The top reported proficiency rate is 41% in English language arts. The lowest is 27% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Paul R. Smith Middle School
Paul R. Smith Middle School is a public school in Holiday, a coastal, unincorporated community in western Pasco County. It serves grades six through eight and sits on Sweetbriar Drive directly adjacent to Anclote High School, with several elementary schools nearby. That campus cluster is close to Anclote Gulf Park rather than any town center, since Holiday has no traditional downtown. The school feeds into a feeder pattern that keeps students largely within the same western Pasco corridor from elementary through high school.
The school's student body is a sizable middle school population. A substantial majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, placing this among schools serving communities with meaningful economic need. The racial and ethnic makeup reflects the broader western Pasco community: white students make up the largest single group, Hispanic students the second largest, with smaller shares of Black students and students of two or more races. Data on English learner and special education populations were not available in the records reviewed.
On state assessments, the academic picture is one parents will want to examine closely. Across all three grades on the Florida FAST, reading and writing proficiency runs in the low-to-mid range, with ELA scores across sixth, seventh, and eighth grade landing in a similar neighborhood as each other. Math proficiency is noticeably lower, sitting well below the ELA results in the sixth and seventh grade bands in particular, with eighth grade somewhat stronger than the younger cohorts. Science proficiency, tested at eighth grade through the Florida Statewide Science Assessment, tracks closer to the lower end of the math results. These are below-midpoint outcomes relative to what Florida schools report broadly, and a parent who wants to understand where any individual student stands relative to grade-level expectations would benefit from a direct conversation with the school about how they support students who are not yet proficient. Multi-year trend data was not available in the records provided, so whether results are improving or holding steady cannot be assessed here.
Program and course access details were not provided in the available data. Whether Smith offers any accelerated coursework, advanced electives, or extracurriculars is a question worth asking the school directly.
The neighborhood itself is a car-dependent, sparse suburban environment. The US 19 corridor, which runs through Holiday, has long carried a difficult reputation for pedestrian safety, and while state and county projects have addressed some of those conditions, the community is built around driving. Housing in the area sits well below both Florida's statewide median and the national median, making it one of the more affordable submarkets in the Tampa Bay region. Home values in the zip code have edged down year over year, while rents have risen modestly. Renting runs cheaper than buying in this market at current mortgage rates, though just marginally so. The community skews older, with a notable retiree presence, and publicly reported sources describe it as a bedroom community oriented toward Tampa Bay employers rather than a self-contained economic center.
At the district level, Pasco County voters approved a property-tax referendum in 2022 that has funded meaningful pay increases and driven teacher vacancies sharply down across the district. A renewal of that levy is heading to the November 2026 ballot, so it represents an ongoing cost consideration for homeowners. A separately approved one-cent sales tax, renewed in 2022 and running through the late 2030s, funds school construction and renovation. The growth pressure reshaping eastern Pasco, with new magnet schools and rezoning activity around Wesley Chapel, is geographically removed from Holiday, so families at Smith are unlikely to be directly affected by those boundary shifts.
Holiday sits in a county that is growing very fast by national standards. Affordable housing construction is underway near Anclote High School specifically, and the Gulf Coast location brings flood zone and storm considerations that anyone buying or renting here should factor in.
See more original research from School Decision →