The top reported proficiency rate is 70% in English language arts. The lowest is 62% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Benito Middle School
Benito Middle School sits in New Tampa, a planned residential section in Tampa's northeast corner, along Cross Creek Boulevard. It serves grades six through eight as a regular public school within Hillsborough County Schools. The school draws a genuinely diverse student body across racial and ethnic lines, with white, Black, Hispanic, and Asian students each representing a meaningful share of enrollment, and smaller multiracial and other groups represented as well. A little over a third of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, putting the school somewhere in the middle range for economic need among Tampa area schools. Data on English learners and students with IEPs was not available in what was provided.
On Florida's state assessments, Benito's results for the most recent year are generally solid. Sixth and eighth graders in both math and ELA scored well above the majority-proficient mark, and seventh grade ELA results were similarly strong. The one softer spot is seventh grade math, where roughly half of students reached proficiency, a meaningful gap compared to the school's other grade-level results. Eighth grade science results, measured on Florida's statewide assessment, came in at about two-thirds proficient. A parent with a rising seventh grader who struggles with math may want to ask the school directly about how it supports students across that transition year. Multi-year trend data was not available, so it is not possible to say whether these results represent improvement, stability, or a decline.
No program information was provided for Benito, so it is not possible to speak to whether the school offers advanced coursework, electives, or extracurriculars beyond what a family would find by contacting the school directly.
The neighborhood around the school reflects New Tampa's character: a largely suburban, master-planned community that sits apart from Tampa's older urban core. Home values in the zip code are well above both the state and national medians, and they have edged down slightly over the past year, a pattern that mirrors broader softening across the Tampa metro rather than something specific to this pocket. Rents have similarly dipped a bit. Even so, the price-to-income ratio here is stretched, and a buyer financing at current mortgage rates would be paying a substantial monthly housing cost. The rental market sits at roughly the boundary where housing costs tip from manageable to a stretch on a median income. For families already in the area, these conditions are context; for those relocating specifically to access this school, it is worth factoring in.
At the district level, Hillsborough voters approved a property tax referendum in late 2024 that takes effect beginning July 2025 and runs for four years, adding to homeowner costs while directing funds toward teacher and support staff pay raises. That is both a direct financial consideration for families buying into the area and a potential positive for school staffing stability. The district also executed a significant boundary rezoning for the current school year, which reshuffled attendance zones across many schools in the county. Families should verify their specific address assignment with the district, since prior zone assumptions may no longer hold.
For neighborhood context, Benito's part of Tampa sits well outside the walkable downtown districts that define the city's civic core. The Riverwalk, Curtis Hixon Park, the Straz Center, and the central library are all some distance away. New Tampa is car-dependent by design. The broader city's growth story, centered on Water Street and the Gasworx district near Ybor City, is largely playing out in a different geography from this school's immediate surroundings. Tampa's major employers in defense, healthcare, and finance are spread across the metro rather than concentrated near any single residential neighborhood.
A comparison of Benito against other Hillsborough County districts was not possible to generate because the county effectively has one large district for comparison purposes, so no relative positioning is available from that data.
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