12 of 17 east Manatee County schools earn overall A grades

When Manatee County School Board member Heather Felton was a teacher at the former Sara Scott Harllee Middle School during the 2016-2017 school year, it was a failing school the previous year in terms of the state's grading system.

Felton said the staff worked extremely hard that 2016-2017 school year to provide additional instruction and programs to better the level of education. Sara Scott Harllee went from an F rating to a C.

“I was so, so proud of our kids,” Felton said. “They were so proud of themselves and that was great to see.” 

Sara Scott Harllee Middle School closed in May 2017 and the campus was repurposed. However, the lesson had been delivered. Felton said it is crucial as an educator to believe in yourself as well as to believe in the students. 

“They are kids full of insecurities and self-doubt,” Felton said. “They need you to believe in them before they will believe in themselves.”

Florida schools are graded by the Florida Department of Education on a scale of A-F. In the 2024 School District of Manatee County school grades, district schools received 24 As, 12 Bs, 24 Cs and 4 Ds. In 2025, there were 25 As, 13 Bs, 24 Cs and 2 Ds. 

School board member Richard Tatem described the school grades as “a big picture snapshot of academic proficiency and academic improvement in selected areas of study.”

Tatem said he appreciates how much effort the teachers deliver, especially when they spend nights and weekends working at events such as science fairs and robotics competitions. 

Derek Jensen, the deputy superintendent of instruction or the district, said the Florida Assessments of Student Thinking Assessments and End-Of-Course assessments are designed to be “deliberately difficult.” He said there is a lot of debate on whether or not the most important things are measured.

“Every year we're dealing with human beings, human teachers, human children who come to our schools every day, all with very complex needs,” Jensen said. 

Jensen said he is extremely proud of the work that was put into this year’s overall grade by the students, teachers and school leaders. However, he is simultaneously looking forward to how they can improve the scores next year. 

“We're not satisfied with it, because we want to do even more to support our students and families,” Jensen said. 

Bashaw Elementary is one of the schools in Manatee County that was given a C grade. 

Principal Nicole Williams is set to begin her first year at Bashaw and her goal is to raise that grade. 

“I did notice our data was a little lower than what it could have been in math, so we're definitely going to focus there,” Williams said. “We will provide that corrective feedback to students and correct misconceptions on the front end, instead of letting students work through and having to catch it later.” 

Jensen said there are multiple important factors involved to have successful school grades, but the No. 1 factor is students having a good relationship with a high quality teacher. 

“The real magic and the real power of our kids getting the grades they should is from our teachers, our staff, and our principals,” School Board Member Chad Choate said.

Tatem said the leadership in schools holds great importance, especially in areas with lower socioeconomic status. 

“I would hope that the new superintendent would be very cognizant of those challenges, and would put the right leaders in the right place, with the skills that will make a lot of difference,” Tatem said. 

Last year, three weeks of education were lost due to hurricanes. Choate said students typically go backward when there's no activity. 

“The research is clear that attendance matters and time in the classroom matters,” Jensen said. “Anytime we lose days out of the classroom, there's going to be an impact on learning, especially for students who end up missing more than 10% of the school year.” 

Choate also emphasized the importance of attendance. He said he doesn’t want students coming to school with pink eye or other contagious situations, but if a child has a mild headache or stomach ache they should be in school. He said it is important for families to know the testing session dates in order to plan family vacations at a different time and be able to support the students when they are testing. 

Gilbert W. McNeal Elementary School has held its A grade since 2004, making it the longest running elementary school with an unbroken streak of As in Manatee County. R. Dan Nolan Middle School has been an A school since 2006 and Lakewood Ranch High School has been an A school since 2012.

Jensen said there's a state requirement that if more than 75% of Florida schools at the high school, middle or elementary level get an A or a B, a sliding scale is used to make earning an A or B more difficult.

“I think the theory is that if everyone's being successful, we need to to challenge everyone so we're constantly getting better.” 

School Board Member Heather Felton said the idea of school grades holds merit, but she said the way it has been implemented could be seen as problematic. 

She expressed concern over the grading system changing.

“How does this truly show growth if the state is penalizing us for having too high of grades?” Felton said.