Sunset Park Elementary

Sunset Park Elementary, a mid-tier elementary campus in Wilmington, North Carolina, part of New Hanover County Schools, serves 450 students, covering grades K through 5.

New Hanover County Schools runs 42 schools in total, collectively educating 24,791 students. Sunset Park Elementary is one of those campuses.

Looking at the student body, Sunset Park Elementary shows that the largest single group is Hispanic, at 62% of enrollment; the rest looks like 23% Black, 9% White, 6% multiracial. By comparison, New Hanover County as a whole is about 8% Hispanic, so the school skews considerably more Hispanic than its surroundings.

Looking at the economic backdrop, Staff filings list 35 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 13.0:1 students per teacher. Statewide, the average ratio sits near 14.9:1, putting Sunset Park Elementary tighter than the state norm the norm. About 99% of enrolled students meet the income threshold for free or reduced-price lunch, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal. By comparison, New Hanover County runs at roughly 67%, so the school's eligibility rate is higher than the surrounding baseline.

On a demographically-adjusted basis, Sunset Park Elementary performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 48.5%, the actual is 42.3%, a residual of -6.2 points.

In the area at large, the surrounding county (New Hanover County) shows that the typical household earns roughly $75,166 per year, roughly 45% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and roughly 8% of residents live below the federal poverty line. Sunset Park Elementary is one of 50 public schools in New Hanover County (combined enrollment of about 27,460 students).

Nearest neighbor: Lake Forest Academy, around 0.9 miles off. Within five miles, there are 8 other public schools. Ranking that nearby cluster on reported proficiency puts Sunset Park Elementary at 2nd of 6; the average score across the group is 38.2%.

The campus sits in a metropolitan setting.

Trend over the last 7 years. Over the past 7-year window, the student count rose 16%: 389 students in 2018 compared to 450 in 2025. Hispanic enrollment moved from 22% to 62% across the same window. The student-to-teacher ratio grew from 11.6:1 in 2018 to 13.0:1 today.

On this page, recent activity here tends to focus on fundraisers, lost-and-found posts, and report-card season. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.