Southern School of Energy and Sustainabi

Southern School of Energy and Sustainabi in Durham, NC, serves 1,384 students in grades 9–12 as part of Durham Public Schools, a district rated in the 37th percentile of North Carolina school systems. Located on Clayton Road, the school serves a very high-need population, with 99.78% of students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch. Southern ranks 607th out of 662 North Carolina high schools—the 8th percentile—with a 0-star rating, a position it has remained near for the past decade without sustained improvement.

Academic proficiency is strikingly low in every core subject. Only 20.8% of students passed Biology, 39.2% passed English II, 23.9% passed Math I, and 28.4% passed Math III—each well below Durham Public Schools and statewide averages, with the gaps reaching roughly 31 percentage points in Biology and 40 points in Math III. Chronic absenteeism has topped 50% for five consecutive years (52.1% in the latest year), more than double the state rate. The graduation rate of 78.1% trails district (80.3%) and state (88.8%) levels, while the student-teacher ratio has risen to 21.2.

Comparisons with nearby schools are instructive. City of Medicine Academy, less than five miles away, achieves Biology proficiency of 97.8% and Math III proficiency of 98.8% while serving a similarly high-poverty student body. Even Hillside High, another large traditional high school, outperforms Southern on every End-of-Course exam. Southern does have bright spots: its graduation rate tops Hillside High's 74.4%, and its special education students performed near the state average in 2024–25. Yet gifted and talented students rank at the 1st percentile statewide, and English learner and low-income students rank in the bottom single digits. The clearest path forward is reducing chronic absenteeism and building proficiency in core subjects—challenges the surrounding district demonstrates can be overcome.