Browning-pearce Elementary School, San Mateo FL

Original Research by School Decision on Browning-pearce Elementary School

Browning-Pearce Elementary sits on Bear Boulevard in San Mateo, a rural unincorporated community on the east shore of the St. Johns River in Putnam County, southeast of Palatka. The school serves kindergarten through sixth grade, making it the full elementary pathway for children in this area before they move on to Palatka schools for junior high and high school. The setting is genuinely rural: no walkable town center, car-dependent travel on U.S. Route 17, homes spread across pastureland and pine woods with riverfront lots nearby. The nearest hospital is a short drive northwest.

The school's enrollment is sizeable for the grade band it serves. A large majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which places this among the higher-economic-need elementary schools in Florida. Racial and ethnic composition is majority white, with meaningful shares of Hispanic and Black students and a smaller multiracial group. Data on students with individualized education programs or English learner status was not available in the records we reviewed, so families with children in those categories may want to ask the school directly about support services.

On Florida's FAST assessments, proficiency in reading and math in the lower and middle grades runs below the statewide midpoint. In grades three through five, well under half of students scored proficient in math, and ELA proficiency in those same grades sits in a similar range. The sixth-grade picture is noticeably stronger than the earlier grades in both subjects, though it still represents a minority of students reaching the proficient threshold. Fifth-grade science proficiency on the statewide assessment is in roughly the same range as the lower-grade math and ELA scores. Multi-year trend data was not available, so it is not possible to say from this data whether scores have been moving up or down. A parent who wants to understand what the school is doing to improve outcomes in the tested grades would be well served by asking the school directly.

The housing market in and around San Mateo is considerably more affordable than Florida as a whole. Home values here run well below the statewide average, and the price-to-income ratio is well below the national figure as well. That relative affordability is part of what draws families and retirees seeking privacy and space. Recent residential activity has been in individual lots and acreage rather than subdivisions.

Families moving to the area should be aware of active change at the district level. Putnam County voters approved a large general obligation bond in 2022 to address what were publicly reported as the second-oldest school buildings in Florida, and a multi-year plan is now consolidating and rebuilding schools across the county. Several elementary schools in Palatka are closing and students are being reassigned as new primary and intermediate campuses open in 2026-27 and 2027-28. Browning-Pearce is not named among the schools currently closing, but the broader reshaping of attendance zones and facilities is worth tracking if you are making a long-range housing decision in the county. Property taxes have risen to service the bond debt, which residents have publicly raised as a concern, and a second bond issuance came through in mid-2025.

San Mateo's economy draws on the larger Putnam County labor market. Georgia-Pacific's Palatka paper mill is publicly reported as the county's largest private employer, and Seminole Electric represents another major investment nearby. The community itself has no commercial district to speak of; library service comes from Palatka, and there is no library branch in San Mateo. Program-specific offerings at Browning-Pearce, such as enrichment, arts, or extracurricular programs, were not available in the data we reviewed.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 334%

School 34% · District 39% · ▼ 5 pts below district

▼ 29 pts below state median

Grade 429%

School 29% · District 44% · ▼ 15 pts below district

▼ 32 pts below state median

Grade 537%

School 37% · District 45% · ▼ 8 pts below district

▼ 18 pts below state median

Grade 654%

School 54% · District 60% · ▼ 6 pts below district

▼ 8 pts below state median · ▼ 5 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 341%

School 41% · District 41%

▼ 15 pts below state median

Grade 439%

School 39% · District 43% · ▼ 4 pts below district

▼ 15 pts below state median

Grade 549%

School 49% · District 43% · ▲ 6 pts above district

▼ 5 pts below state median

Grade 663%

School 63% · District 57% · ▲ 6 pts above district

▲ 3 pts above state median · ▲ 4 pts above county median

Science

Grade 535%

School 35% · District 45% · ▼ 10 pts below district

▼ 18 pts below state median

This schoolPUTNAM, 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 3Lower-income38%Higher-income54%16 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income42%Higher-income29%13 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income51%Higher-income42%9 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income59%Higher-income75%16 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income33%Higher-income36%3 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income27%Higher-income38%11 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income37%Higher-income37%0 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income52%Higher-income60%8 pp gap