Original Research by School Decision on Citi High School
CITI High School is a small public high school in Rocky Mount serving grades nine through thirteen, with an enrollment of about ninety students across four grade levels. The school sits within Nash County Public Schools, a district that has undergone significant structural change. Beginning in the 2024-25 school year, Nash County underwent a court-driven demerger with Edgecombe County, transferring students who live on the Edgecombe side of Rocky Mount to a neighboring district. The school board shrank from eleven to seven members, attendance boundaries were redrawn, and the district lost roughly a major allocation of funding. For families, this means school assignments and district geography have been permanently restructured.
The student population at CITI is economically disadvantaged: nearly all students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. The school serves a predominantly Black and Hispanic student body, with smaller populations of White students and other groups. The composition reflects Rocky Mount's broader demographics—a working- and middle-class city with manufacturing and healthcare employment, mixed historic and suburban neighborhoods, and an affordable housing market. The three-bedroom home values in the zip code are modest relative to the state and national benchmarks, and rents are below the national average, making Rocky Mount accessible for families on tighter budgets.
Academic performance data was not available in state testing results or other standardized metrics, and no four-year graduation rate was reported. This absence of public performance data is notable and a parent may want to reach out to the school directly to understand how students perform on state assessments, graduate, and progress through their high-school years. The school's inclusion of a thirteenth grade is unusual and may indicate a fifth-year or post-secondary transition program; the district itself did not provide details on this structure in publicly available materials.
The school's very small size—under a hundred students—shapes the peer environment and resource allocation in ways that differ substantially from larger high schools. In a school this small, student-teacher ratios can be tighter, peer group dynamics are more intimate, and the range of simultaneous course offerings may be narrower. This can be an advantage for students who thrive with close relationships and customized pacing, and a constraint for students seeking breadth of academic tracks or extracurricular options. A parent should ask what programming, clubs, sports, or career pathways CITI offers and whether the school's specialized focus or alternative structure—if it has one—aligns with their teenager's goals.
The district has implemented a strict cell phone and electronic device policy beginning in August 2025 that applies district-wide: high school students must power off and store devices from the first tardy bell until dismissal, with smartwatches and wireless earbuds also prohibited. This is a meaningful shift in classroom environment and how families communicate during the school day.
Nash County is positioned in the growth corridor between Wake County and I-95 near Wilson, with new industrial development underway and downtown Rocky Mount investing in redevelopment. The city itself is car-dependent outside the walkable downtown core, and the larger economic context is stable, though the overall population has remained relatively flat. Housing costs are manageable, and the employment base spans healthcare, manufacturing, logistics, and education.
For families seeking a small, intimate high school setting in an affordable community with working-class roots and modest recent downtown revival, CITI occupies a distinct niche. The lack of public performance and outcome data is a gap a parent will need to fill through direct conversation with school leaders.
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