West Pender Middle

West Pender Middle operates as a very small junior high in Burgaw, North Carolina, part of Pender County Schools. Current enrollment sits at 209 students spanning grades 6 through 8. Compared to the state average of about 605 students per school, that is 65% smaller than typical.

Pender County Schools comprises 19 schools with combined enrollment of 11,073 students; West Pender Middle is among them.

Looking at the student body, West Pender Middle logs that the most-represented group is White (34%), with the rest of the student body spread across multiple groups. Beyond that, the school lists 32% Black, 30% Hispanic, 4% multiracial. By comparison, Pender County as a whole is about 75% White, so the school skews meaningfully less White than its surroundings.

On the income-and-resources front, On paper, West Pender Middle has 17 full-time-equivalent teachers, translating to a class-load average of around 12.3:1. That figure is tighter than the state norm's 15.9:1 average. Around 98% of the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price meals, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal. Set against Pender County (around 70%), the school's rate is noticeably above typical.

On a demographically-adjusted basis, West Pender Middle tracks the demographic baseline. The model predicts 49.0% given the school's FRL share; actual proficiency is 35.9%.

Zooming out to the county, community-level numbers for Pender County indicate the typical household earns roughly $80,396 per year, about 31% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and roughly 7% of residents live below the federal poverty line. West Pender Middle is one of 19 public schools in Pender County (combined enrollment of about 11,073 students).

The closest other public school is Malpass Corner Elementary, roughly 3.2 miles away. 3 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a ten-mile radius, suggesting a relatively low-density school footprint. On composite proficiency, West Pender Middle comes 6th of 9 in the immediate cluster, behind the nearby-schools average of 43.9%.

The campus sits in a countryside setting.

Looking at the recent track record. Over the past 7-year window, the student count grew 26%: 166 students in 2018 compared to 209 in 2025.

Within the allk12 community for this school, posts here usually surface around sports schedules, lunch menu changes, and school spirit week. Contributors range from current parents to recent graduates and teachers.