Pinecrest Lakes Academy, Minneola FL

Original Research by School Decision on Pinecrest Lakes Academy

Pinecrest Lakes Academy is a charter school in Minneola, Florida, serving prekindergarten through eighth grade. It sits within Lake County Schools, in a part of Central Florida that is changing quickly. Families choosing this school are choosing a place that blends strong academic results with a community that is in the middle of a significant growth wave.

The academic picture here is one of genuine strength. On Florida's FAST assessments, math proficiency runs very high in the elementary grades and stays strong through middle school. ELA follows a similar arc: the early grades post some of the highest proficiency rates you will see statewide, the middle grades dip modestly in fifth and sixth grade, and eighth grade climbs back to a very strong level. Science results for fifth grade, assessed through the Florida Statewide Science Assessment, are solid as well. Taken together, the tested results across subjects and grade levels tell a consistent story of a school where the large majority of students are reaching proficiency. There are no comparison figures available from within Lake County's district set because the comparison universe was too small to yield a valid ranking, so the framing here is the school's own results rather than a position among neighbors. Trend data across years was not available in the data provided.

The school serves a broad enrollment for a PK-8 campus. Enrollment tapers as students move through the middle grades, which is worth keeping in mind if your child will reach sixth through eighth grade. The student body is meaningfully diverse: roughly half of students are white, about a third are Hispanic, and smaller shares are Black, Asian, and multiracial. Fewer than a third of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which places the school in a relatively lower-poverty range for a Florida charter. Data on students with IEPs and English learners was not reported, so parents of children in either group may want to ask the school directly about those support structures and caseloads.

Minneola itself is a city in motion. It grew out of citrus-grove land and has become one of Lake County's faster-growing residential communities, marked by rolling hills and lakes that set it apart visually from most of the flat Orlando metro around it. Everyday life is car-dependent: commercial activity runs along U.S. 27 and the Turnpike interchange rather than a walkable town center. The area's signature outdoor resource is the paved Clermont-Minneola Trail running along Lake Minneola, connecting into the West Orange Trail. The Hills of Minneola, a large master-planned development near the Turnpike, is actively under construction with multiple national builders and a planned town center anchored by large-format retail. A new AdventHealth hospital opened in late 2025 along Hancock Road, adding a significant employment anchor to the corridor. The area's nearest dense commercial and cultural amenities are in neighboring Clermont.

Housing in the Minneola zip code sits above the Florida statewide median home value and is roughly in line with national benchmarks, with prices having dipped modestly year over year as of spring 2026. Rents have held roughly flat over the same period. The local for-sale market reflects new construction demand; most available homes are newer builds.

At the district level, Lake County voters renewed a school safety property tax in 2022, keeping in place funding for safety officers, school nurses, and mental health staff including psychologists, social workers, and counselors. A new ballot measure is scheduled for November 2026 that would add an additional millage to fund teacher pay, recruitment, and retention, with the proceeds from the existing millage continuing for safety and mental health. The outcome of that vote would affect school resources across Lake County, including at charter schools depending on how funds are distributed. A new district K-8 school, Minneola Horizon Academy, opened in fall 2025 nearby with a STEAM focus; its opening required an attendance boundary adjustment that affected some families in the area. Florida law now prohibits student cell phone use during instructional time across all public schools, a classroom environment shift that applies here as at every Florida public school.

Graduation rate does not apply to Pinecrest Lakes Academy because the school does not serve high school grades. Program offerings beyond what state testing reflects were not available in the data provided.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 397%

School 97% · District 63% · ▲ 34 pts above district

▲ 34 pts above state median · ▲ 37 pts above county median

Grade 494%

School 94% · District 62% · ▲ 32 pts above district

▲ 33 pts above state median · ▲ 33 pts above county median

Grade 592%

School 92% · District 57% · ▲ 35 pts above district

▲ 37 pts above state median · ▲ 32 pts above county median

Grade 688%

School 88% · District 57% · ▲ 31 pts above district

▲ 26 pts above state median · ▲ 32 pts above county median

Grade 791%

School 91% · District 43% · ▲ 48 pts above district

▲ 42 pts above state median · ▲ 50 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 393%

School 93% · District 56% · ▲ 37 pts above district

▲ 37 pts above state median · ▲ 37 pts above county median

Grade 489%

School 89% · District 53% · ▲ 36 pts above district

▲ 35 pts above state median · ▲ 38 pts above county median

Grade 586%

School 86% · District 54% · ▲ 32 pts above district

▲ 32 pts above state median · ▲ 31 pts above county median

Grade 681%

School 81% · District 57% · ▲ 24 pts above district

▲ 21 pts above state median · ▲ 23 pts above county median

Grade 783%

School 83% · District 55% · ▲ 28 pts above district

▲ 28 pts above state median · ▲ 27 pts above county median

Grade 889%

School 89% · District 53% · ▲ 36 pts above district

▲ 35 pts above state median · ▲ 36 pts above county median

Science

Grade 579%

School 79% · District 55% · ▲ 24 pts above district

▲ 26 pts above state median · ▲ 28 pts above county median

This schoolLAKE, 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-income94%Higher-income93%1 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income83%Higher-income91%8 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income83%Higher-income87%3 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income79%Higher-income82%4 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income76%Higher-income86%10 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income78%Higher-income92%14 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income97%Higher-income97%0 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income91%Higher-income96%4 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income90%Higher-income92%2 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income85%Higher-income90%5 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income83%Higher-income94%10 pp gap