Sam D Bundy Elementary

Sam D Bundy Elementary is a grades 3–5 elementary school in Farmville, NC, serving 345 students within Pitt County Schools as the upper-grade half of a shared K–5 campus with H B Sugg Elementary, which sits right next door and serves PK–2.

In the latest state rankings, Bundy earned a 2-star rating and landed at the 36th percentile statewide — a meaningful jump from the prior year’s 1-star, 21st-percentile showing. The biggest short-term gains came in 3rd grade, where math proficiency surged from 46.9% to 66.1% and reading from 31.3% to 52.4%, putting both subjects within a few points of the state average. That is a notable accomplishment for a school where 99.1% of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. However, reading remains a clear weakness, especially by 5th grade: only 33.6% of 5th graders met the reading bar, compared with 55.3% statewide. That places Bundy well behind same-district neighbors like Ridgewood Elementary (72.8%), Creekside Elementary (57.0%), and W H Robinson Elementary (56.8%) — all of which serve similarly high-poverty populations and demonstrate that this demographic profile does not limit what students can achieve.

The latest data also shows an unusual gap in how boys and girls are performing: female students scored at the 52nd percentile statewide for their subgroup, while male students ranked at just the 18th percentile — a 34-point gap worth asking the school about. On the positive side, chronic absenteeism improved to 19.8%, better than the district and state averages, and class sizes are in line with nearby schools. Bundy does operate on less per-pupil funding than most comparable campuses, though the spending data is several years old. For parents, the key takeaway is that Bundy is showing real momentum in the early elementary years, but upper-grade literacy — particularly for boys — is the area to watch closely before students head off to middle school.