Porter Ridge Middle School opened in the Fall of 2005. The school is a state of the art complex situated on a 183 acre campus that also contains Porter Ridge High and Elementary schools. Recent school bonds made possible by the Union County citizens over the past few years have afforded the 60 million dollar complex at Porter Ridge.

The school campus is on the South Fork of Crooked Creek and is situated across from an environmentally protected area that is home to a rare mollusk (CAROLINA HEELSPLITTER ). Porter Ridge Middle School is the second middle school to be built in Union County since 1998. The prototype for the school design is in the Guilford County School System.

The middle school derives the first part of its name from Porter Byrum, a Union County attorney and landowner who graciously donated over 44 acres to the Union County Public School system on the current site where the middle school now stands. The latter part of the name comes from Ridge Road which runs in the front of all three campuses on the site.