The top reported proficiency rate is 57% in English language arts. The lowest is 50% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Safety Harbor Middle School
Safety Harbor Middle School is a regular public middle school serving sixth through eighth grade in Safety Harbor, Florida, part of the Pinellas County school district. It sits in a residential neighborhood near the city's compact downtown, a few blocks from Main Street and the bay. The school draws from a city that reads as largely built out, self-consciously small-town, and close enough to Tampa, Clearwater, and St. Petersburg to function as a genuine suburb with its own civic identity.
On state assessments, the picture is mixed and worth looking at closely. Reading proficiency on Florida's FAST ELA sits in roughly the upper half of the scale and holds steady across all three grade levels, with sixth, seventh, and eighth graders posting comparable rates just above or right at the midpoint. Math results are more uneven: sixth and eighth graders score in the low-to-mid sixties range for proficiency, while seventh grade math proficiency drops considerably, landing well below the other two grades. That seventh-grade math dip is a gap a parent would reasonably want to raise directly with the school. Eighth-grade science proficiency sits right at the midpoint. No multi-year trend data was available, so whether these numbers reflect improvement, decline, or stability over time is not something the data supports characterizing.
The student population is sizable for a neighborhood middle school in a small city. White students form a plurality, Hispanic students make up roughly a third of the enrollment, and Black students account for a smaller but meaningful share. The school is genuinely economically mixed, with just over half of students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch. Data on English learner rates and students with IEPs was not reported, so families with students in those categories may want to ask the school directly about support services.
On the comparison front, only one district operates in Pinellas County for purposes of this data set, so district-level benchmarking against county peers is not available. Chronic absenteeism and graduation rate data are not applicable here since this is a middle school.
The parent district has made two moves that bear directly on families. Pinellas voters in late 2024 renewed and expanded a local-option school property tax, doubling the rate. This directly raises the annual tax bill for homeowners in the district, a real cost to weigh when pricing a home in Safety Harbor. On the program side, the funds support teacher bonuses, reading, music, art, and technology programs, which is a stabilizing factor for those offerings. The district has also rolled out a custom reading curriculum built around the science of reading and Florida's B.E.S.T. standards, a change publicly reported to have accompanied the district earning its first-ever top state letter grade in 2024. That early-literacy shift is more visible at the elementary level, but it signals a district-wide orientation toward foundational skill building.
Housing in Safety Harbor reflects the city's constrained supply and its appeal. Home values here run notably above the Florida state median and above national benchmarks, and they have eased only slightly year over year. Rents, by contrast, have moved upward over the same period. The city's built-out character, with infill and small-scale townhome projects representing most new construction, means the supply picture is unlikely to shift dramatically. The downtown and waterfront draw strong demand even as the 2024 hurricane season left the pier, marina, and portions of the boardwalk in need of repair.
The city's public life is grounded in a walkable downtown core, a Sunday farmers market, a monthly street festival on Main Street, twelve city parks across a compact footprint, and the Philippe Park shoreline. Transit options are limited, with an on-demand service connecting residents to the broader PSTA network but fixed-route bus service historically thin. Most errands and commutes involve a car.
For a family considering this school: the ELA results are steady, the math picture in seventh grade warrants a direct conversation with the school, and the economic diversity of the student body is real. The community around the school is quiet and residential with genuine walkable amenity close by, and the housing market here prices that in.
See more original research from School Decision →