Holmes County Schools gets C grade from state

STAFF REPORT

School districts in Florida have recently been graded by the state Department of Education (DOE), based on academic assessments.

Holmes County Schools was ranked a C. All Holmes County schools received a school grade of either “B” or “C” for 2022-23, the district said in a news release. The grades are based on academic assessments. 

“Both Bonifay K-8 and Holmes County High improved by a letter grade to ‘B’ status. Ponce de Leon High School and Poplar Springs School maintained their ‘B’ status,” a news release said. “Four of the six schools received a grade of ‘B’, but in spite of this, overall the district received a grade of “C”, based on the most recent scoring scale provided by DOE. Last year’s scale would have placed the district as a ‘B’”

Superintendent Buddy Brown addressed the DOE’s  rankings during a Holmes District School Board meeting on Dec. 12 and called the system used this year “a pile of crock.”

Brown again spoke about the rankings in the news release.

“While we are excited to see this improvement in our overall score, we are not satisfied with this score,” Brown said. “Our goal is to make Holmes District Schools an ‘A’ district even as we continue to chase the changing scale scores set by the state.”

District and school grades from the state will “carry no negative consequences,” the DOE said when releasing grades this month.

“Using this baseline, schools and districts can work toward improved performance in future years,” a news release from the DOE said.