The top reported proficiency rate is 37% in English language arts. The lowest is 24% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Calusa Elementary School
Calusa Elementary sits on Orchid Lake Road in New Port Richey, a suburban city in western Pasco County within the Tampa metro. It serves children from pre-kindergarten through fifth grade as a regular public school within the Pasco County school district. Grades prior to third are not assessed under Florida's state testing system, so the academic data here covers third through fifth grade only.
The school's tested results on Florida's FAST assessments are a clear soft spot. Across third, fourth, and fifth grade, math proficiency sits well below half of students in every grade, with fourth and fifth grade rates meaningfully lower than third. ELA follows a similar pattern, with third and fourth grade holding slightly better than math but fifth grade falling to roughly the same low level. The fifth-grade science result on the Florida Statewide Science Assessment is similarly low. These are numbers a parent will want to discuss directly with the school, asking what supports are in place and how individual students are progressing, since schoolwide averages tell you about a population but not about any one child's trajectory.
A very large share of Calusa's students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, making this one of the more economically disadvantaged campuses in its context. White students make up just over half the enrollment, Hispanic students roughly a quarter, and the remainder includes Black students, multiracial students, and smaller groups. Data on English learner and IEP rates was not available in what we received. The overall enrollment is modest for an elementary school serving this many grade levels, so class sizes may run on the smaller side, though we cannot confirm that from the data provided.
Program information was not available in the payload, so we cannot speak to enrichment offerings, tutoring structures, or after-school programs. Parents asking about those specifics would want to go directly to the school or check the Pasco County Schools website.
The surrounding community gives some useful context. New Port Richey has a walkable historic downtown along the Pithlachascotee River, with civic amenities including a public library, Sims Park, and a Main Street corridor that publicly reported accounts describe as experiencing a multi-year revitalization. Outside that core, the city is car-dependent. Healthcare and public education are the dominant employers locally. The downtown population trends older, but the school's zip code neighborhoods reflect broader residential patterns.
Housing costs in the immediate area run well below the Florida state median, and recent trends show a modest year-over-year softening in both home values and rents. That relative affordability, combined with proximity to the Tampa metro, is likely part of what draws working families to western Pasco. Renting takes up a meaningful share of household income at current rates, though the area remains more accessible than much of the Tampa Bay region.
At the district level, two things are worth knowing. Pasco voters passed a property tax referendum in 2022 to fund teacher and staff salaries, and publicly reported figures show the district's teacher vacancy count has dropped substantially since then; a renewal of that levy is headed to the November 2026 ballot, which means homeowners should factor in whether it passes. The county's "Penny for Pasco" sales tax was also renewed in 2022 and funds school construction, renovations, and safety improvements across the district. That growth investment is concentrated heavily in east Pasco's Wesley Chapel area, where new schools and attendance rezoning are active issues, but the capital funding applies district-wide.
Calusa is a neighborhood elementary school in an economically stretched community, and its tested proficiency levels are low enough that a family weighing it should ask pointed questions about instructional supports, reading intervention, and how the school tracks individual student growth. The data shows the challenge; it does not show what the school is doing to address it, and that conversation with staff is the piece this profile cannot provide.
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