- July 2, 2026
It’s official. For the first time in seven years, Flagler Schools has been rated an A district.
District officials have known for a while that Flagler County would be receiving an A grade from the state for the first time since 2019, before the COVID-19 shutdown, but while School Board member Will Furry touted the achievement on the campaign trail, Superintendent LaShakia Moore has taken a more cautious approach. That changed on Wednesday, July 1, when the Florida Department of Education released the 2026 school and district grades.
“I'm excited for it to be official, and so now we can really share,” Moore said. “Before, we were just sharing based on our predictions, but now, with it being official, I am very excited. I'm excited for us as a district, but I am most proud of our schools.”
Flagler Schools is one of just five districts in the state this year to improve from a B district in 2025 to an A this year. Six Flagler schools have received an A grade, while the other three received a B.
“The last time, we were an A district, we had C schools, but we are not in that place now,” Moore said. “We're in a district with all A and B schools.”
Three schools maintained their A grade from a year ago. Indian Trails Middle School received an A for the eighth year in a row, while Old Kings Elementary is an A school for the fifth straight year and Matanzas High School reached an A grade for the third straight year. The streaks do not include the COVID years of 2020 when FDOE canceled spring assessments and 2021 when Flagler was among the 56 of 67 districts that opted out of the grading system.
Three other Flagler schools jumped up to an A, with Buddy Taylor Middle School making the largest gain, from a C school last year to an A school this year. Flagler Palm Coast High School and Belle Terre Elementary School both improved from a B to an A.
This was just the third time in FPC’s history that it has received an A grade. Its previous A grades were in 2013 and 2008. Belle Terre had last received an A grade in 2022.
“I’m super proud of FPC, Buddy Taylor and Belle Terre for joining Old Kings, Indian Trails and Matanzas as A schools,” Moore said. “And our three schools that remain a B [Bunnell, Wadsworth and Rymfire elementary schools], they are so close that I know next year is quite possible for us to have all A schools.”
The last three years we have been extremely clear and extremely consistent about what we're going to be doing and how we're going to educate students, and these scores [this year] are a reflection of that.
— LASHAKIA MOORE, Flagler Schools superintendent
The district’s virtual school, iFlagler, received an incomplete grade. It tested 95% of its students, Moore said, which is right on the cusp of having enough testing data. Moore said the district is petitioning the state to give iFlagler a grade.
“If they were to release iFlagler's grade, it would be an A school also,” Moore said.
The county’s charter school, Imagine School At Town Center, also improved, going from a C school to a B.
The school grading formula is based on as many as 12 components that include students assessment scores in core academic areas — English language arts, math, science and social studies; learning gains; middle school acceleration; graduation rates; and college and career acceleration.
Flagler Schools improved in every academic area.
Last year, the district missed out on an A grade by two percentage points, scoring 62% of the total possible points. This year, the district cleared the A threshold by two percentage points with a 67%.
Last year, the district also thought it would reach A status, but the “escalation clause” kept Flagler Schools at a B in 2025, Moore said.
“If a certain percent of districts become an A, the grading scale moves up,” Moore said. “It’s based on the percentage of growth. When you think you’re going to be an A, and then the escalation clause is inserted … we missed it. So, we knew that this year we needed to grow faster, that it didn't matter what the requirement was, that we were still going to make it, and we did that. And so, I'm super proud of our team.”
Every year, FDOE makes it more difficult for schools and districts to receive and A grade, Moore said.
“The last three years we have been extremely clear and extremely consistent about what we're going to be doing and how we're going to educate students, and these scores [this year] are a reflection of that,” she said.
Buddy Taylor Middle School was able to jump two letter grades, Moore said, based on changes in “the professional learning community” with immediate feedback provided to teachers and policy changes such as limiting restroom breaks during instructional time.
“We said students need to go to the restrooms during class change,” Moore said. “We were having students losing a lot of time because they were spending time going to the restroom during instructional time, and we said, ‘Hey, parents, join us with this and have a conversation with your child.’ And at first, parents were like, ‘Is this just going too far?’ We said, we want them to be in class and present for the instruction, and because of it, we see this type of growth.”
The district's A score could not have been possible without parent and community support, Moore said.
“I’m just proud of all the hard work of our faculty and staff, proud of our students, proud of and thankful for our parents who continue to choose us and support us, and I'm definitely proud and thankful of our community that believes in the work that we're doing. This is a celebration for the entire district. We are all working to ensure that our students get a great education.”
