The top reported proficiency rate is 69% in Math. The lowest is 64% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Starkey Elementary School
Starkey Elementary sits on the western edge of Seminole, a mid-sized Pinellas County city positioned a short distance from Gulf beaches and shaped by the commercial and residential development that has characterized this stretch of the Tampa Bay area since the postwar decades. The surrounding neighborhood is predominantly suburban and residential, with single-family homes alongside villa and condo communities. Seminole City Center provides a walkable retail and dining anchor, and the Pinellas Trail passes through the city for cyclists and pedestrians. Major employers nearby include the Bay Pines VA Medical Center and area hospital systems, alongside Pinellas County Schools itself.
The school serves prekindergarten through fifth grade and draws an enrollment that sits at a mid-sized level for a Florida elementary school. The student body is predominantly white, with Hispanic students making up the next largest group and students identifying as two or more races forming a meaningful third cluster. A slim majority of enrolled students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, meaning the school serves a genuinely mixed economic range. Data on English learners and students with IEPs was not available in the records reviewed, so parents with children in those categories may want to ask the school directly about those support structures.
On Florida's FAST assessments, which measure grade-level proficiency in reading, math, and science, Starkey's results from the most recent school year tell a reasonably positive story, though with some unevenness across grades. Third-grade math was the strongest single result, comfortably above the two-thirds mark, and fifth-grade science came in at a similar solid level. Reading proficiency across tested grades was more variable, with fourth grade coming in noticeably below the other grades in ELA, a pattern a parent may want to ask the school about. Math also stepped down gradually from third to fifth grade, which is a common pattern but worth watching. Trend data across multiple years was not available, so it is not possible to say from the available records whether these results represent improvement or a plateau. Chronic absenteeism and attendance data were not reported in the records reviewed.
The parent district context is worth understanding. Pinellas County Schools publicly reported earning an "A" grade from the Florida Department of Education for the first time in the district's history in 2024, a milestone the district attributed in part to rolling out a custom core ELA curriculum built around the science of reading, starting in the earliest grades. Starkey's grade band means students here would experience that approach from the beginning of their academic career. In November 2024, Pinellas County voters renewed and expanded the local-option school property tax, doubling the rate for a multi-year period. The added revenue funds teacher and staff bonuses, along with reading, music, art, and technology programs. For a family buying a home near Starkey, that levy represents a real line item in property taxes, and for families already in the district it is a stabilizing factor for programs that otherwise depend on recurring voter approval.
Housing near the school sits below the Florida statewide median home value and has seen a modest year-over-year price decline, while rents have also edged down slightly. The local rental-to-income ratio runs close to the commonly cited affordability threshold, and the gap between renting and buying a home monthly is small, which may factor into whether a family chooses to rent or own in this ZIP code. The broader Seminole housing stock is established, with limited large-scale new construction within city limits compared to other parts of the region.
Comparison data relative to other districts in Pinellas County was not applicable here because Pinellas operates as a single countywide district, leaving no meaningful peer set to measure against at the county level. Graduation rate does not apply to Starkey, which serves only elementary grades. Program-specific information beyond the district's literacy curriculum was not available in the records reviewed.
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