Putnam County Schools

District at a glance

Putnam County School District is governed by an elected, five-member School Board with members serving four-year terms from single-member districts.² The current superintendent is Dr. Rick Surrency, who was first elected in 2016, re-elected in 2020 and 2024, and was named 2025 National Superintendent of the Year by RTM Business Group as well as Florida's 2023 Superintendent of the Year.³ The district office sits at 200 S. Reid Street in downtown Palatka.³

Grad rate figure is the 2024 4-year cohort rate; PCSD ranked 5th statewide.⁴

2024 school grades — the big picture

The Florida Department of Education issues an A–F grade to every public school in the state each year based on student performance, learning gains, and graduation rate.⁵ For the 2023–24 school year (the most recent grades released at the time of writing), Putnam County had no schools graded D or F — the first time in over a decade — and posted four A-graded schools.⁴

Every school in Putnam County

Below is the current PCSD school roster with the most recent (2023–24) Florida state grade we could verify. Always confirm the current zoning for a specific address — PCSD periodically adjusts attendance zones.

Elementary schools (PK–6)

Source: Putnam County School District 2023–24 grade summary.⁴

Junior-senior high schools (7–12)

Alternative, virtual & specialty

Mellon Learning Center was previously Mellon Elementary and now operates as an alternative school; it received a "Maintaining" school-improvement rating rather than a traditional A–F grade.⁴

Magnet, charter & choice options

Putnam County families have several public alternatives to their zoned school.

Children's Reading Center Charter School (K–6)

A tuition-free public charter in Palatka at 7901 St. Johns Avenue, serving roughly 260–275 students. It earned an A grade in 2023–24 and posts strong proficiency rates — about 87% of students scored at or above proficient in math and 77% in reading.⁶

Putnam Academy of Arts and Sciences (6–8)

A tuition-free public charter middle school in Palatka at 310 South Palm Avenue, serving roughly 195–200 students drawn from across Putnam County.⁷ The school focuses on an arts-and-sciences curriculum with a ~22:1 student-teacher ratio.

Q.I. Roberts Jr.-Sr. High (7–12) — magnet-style choice

Located in Florahome on the west side of the county, Q.I. Roberts has been consistently the highest-rated public school in Putnam County. It carries a GreatSchools rating of 9/10 and an A from the Florida DOE for 2023–24.⁸ Admission is open to Putnam County families through the district choice process.

Putnam Virtual School (K–12)

A free, district-operated online school for any Putnam County student. It earned an A in 2023–24.⁴

By city / town

We've built dedicated school guides for each of our five core cities. Click through to see the zoned schools, ratings, programs, and private options for that town.

District boundaries — how Putnam splits up

Putnam County School District covers the entire county — about 800 square miles of Northeast Florida, bisected by the St. Johns River and bordering Alachua, Bradford, Clay, St. Johns, Flagler, Volusia, Lake, and Marion counties. There's only one public-school district for the whole county; there are no separate municipal districts the way some other Florida counties operate.¹ That means every Putnam County resident — Palatka, Crescent City, Welaka, Interlachen, Pomona Park, San Mateo, East Palatka, Hollister, Florahome, Melrose, Georgetown, Bostwick, Bardin — is served by the same school board, the same calendar, and the same set of district-wide policies.

The district is divided into informal feeder zones that roughly mirror geography: a Palatka zone centered on the county seat (Kelley Smith, Long, Mellon Learning Center, Palatka Jr.-Sr. High); an East Palatka / San Mateo zone (Moseley and Browning-Pearce Elementary); an Interlachen / West Putnam zone (Interlachen Elementary, Interlachen Jr.-Sr. High, Ochwilla Elementary, Q.I. Roberts in Florahome); a South Putnam zone centered on Crescent City (Middleton-Burney Elementary, Crescent City Jr.-Sr. High — serving Welaka, Pomona Park, Georgetown); and a Northwest zone served by Melrose Elementary near the Alachua line.⁴ Because rural Putnam attendance areas are geographically large, the same school can serve students living 15+ miles apart.

