Holly Hill School, Holly Hill FL

Original Research by School Decision on Holly Hill School

Holly Hill School is the only public school in the small city of Holly Hill, Florida, sitting a few blocks west of Ridgewood Avenue on Center Avenue. It serves children from pre-kindergarten through eighth grade, meaning a family who enrolls a child here at the beginning can expect to stay for nearly a decade before transitioning to a high school elsewhere in Volusia County. The school is not a charter or magnet; it is a straightforward public school, part of Volusia County Schools.

The community around it is a compact mainland city nestled between Daytona Beach and Ormond Beach along the Halifax River. Publicly reported sources describe it as quiet and tree-lined, with riverfront parks like Sunrise Park and Hollyland Park offering fishing piers and walking paths. The city's daily commercial texture runs along U.S. Route 1 through the center of town, with retail, local restaurants, and service businesses mixed in. Unlike its neighbors, Holly Hill has no beachfront; the barrier island across the river belongs to other municipalities. The city is actively pursuing redevelopment rather than outward growth, with a Community Redevelopment Area established some years back and a plan updated in 2025 that encourages infill and mixed-use housing. New townhome construction is underway, and the development pipeline includes flex-industrial and commercial projects. The housing market here sits well below both the state and national medians, and values have dipped modestly over the past year, which makes the area notably more accessible than coastal Florida broadly.

The student body is large for a combined elementary and middle school. A very substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, reflecting a community with real economic pressures. The school's racial and ethnic composition is diverse, with Black, Hispanic, white, and multiracial students each representing meaningful portions of enrollment. Data on English learners and students with IEPs was not available in the information provided.

On Florida's FAST assessments, proficiency rates across reading, math, and science in the tested grades run below what many parents will expect from a state benchmark comparison. In every tested grade and subject, fewer than half of students scored at the proficient level, and in fourth grade both ELA and math results were particularly low. These are the most recent available figures, from the 2024-25 school year, and trend data across multiple years was not available, so it is not possible from this data to say whether the school is improving, holding steady, or declining. Parents who want to understand what's driving these results and what the school is doing about them would be well served asking the school directly about its academic support structures and intervention programs. The comparison framework could not place this school against other Volusia County schools because only one district covers the county, leaving no peer set to work with.

No data on chronic absenteeism, discipline, course offerings, staffing ratios, or attendance rates was available. The school does not have a graduation rate because it ends at eighth grade; that measure will become relevant once students move on to high school. Program details were not included in the available information.

For a family thinking about housing, the combination of below-median home prices, a rent-to-income ratio that sits at roughly the threshold financial planners flag as a ceiling, and a modest year-over-year rent decline makes Holly Hill one of the more affordable entry points in the Volusia County coastal corridor. Votran bus service connects the city to Daytona Beach and surrounding areas, and Interstate 95 is close to the western edge of town.

The central question this school raises for a parent is academic: the proficiency numbers are low across the board, and a family whose child needs strong foundational literacy and math support will want a clear picture of how the school addresses that before enrolling. The community itself is genuine and grounded, the location is convenient, and the housing is accessible. The academic picture warrants a direct conversation with the school.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 339%

School 39% · District 61% · ▼ 22 pts below district

▼ 24 pts below state median · ▼ 25 pts below county median

Grade 428%

School 28% · District 62% · ▼ 34 pts below district

▼ 33 pts below state median · ▼ 36 pts below county median

Grade 534%

School 34% · District 57% · ▼ 23 pts below district

▼ 21 pts below state median · ▼ 23 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 344%

School 44% · District 57% · ▼ 13 pts below district

▼ 12 pts below state median · ▼ 13 pts below county median

Grade 426%

School 26% · District 55% · ▼ 29 pts below district

▼ 28 pts below state median · ▼ 30 pts below county median

Grade 538%

School 38% · District 56% · ▼ 17 pts below district

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

Science

Grade 533%

School 33% · District 62% · ▼ 29 pts below district

▼ 20 pts below state median · ▼ 27 pts below county median

This schoolVOLUSIA, 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-income39%Higher-income75%36 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income27%Higher-income21%5 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income38%Higher-income42%4 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income23%Higher-income50%27 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income29%Higher-income39%10 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income25%Higher-income33%8 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income38%Higher-income46%8 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income25%Higher-income43%18 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income35%Higher-income33%1 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income25%Higher-income18%6 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income51%Higher-income42%9 pp gap