Spring Park Elementary, Green Cove Springs FL

Original Research by School Decision on Spring Park Elementary

Spring Park Elementary sits on County Road 315 in Green Cove Springs, a historic riverfront town on the west bank of the St. Johns River that serves as the seat of Clay County. The school runs from pre-kindergarten through sixth grade, which means it carries students a year deeper into the elementary years than many Florida schools do, covering what in some districts would be the first year of middle school.

The town itself is worth understanding if you are weighing a move here. Green Cove Springs is described publicly as a slower-paced, "Old Florida" community with century-old homes, a walkable historic downtown, and riverfront Spring Park at its center. It is meaningfully different in feel from the more suburban, master-planned character of Fleming Island or the rural stretches of Middleburg. The Reynolds Industrial Park and Clay County Port complex, built on the former naval air station grounds, give the city an industrial employment base alongside county government work. That texture is changing quickly. The completion of the First Coast Expressway's newest stretch into Green Cove Springs in August 2025 has accelerated what was already rapid in-migration, and multiple large master-planned communities are either under construction or in planning, with some projections pointing to thousands of new homes coming in the next several years. Local conversation around preserving the town's character alongside this growth is active and ongoing. Clay County is also adding new schools to serve the growth, which is relevant context for anyone thinking about Spring Park's future enrollment and capacity.

On the academic side, Spring Park's results on Florida's FAST assessments are solid and generally sit comfortably above what one might call the middle of the road. In third grade, math proficiency is strong, and fourth grade math is similarly strong. Fifth grade math pulls back somewhat, and sixth grade math is a bit lower still, though still a majority of students are meeting the standard. Reading and ELA follow a broadly similar arc: third and fourth grade proficiency is healthy, while fifth and sixth grade ELA shows a modest dip. The fifth-grade science result on the Florida Statewide Science Assessment is the strongest single figure in the school's profile, with a large majority of students scoring proficient. No multi-year trend data was available in what was provided, so it is not possible to say whether these results are moving up, down, or holding steady.

The student body is a mix of backgrounds. White students make up the largest share of enrollment, with Hispanic and Black students each representing meaningful portions of the population, and smaller shares of students from other groups. Close to half of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which reflects a genuine economic diversity in the school's families. Data on students receiving special education services and English language learners was not reported in what was available, so parents whose children fall into either group may want to ask the school directly about those supports.

On the housing side, the local market around the school's zip code shows home values that are modestly below the Florida state benchmark and close to the national median, with values having slipped slightly year over year. Rents have edged up over the same period. At current mortgage rates, the monthly carrying cost for a typical home in the area is meaningful but not unusually out of reach relative to the county's economic base.

No program-specific information was available for Spring Park, so advanced, enrichment, or specialized program offerings could not be assessed here. No district-level strategic changes were confirmed through research, so that piece was left out rather than guessed at. The comparison framework for Clay County had only one district in its set, so no meaningful peer positioning was possible.

What Spring Park offers is a pre-K through sixth-grade neighborhood school in a town undergoing rapid change, with assessment results that are genuinely solid, particularly in the early and middle elementary grades and in fifth-grade science. Families relocating to the Green Cove Springs area as new subdivisions open should plan to ask directly about enrollment capacity and boundaries, given how actively the district is reconfiguring to absorb growth.

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Academic performance

How students perform on state tests, by grade, set against the district.

Math

Grade 371%

School 71% · District 66% · ▲ 5 pts above district

▲ 8 pts above state median · ▲ 8 pts above county median

Grade 473%

School 73% · District 63% · ▲ 10 pts above district

▲ 12 pts above state median · ▲ 13 pts above county median

Grade 563%

School 63% · District 55% · ▲ 8 pts above district

▲ 8 pts above state median · ▲ 12 pts above county median

Grade 666%

School 66% · District 77% · ▼ 11 pts below district

▲ 4 pts above state median · ▼ 9 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 367%

School 67% · District 65% · ▲ 2 pts above district

▲ 11 pts above state median · ▲ 4 pts above county median

Grade 470%

School 70% · District 59% · ▲ 11 pts above district

▲ 16 pts above state median · ▲ 14 pts above county median

Grade 566%

School 66% · District 56% · ▲ 10 pts above district

▲ 12 pts above state median · ▲ 11 pts above county median

Grade 667%

School 67% · District 67%

▲ 7 pts above state median · ▲ 3 pts above county median

Science

Grade 572%

School 72% · District 61% · ▲ 11 pts above district

▲ 19 pts above state median · ▲ 13 pts above county median

This schoolCLAY, same grade

Graduation rate (ACGR) reflects the federally published Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate for the most recent year available. We refresh this data annually at the close of each academic year in June. The federal source publishes a banded rate (for example, "90-94%") instead of an exact number for cohorts small enough to risk identifying individual students. The state distribution chart, where shown, plots every school in the state with a published rate or band; schools whose rate is federally suppressed are excluded. Where the federal source publishes a band rather than an exact rate, the school is placed within its band using a stable, ID-derived offset, so its position is consistent across visits.

Proficiency by household income

English language arts

Grade 3Lower-income52%Higher-income79%27 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income58%Higher-income80%23 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income55%Higher-income79%24 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income56%Higher-income82%26 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income61%Higher-income79%18 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income62%Higher-income81%19 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income57%Higher-income71%14 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income57%Higher-income79%22 pp gap