The top reported proficiency rate is 76% in Math. The lowest is 51% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Westside Elementary School
Westside Elementary sits on Arroyo Avenue in Clewiston, a small agricultural city on the southwestern shore of Lake Okeechobee in Hendry County. The school serves prekindergarten through fifth grade and draws from a community whose identity and economy are bound tightly to the sugarcane industry, with U.S. Sugar Corporation as the dominant employer and agricultural rhythms shaping daily life. The pace in Clewiston is slow and residential; most families own their homes, and the surrounding landscape is far more field and lake than suburb.
The student body reflects the community's makeup. Hispanic students form the largest share of enrollment, followed by Black and white students, with small numbers of other groups. A large majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which places this squarely in the high-economic-need category. Data on English learner counts and students with individualized education programs were not available in what was provided, so a family with specific needs in those areas may want to ask the school directly about supports and service capacity.
On Florida's FAST assessments, the academic picture is mixed and worth looking at closely. In math, third and fourth graders score at a strong level relative to what you would broadly expect statewide, with well over three-quarters of each cohort reaching proficiency. Fifth-grade math and third-grade ELA come in around the same range as each other, at levels that are solid but more moderate. Fifth-grade ELA trails the other results and lands below the midpoint of students statewide, which is worth a conversation with the school about what's being done for older-elementary reading development. The fifth-grade science result sits just above half of students proficient. The pattern across grades suggests the early elementary years are a relative strength in math, with more ground to cover as students reach the upper elementary grades, particularly in reading. Trend data across prior years was not available, so it is not possible to say from this data alone whether results are improving, holding, or declining.
Hendry County runs a single district. The comparison universe for this school contains only that one district, so a meaningful statistical ranking against county neighbors was not possible. The graduation rate is not applicable here because Westside serves only elementary grades.
On housing, Clewiston is meaningfully more affordable than the Florida statewide norm. Home values here sit well below both the state and national medians, and the price-to-income ratio suggests buying is accessible by the standards of most Florida markets. Two large housing developments are publicly reported as planned on the east side of the city, rezoned from sugar industry land, which would expand the housing stock considerably. Local officials have described part of the rationale as helping attract teachers who have faced affordability barriers, which is relevant context for anyone thinking about the school's staffing stability.
At the district level, Hendry County is in a period of investment and growth. A new LaBelle High School broke ground in 2026, the first new school in the county in nearly three decades, publicly reported to be designed for a substantial student population with upgraded career and technical education space, a large auditorium, and new athletics facilities. That project is in LaBelle, not Clewiston, but it signals a district making longer-horizon capital commitments. Separately, the school board approved impact fees on new residential construction in early 2024, a response to rapid enrollment growth that ranks the county among the fastest-generating in Florida. Families planning to build a new home in the county would pay those fees; families buying existing homes would not.
Program offerings for Westside specifically were not available in the data provided.
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