University Park Creative Arts

Located at 2400 Hildebrand St, in Charlotte, North Carolina, University Park Creative Arts is a small elementary-level community that serves 212 students (grades K through 5), operated by Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools. That puts it 55% below the typical public school in North Carolina, which averages around 467 students.

University Park Creative Arts is one of 186 schools operated by Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, a district that works with 145,014 students overall.

In terms of who attends, University Park Creative Arts lists that the largest single group is Black, at 67% of enrollment; the rest comes out to 26% Hispanic, 5% White. By comparison, Mecklenburg County as a whole is about 30% Black, so the school skews meaningfully more Black than its surroundings.

On the income-and-resources front, On paper, University Park Creative Arts has 24 full-time-equivalent teachers, translating to a class-load average of around 8.8:1. That figure is tighter than the state norm's 14.9:1 average. Roughly 98% of students at University Park Creative Arts qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a commonly cited indicator of low-income enrollment. That share is noticeably above Mecklenburg County's rate of about 71%.

Adjusting for the school's free-and-reduced-lunch share, University Park Creative Arts tracks the demographic baseline. The model predicts 49.0% given the school's FRL share; actual proficiency is 54.9%.

Across the wider county, ACS estimates for Mecklenburg County put median household income runs about $87,005, roughly 49% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and the poverty rate sits near 7%. Across Mecklenburg County's 226 public schools (combined enrollment of about 170,407 students), University Park Creative Arts is one campus in the mix.

Northwest School of the Arts is the nearest neighboring public school, about 0.3 miles from this campus. Counting just inside five miles, 8 other public schools cluster around University Park Creative Arts. Ranking that nearby cluster on reported proficiency puts University Park Creative Arts at 6th of 9; the average score across the group is 59.5%.

Geographically, the school is in an inner-city area.

Five-year trend. Over the past 7-year window, the student count edged down 53%: 450 students in 2018 compared to 212 in 2025. The Hispanic share of enrollment rose from 15% to 26% over that span. Class-load math has pulled in: from 13.3:1 in 2018 to 8.8:1 in 2025.

In the discussion threads here, posts here usually surface around fundraisers, lost-and-found posts, and report-card season. Posting is open to anyone connected to the school.