The top reported proficiency rate is 56% in Math. The lowest is 37% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Melrose Park Elementary School
Melrose Park Elementary sits on SE Putnam Street in Lake City, serving children from pre-kindergarten through fifth grade as a regular public school within the Columbia County School District. Its enrollment places it in a size range typical for an elementary school serving a neighborhood population, with children distributed fairly evenly across the grade levels from kindergarten through fifth grade, plus a pre-K cohort.
The student body is racially diverse. Black students make up the largest group, followed by white students, with Hispanic, multiracial, and a small number of Asian students rounding out the population. A very large share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, well above the majority, which reflects the economic conditions of the surrounding neighborhood. Data on English learner rates and the share of students receiving special education services were not available in the materials provided.
On Florida's FAST assessments for the 2024-25 school year, math proficiency across tested grades sits just above the midpoint, with third, fourth, and fifth graders all performing in a range that straddles the halfway mark. Reading and ELA results are lower across the board. Third-grade ELA proficiency is especially modest, with fewer than half of students scoring at grade level in any of the tested ELA grades. Fifth-grade science proficiency, measured on the statewide science assessment, is below the halfway point. These are facts worth sitting with. Parents who want to understand more about how the school is supporting students who are not yet reading or computing at grade level would do well to ask directly, particularly given how concentrated the lower ELA numbers are in the early tested grades.
Trend data was not available, so it is not possible from this information to say whether results are moving up, holding steady, or declining.
A graduation rate does not apply here; Melrose Park ends at fifth grade.
The comparison set for Columbia County contains only one district, so a meaningful peer comparison of proficiency is not possible from this data.
The school is part of a district that, publicly reported, passed a narrow half-cent sales surtax in 2022 dedicated to school facilities over a multi-decade period. That funding is driving a plan to consolidate several older elementary school buildings into two new ones, with design work on at least one new school already underway. Whether Melrose Park is among the schools slated for consolidation, replacement, or continuation in its current building is not specified in the materials available, so families may want to ask the district directly about long-term plans for this campus. The district has also publicly adopted a parent-choice process around library and media materials aligned to Florida state law.
Lake City itself is the county seat of Columbia County in North Florida, a small city with a Southern, small-town character built around a historic downtown near Lake DeSoto. The broader employment base includes a regional hospital, Florida Gateway College, highway construction firms, and government and corrections facilities. Home values in the area are well below both the state median and the national median, and the price-to-income ratio suggests housing here is relatively accessible compared with much of Florida. Renting is also an option, with monthly rents running modestly. New construction is active in parts of the city, and an affordable housing development is reportedly adding units through a phased project expected to complete in the next couple of years.
For a family weighing Melrose Park, the picture is of a neighborhood elementary school serving a high-poverty, racially diverse student population, with math scores that are closer to middling and ELA scores that trail further behind state norms. The school sits in a community where housing remains affordable and the district is actively investing in new facilities, though the specific future of this building is unclear.
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