Original Research by School Decision on St. Augustine High School
St. Augustine High School is a public high school serving all four grade levels, located on Varella Avenue in St. Augustine, Florida, within the St. Johns County School District. The school draws from one of the more historically layered and actively growing cities on Florida's northeast coast, a place where a pedestrian-centered colonial downtown, a robust tourism economy, and rapidly expanding residential development coexist in an unusual combination.
The school's enrollment places it in the mid-to-large range for a Florida high school, with students distributed fairly evenly across all four grades. The student body is predominantly white, with Black and Hispanic students together making up roughly a quarter to a third of enrollment. Close to two in five students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which puts the school in a moderate range for economic need. Data on students with individualized education programs and English learners was not available in the data provided.
State assessment results were not available in the data provided, so academic performance cannot be characterized here. Families who want a picture of how students at this school perform on Florida's standardized assessments would want to look at the Florida Department of Education's school accountability reports directly. Similarly, four-year graduation rate data and chronic absenteeism figures were not in the data, so those outcomes cannot be addressed. The comparison data available for St. Johns County's districts could not be applied because the school-level metrics were absent.
The one program documented in the data is Visual Arts. This is a narrower picture than many parents will want, and the school's website would be the right place to look for the full range of course offerings, including any dual enrollment, Advanced Placement, career and technical education, athletics, or other programs the school may offer.
The surrounding city gives this school an interesting civic backdrop. St. Augustine is publicly reported as among the most walkable cities in Florida, centered on a compact historic district with pedestrian streets, galleries, restaurants, and active street life. Flagler College and the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind anchor the city educationally and institutionally. The major employment base spans tourism and hospitality, healthcare through Flagler Health+, and aerospace manufacturing through Northrop Grumman, which is publicly reported as the largest private employer in the county. For students thinking about local career pathways, that mix of industries is worth knowing.
Housing in the area sits roughly in line with national median home values, with modest year-over-year price softening. Rents run at a level where a meaningful share of household income would go to housing costs. For a family considering a move to attend this school, those housing dynamics are worth factoring in alongside the property tax context. St. Johns County voters approved a new one-mill property tax increase in late 2024, with a substantial share of the revenue directed toward teacher salaries and support staff and the remainder toward school safety, nurses, mental health counselors, and programs including art, music, and athletics. Voters also renewed a half-cent capital sales surtax for several more years to fund school construction and maintenance in a county experiencing rapid population growth. Both measures are ongoing costs and commitments a homebuyer in this district would carry.
St. Johns County as a whole is publicly reported as one of the fastest-growing counties in the United States, and that growth is visible in the city's housing pipeline, new multifamily projects under review, and a downtown redesign underway on King Street. Schools in growing districts often face capacity pressure, and the capital surtax renewal is the district's primary tool for keeping construction pace with enrollment.
Because state assessment and graduation data are absent, this profile cannot offer the academic outcome picture most parents prioritize. That is a real gap, and it should be filled by consulting Florida's school grades and accountability data before drawing conclusions about how students here are performing.
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