Schools in Zip Code 27213

In zip code 27213, there is one school: Bonlee School, a K-8 school in Bear Creek, North Carolina, serving 290 students within Chatham County Schools.

Bonlee School is a small, high-poverty school where nearly 99% of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. Despite that challenge, chronic absenteeism (18.5%) is lower than both the district (21.4%) and state (24.2%), and the student-teacher ratio is a favorable 13.9:1. The school's strongest recent results include 3rd grade math (78.1% proficient, beating the district's 74.1% and state's 66.4%), 7th grade reading (65.0%, above district and state), and 8th grade science in spring 2025 (62.5%, also above both averages). Overall reading scores improved dramatically from the prior year, though the school still trails its district in most subjects. Its overall state ranking remains near the middle: 786th out of 1,492 schools, or the 47th percentile, with a 2-star rating.

The most concerning pattern is in math. Bonlee exceeds state and district averages in 3rd grade math, but proficiency falls sharply by middle school. In 8th grade math, only 35.6% of students were proficient, compared to 57.1% in the district and 53.0% statewide. Similar gaps appear in 4th grade math and 6th grade reading. Because Bonlee is the only school in the zip code and has small grade cohorts (roughly 32 students per grade), year-to-year proficiency swings can be misleading — 3rd grade reading jumped from 33.3% to 59.4% in one year. With no high school in the zip code, students leave after 8th grade, making the school's weaker middle-grade math performance a critical area to watch. Overall, Bonlee is a bright, well-attended community school inside a strong district, but it struggles to translate early-grade success into sustained academic achievement.