schedules, lunch menu changes, and school spirit week. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.