4451 Caratoke Hwy
Barco, NC 27917

I've had a great experience with Central Elementary. My son was in a day care before he started going to Central and his personality, character, and overall happiness was improved on his first day.

This is the worst school I have ever been to. They do nothing about the bullying. Even the bullies hate being at school. If you are a parent and are considering this school, listen to all the reviews like mine and don’t send your kid here. I could write paragraphs about how bad my experience has been here. I’m a junior and I’m looking into alternative school here because of how bad things have gotten. The staff does not care about the students and they are lazy. Kids in special ed are always made fun of and nothing is done about it. This school is disgusting and I can’t wait to leave

This school is absolutely horrible. The teachers either give out too much homework for everyone to do in a too-short period of time, or they are way too lenient with homework, and rarely give out homework assignments. The teachers aren't effective, as most don't know how to teach correctly, much less herd an entire school wherever they need to go. They expect the kids to listen to the subs and do work that was assigned the day the sub was supposed to be at the school, but the substitute rarely knows anything about the subject! Leadership at this school is quite ineffective, because, again, the teachers don't know how to do their job, and when Mrs. Cowan was at the school last year, she didn't so anything to deal with major problems. It has gotten slightly better with the new principal this year, but the teachers will still lash out at the students every time they get their feelings hurt. All the kids at the school curse, even in front of teachers, and the teachers do nothing about it. I have personally seen the gym teacher tell the kids that if they shove people again, or don't do what they're supposed to do, or wear the wrong shoes to gym, they will get in trouble, but the gym teacher hasn't done anything about it all year, but he will yell at kids for using racial slurs and cursing. Oh wait, but he doesn't say anything when the same disgusting words come out of the mouths of the boys that are on the basketball team he coaches. Kids with learning differences are ruthlessly bullied, and again the teachers turn a blind eye. Or even kids without learning differences. A girl in my daughter's friends class was sexually harassing him and his two friends, one of which was a girl. She would spank them and try to stick things in their pants, and other crude things, and upon going to the guidance counselor about it, the guidance counselor did nothing, and the girl got ISS for the rest of the day, and that was it. The same girl got in a fight with another popular girl, and slammed her (the second girl) head against the brick wall, sending her to the hospital. Nothing was done other than one full day of ISS for the both of them. Not all of the kids in the school are out of control, but the good kids still get punished for it. For example, my kid told me about how people throwing food (4 people) got the entire 8th grade having to sit with homerooms. This school is bad.