Attendance zoning — verifying your address

Putnam County School District does not currently publish a public address-by-address school zone lookup tool on its website. The most reliable way to confirm the zoned school for a specific property is to call:

We do this every time we write an offer on a home for a family with school-age kids. If you're working with us, you don't have to make the call yourself — we'll verify before you go under contract.

Transportation & bus zoning

PCSD operates yellow school-bus service for eligible students across the county. Eligibility is driven by distance from the zoned school and by the safety of walking routes; the Transportation Department at the number above confirms route and stop assignments for any address.¹ Because Putnam is a geographically large, rural county — and small-town schools like those in Crescent City and Interlachen draw from a wide attendance area — bus rides for outlying addresses can run 30–45 minutes each way. We always recommend asking the district for the estimated route time before you commit to a rural property if morning commute matters to your family.

School calendar

PCSD publishes its annual school calendar at putnamschools.org; the calendar follows a typical Florida public-school schedule running from mid-August through late May, with a fall break in October, Thanksgiving week off, two weeks at winter break, and a week off for spring break.¹ For the exact start date and key board-meeting dates for the 2026–27 academic year, check the calendar page on the district site.

Notable district-wide programs & recent direction

PCSD has been on a multi-year turnaround under Dr. Surrency. The 2023–24 grade announcement marked the first year in more than a decade with no D or F grade at any traditional or charter school in the county.⁴ The district's current Strategic Plan 2021–2026 — branded "Shaping the Future" — focuses on college, career, and life readiness, and the Career & Technical Education (CTE) lineup has been expanded across the high schools.³

A few highlights that come up most often in conversations with the families we work with:

• Cambridge International curriculum — offered at multiple elementaries (Kelley Smith, Long, Middleton-Burney, Interlachen Elementary) and woven into secondary academics at the Jr.-Sr. high schools.¹
• Career & Technical Education pathways at the high-school level include Welding (accredited at Crescent City Jr.-Sr. High with Stick, Flux, and MIG certifications), Agriscience & FFA (a signature of Interlachen Jr.-Sr. High), Health Sciences, Construction Technology, JROTC, Criminal Justice, and Teacher Assisting.¹
• 16 Advanced Placement courses are listed by Palatka Jr.-Sr. High School subject to enrollment, with similar AP offerings at the other Jr.-Sr. highs.¹
• Putnam Virtual School gives families a free, district-run online option for any K–12 student in the county — and it carries an A grade for 2023–24.⁴
• Q.I. Roberts Jr.-Sr. High (Florahome) functions like a county-wide magnet — open enrollment via the choice process, A-rated, 9/10 on GreatSchools.⁸

Comparing Putnam to neighboring counties

Because Putnam borders eight counties, we get asked all the time how the school district stacks up against neighboring options. The short version: Putnam's state-grade profile in 2023–24 (no D or F schools, four A schools) is competitive with surrounding small-county districts, though larger Northeast Florida districts like St. Johns and Clay grade more A schools because they have many more total schools. The cost-of-housing tradeoff is dramatic in the other direction — Putnam's median home price is a fraction of St. Johns or Clay County's, and the families we work with often calculate the difference between paying St. Johns prices for an A district versus paying Putnam prices and supplementing with the Q.I. Roberts choice option, Putnam Virtual School, or a private K–12.⁴

Private school landscape in Putnam County

Beyond the public-school system, Putnam County has a handful of established private K–12 options — concentrated in Palatka. The largest and most established is Peniel Baptist Academy (PK–12, Baptist, ~222 students, FACCS and Middle States accredited).⁹ Smaller Palatka options include Hillcrest Academy, River Christian Academy, and St. Johns Christian School.¹⁰ In Crescent City, Abundant Learning Academy serves K–9 using an Accelerated Christian Education curriculum.¹¹ In the west of the county, Interlachen has Community Christian Learning Center (PK–8), and Grace Christian School (K–12) operates in nearby Grandin. There is no Catholic school currently operating in Putnam County; the closest Catholic option requires driving to St. Johns, Clay, or Alachua County.

Frequently asked questions

Sources