Best Public Schools in Sunbury, NC

Sunbury, North Carolina, is served by a single public school — T S Cooper Elementary — a small K–5 elementary school with 170 students in the Gates County Schools district. Despite serving a student body where more than half (57%) qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, T S Cooper has become one of the state's stronger-performing elementary schools, rising from 711th in the 2023–24 school year to 334th out of 1,492 schools in 2025–26. That jump from the 53rd to the 78th percentile earns the school a 4-star statewide rating, well above its district-wide ranking of 119th out of 246 districts in North Carolina.

In the 2025–26 End-of-Grade tests, T S Cooper Elementary averaged about 71.8 percent proficiency across seven subject-and-grade combinations, compared with roughly 63.9 percent for Gates County Schools and 61.0 percent statewide. Fifth-grade science is a defining strength, with an 85.2 percent proficiency rate that far exceeds both the district (64.7%) and state (67.7%). The school also posted strong results in 5th-grade math (78.6%) and 3rd-grade math (85.2%). Notably, 3rd-grade math and reading scores surged by roughly 32 and 31 percentage points respectively from the prior year. With small cohorts of about 25–35 students per grade, such gains partly reflect natural year-to-year differences between student groups, but the upward trend is unmistakable.

The main area of concern is 4th-grade reading, where proficiency was 54.5 percent — above the district's 49.0 percent but below the state's 57.7 percent. Chronic absenteeism is also a risk factor, affecting 24.4 percent of students, which is essentially equal to the state rate of 24.2 percent but still means roughly one in four students is missing significant class time. The student-teacher ratio of 14:1 is favorable, and because Sunbury has no middle or high schools, this snapshot covers only elementary grades. Overall, T S Cooper Elementary is a small, improving school outperforming expectations, with particular strengths in science and math and a clearly positive trajectory.