The top reported proficiency rate is 55% in Math. The lowest is 43% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Wewahitchka Elementary School
Wewahitchka Elementary sits on East River Road in a small, rural inland city in Gulf County, part of Florida's Panhandle region locally called the Forgotten Coast. The school serves prekindergarten through sixth grade, which means a graduation rate does not apply here, and the state testing data covers grades three through five on Florida's FAST assessments and the statewide science exam.
On those assessments, the picture is mixed. Third-grade math is the clear bright spot, with proficiency running meaningfully higher than the other tested grades. Fourth- and fifth-grade math and all three ELA grades sit at roughly half of students or below reaching proficiency, and fifth-grade science runs lower still. These are not strong numbers against the Florida state average, and a parent who wants to dig into how the school is addressing reading and math skill-building in the upper elementary years would be right to raise that directly with the school. Multi-year trend data was not available, so it is not possible from the data provided to say whether results are improving, holding, or declining.
The school's enrollment is a mid-sized population for a PK-6 campus. The student body is predominantly white, with smaller shares of students who identify as Black, Hispanic, or two or more races. A substantial majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which reflects the broader economic character of Wewahitchka itself, a community where public-sector employment, particularly the state corrections system, is the dominant economic anchor. Data on students with IEPs and English learners was not reported in the available data, so those dimensions of the school's support profile remain a gap a parent would want to ask about.
Program-level information was not available in the data, so details about enrichment, intervention programs, arts, or extracurriculars at the elementary level are not something that can be characterized here.
The community context is worth understanding. Wewahitchka, known locally as Wewa, is a car-dependent small city in inland Gulf County, not on the coast. State Road 71 is the main spine, connecting residents to Port St. Joe and, further, to Panama City Beach. Daily life is oriented around local businesses, the Dead Lakes State Recreation Area just north of town, Lake Alice Park in the downtown area, and freshwater fishing. The Charles Whitehead Public Library runs youth programming including a LEGO club and summer reading, and T.L. James Park has recently added pickleball courts. There is no fixed public transit.
The housing market here is among the more affordable in Florida. Home values run well below the Florida state median and close to or below the national median, and the ratio of home prices to income is more favorable here than the national norm. Publicly reported new development includes a planned subdivision called Dairy Farm Estates, with new construction drawing buyers who find coastal prices out of reach. Homes in the area tend to sit on the market longer than the national average, which generally favors buyers.
One district-level issue directly relevant to families is a renewal of a one-mill property tax referendum that appeared on the November 2024 ballot. This was not a new tax but a continuation of existing funding. Gulf County Schools publicly stated that losing the millage would require laying off a substantial number of employees and increasing class sizes, and that arts, electives, technology, and school safety programs depend on it. The outcome of the vote was not confirmed in the available data, so a parent should ask the district directly whether the renewal passed, as it has a direct bearing on staffing and program availability through the 2028-2029 school year.
The comparison data for this school against Gulf County's district landscape could not be meaningfully computed because Gulf County has only one district, making any relative positioning uninformative.
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