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Lake Waccamaw, North Carolina - 1 schools
At $16,103 per pupil, Thomas Academy ranks #26 of 322 North Carolina districts by per-pupil spending (North Carolina districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
71
Total Enrollment
1
Schools
$16,103
Per-Pupil Spending
Combined
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Thomas Academy operates 1 public schools serving 71 students, placing it among the smallest districts in North Carolina. The school portfolio breaks down into 1 combined schools, a small enough portfolio that most families will interact with nearly every campus in the district at some point. These enrollment and school figures come from the NCES Common Core of Data (CCD) 2024-25 release, and the district is based in Columbus County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $16,103 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, among the top 33 of 322 North Carolina districts by per-pupil spending. See how North Carolina compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 8.1% local, 50.1% state, and 41.8% federal, a state-revenue-heavy mix that insulates the district somewhat from local property-tax volatility, though it ties funding to state budget cycles.
a 31:1 student-counselor ratio, that meets the ASCA-recommended benchmark, and 53.2% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 27.4% African American, 25.8% White, 22.6% Hispanic or Latino across the district's schools.
Its largest campus is Thomas Academy, enrolling 62 students (100% of the district's total enrollment).
Thomas Academy accounts for 87.3% of all Thomas Academy student enrollment
That is an overwhelming concentration, leaving the rest of Thomas Academy a distant remainder — means Thomas Academy-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the dominant entity. Grade band: combined. A single dominant campus often anchors a district's program offerings and staffing patterns; the share helps explain why district-wide averages may not reflect the typical neighbourhood-school experience. When one entity dominates a region's footprint, its programmatic and budget decisions effectively set policy for a majority of the affected population.
Thomas Academy student-counselor ratio is 31:1 — well below typical (typically associated with unusually small scale or exceptionally high per-unit investment)
student-counselor ratio is the simplest comparative metric but it does not capture the full picture: the ratio counts FTE counselors against total enrollment, districts that contract intervention or social-emotional staff outside the counselor classification may be under-counted Values this far below typical often correlate with unusually small scale or population characteristics rather than higher resource budgets per se — worth checking whether the underlying denominator is itself an outlier.
Thomas Academy chronic absenteeism rate is 53.2% — well above typical (typically associated with unusually large scale or acute resource constraints)
chronic absenteeism rate is the simplest comparative metric but it does not capture the full picture: a student is chronically absent if they miss ≥10% of enrolled days for any reason, illness, family obligations, or disengagement Values this far above typical often signal acute resource constraints or a structurally different scale than most peers — worth reading alongside the underlying counts, not the ratio alone.
Thomas Academy has 1 school, including 1 combined. Total enrollment is 71 students.
How much does Thomas Academy spend per student?
Thomas Academy spends $16,103 per student.
What is the demographic composition of Thomas Academy?
Thomas Academy students are 27.4% African American, 25.8% White, 22.6% Hispanic or Latino, averaged across 1 school. Source: NCES CCD Membership 2024-25.