JASPER — The school grades were recently released by the Florida Department of Education (FLDOE) and Hamilton County’s varied.

Hamilton County School District’s Report Card

For the 2016-2017 school year, the Hamilton County School District stayed with a D. Central Hamilton Elementary School maintained an F, Hamilton County High School received an Incomplete, North Hamilton Elementary School stayed at a D, and South Hamilton Elementary School dropped down from a C to a D.

“We have been looking since January at our system and evaluating where we are and why we were underperforming,” Superintendent Rex Mitchell said. “We are modifying our systems issues and with the change coming up of combining the elementary schools it should improve our resources.”

HCSD closed its three elementary schools at the end of the 2016-2017 school year with a consolidated Hamilton County Elementary School set to open this fall.

As far as the incomplete score for HCHS, Mitchell wasn’t sure why.

“The main reason usually comes from there not being a high enough percentage of students testing,” Mitchell said. “We had kept a close eye on it, but we will be reviewing and making a report to send to the Florida Department of Education.”

According to the law, schools must test 95 percent of the students to receive a grade.

Hamilton County elementary schools increased their mathematics learning gains with CHES gaining eight points, NHES four points, and SHES increasing to 34 points. Only CHES and NHES increased their english language arts by five points combined.

The 2016-17 school grades are based on four achievement components: English language arts, mathematics, science, and social studies as well as middle school acceleration, four learning gains, high school acceleration, and graduation rate. Each component is worth 100 points overall. Grades are then calculated by adding the points earned for each component and dividing the total by the amount of components completed.