Bay Point Middle School, St Petersburg FL

Original Research by School Decision on Bay Point Middle School

Bay Point Middle School sits in the south-central part of St. Petersburg, a city that spans walkable, arts-active downtown neighborhoods, established residential grids, and a waterfront civic core anchored by museums, parks, and the USF St. Petersburg campus. The surrounding city is in a growth phase with large mixed-use and residential developments advancing, including the major redevelopment around Tropicana Field. Home values in the school's zip code have pulled back modestly year over year and now sit below the statewide average, which puts Bay Point's neighborhood among the more accessible entry points into the St. Petersburg market. Renters spend a meaningful share of income on housing at current asking rents.

The school serves sixth through eighth graders and is a regular Pinellas County public middle school, not a charter or magnet. The student body is predominantly Black, with smaller shares of white, Hispanic, and multiracial students. A large majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which places Bay Point among schools serving a high-need population by federal measures. Data on IEP rates and English learner rates were not available in this source.

On Florida's FAST assessments for the current school year, the academic picture is uneven across grade levels. Sixth-grade math stands out as a genuine bright spot, with proficiency reaching a level that compares favorably for a school with this demographic profile. Seventh-grade math and sixth and seventh-grade ELA tell a different story, with proficiency running below half of students in most of those categories. Eighth-grade ELA and eighth-grade math show moderate results, and the Statewide Science Assessment for eighth grade lands in the same mid-range territory. The pattern of sharper gaps in the middle grades compared to the top grade is worth asking the school about directly; a parent may want to understand what is being done differently in seventh grade and how students progress from there.

Trend data was not available in this source, so there is no way to say from this material whether results have been improving, declining, or holding steady. The comparison fact-set for Bay Point is constrained because Pinellas County has only one district, which means the typical cross-district comparison does not apply here.

Chronic absenteeism and discipline data were not available in this source. Course access and staffing data were also not available. A parent considering Bay Point should ask the school directly about its support staffing, intervention programs, and extracurricular offerings.

At the district level, two changes are worth knowing. Pinellas County Schools earned its first Florida Department of Education "A" grade in recent history, publicly attributed in part to a custom K through 5 ELA curriculum built around the science of reading. That curriculum shift affects the elementary pipeline that feeds Bay Point, which may shape how prepared incoming sixth graders are. Separately, voters renewed and expanded the local school property tax in 2024, doubling the rate. Those funds support teacher and staff bonuses and programs including reading, music, art, and technology. For a family buying a home in the school's area, that levy is a direct added cost on property assessments, but it also represents a community-backed stabilizer for the kinds of programs and staffing retention that affect daily school life.

St. Petersburg itself offers considerable civic infrastructure within reach of families: a seven-branch public library system with a recently renovated main branch, an extensive downtown waterfront park network, bus rapid transit connecting downtown to the beaches, and a job base spanning finance, health systems, marine science, and manufacturing. Those assets do not bear directly on Bay Point's classrooms, but they shape the broader context a family would be entering.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 677%

School 77% · District 63% · ▲ 14 pts above district

▲ 15 pts above state median · ▲ 15 pts above county median

Grade 736%

School 36% · District 33% · ▲ 3 pts above district

▼ 13 pts below state median · ▲ 7 pts above county median

Grade 848%

School 48% · District 64% · ▼ 16 pts below district

▼ 3 pts below state median · ▼ 15 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 644%

School 44% · District 61% · ▼ 17 pts below district

▼ 16 pts below state median · ▼ 19 pts below county median

Grade 738%

School 38% · District 59% · ▼ 21 pts below district

▼ 17 pts below state median · ▼ 21 pts below county median

Grade 850%

School 50% · District 59% · ▼ 9 pts below district

▼ 4 pts below state median · ▼ 10 pts below county median

Science

Grade 844%

School 44% · District 58% · ▼ 14 pts below district

▼ 2 pts below state median · ▼ 9 pts below county median

This schoolPINELLAS, 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 6Lower-income41%Higher-income63%21 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income34%Higher-income53%19 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income47%Higher-income60%13 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 6Lower-income75%Higher-income93%18 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income32%Higher-income53%21 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income46%Higher-income59%12 pp gap