Columbia Elementary — Palm Bay, Florida

Columbia Elementary sits at 1225 Waco Blvd., S.E., Palm Bay, FL 32909, a Brevard Public Schools campus whose phone is 321-676-1319.

The school's own page gives that Waco Boulevard address and lists two numbers, 321-676-1319 and 321-877-0966 (Columbia Elementary). Its masthead calls the campus the Home of the Comets, and its motto line reads: to serve every student with excellence as the standard. The federal directory repeats the Waco Blvd SE address for both mail and the physical campus and records Columbia as an open, regular public school that is not a charter (NCES school detail, Columbia).

Two identifiers tie the Palm Bay school to official data sets. The National Center for Education Statistics assigns NCES School ID 120015002484, and the state assigns State School ID FL-05-2131, where 05 is the Brevard district number (NCES school detail, Columbia). That same school number, 2131, is the one the Florida Department of Education uses for Columbia in its school grades file, which is how the figures further down this page are matched to the Waco Boulevard campus. NCES classes the location as City, Midsize.

Columbia is one of the eleven public elementary schools the City of Palm Bay counts for new residents (City of Palm Bay new resident information). Two other PK to 6 elementaries in the federal Palm Bay school search share its 32909 ZIP code: John F. Turner Senior Elementary at 3175 Jupiter Boulevard SE (NCES Palm Bay school search) and Sunrise Elementary at 1651 Mara Loma Boulevard SE (NCES Palm Bay school search, page 2).

Columbia Elementary in Palm Bay enrolled 576 students from prekindergarten through grade 6 in the 2024-2025 school year, with 40.50 full-time-equivalent classroom teachers.

Those figures come from the NCES Common Core of Data, which reports a student/teacher ratio of 14.22 for the Waco Boulevard school (NCES school detail, Columbia). NCES notes that its membership and staffing counts are official 2024-2025 school data, while the name, address and phone are preliminary 2025-2026 directory entries. Columbia keeps a sixth grade, so the Palm Bay campus spans eight grade levels, PK, KG and grades 1 through 6 in the NCES grade span.

The sixth grade was the largest Columbia class in that count at 87 students, and grade 5 the smallest school-age class at 65. NCES splits the Columbia enrollment into 301 boys and 275 girls. By race and ethnicity the federal file counts 216 White, 160 Black, 140 Hispanic and 57 multiracial students, plus 2 Asian students and 1 American Indian or Alaska Native student (NCES school detail, Columbia).

Columbia is the smaller campus when set beside two other Palm Bay elementaries in the federal search. Turner Elementary on Jupiter Boulevard SE had 600 students and Discovery Elementary at 1275 Glendale Ave NW had 679, both also running PK to 6 (NCES Palm Bay school search).

Columbia Elementary earned a B in Florida's 2025-26 school grades, published as of September 1, 2026, with 56 percent of possible points, the Palm Bay school's third B in a row.

The state file shows Columbia with 450 points across 8 components, 56 percent of the total possible, and 100 percent of eligible students tested (FLDOE 2025-26, Columbia row). The note at the top of the file sets the elementary scale: an A takes 62 percent of points or greater, a B 54 to 61 percent and a C 41 to 53 percent (FLDOE grading scale note). At 56 percent, Columbia landed two points above the bottom of the B band and six points below the 62 percent an A requires.

The pattern in the Columbia row is that growth scores run well ahead of achievement scores. ELA learning gains reached 67 and gains among the lowest-performing quarter of readers reached 70, while ELA achievement stood at 53 and science at 41 (FLDOE components, Columbia). Florida law explains why that matters: section 1008.34 defines learning gains as the degree of student learning growth occurring from one school year to the next and counts gains of students in the lowest 25 percent in English Language Arts and in mathematics as separate components (Florida Statutes s. 1008.34). For Columbia, the two lowest-quartile components alone supplied 131 of the 450 points (70 plus 61).

Columbia Elementary in Palm Bay earned an A in every graded year from 2001 through 2011, then posted mostly C grades from 2013 to 2017, a D in 2018, and B grades in 2019 and from 2024 to 2026.

The FLDOE grade file carries the Waco Boulevard school's record back to 1999, when Columbia was graded C, and it was a C again in 2000 (FLDOE grade history, Columbia). Eleven straight A grades followed, 2001 through 2011. The run ended with a B in 2012 and a C in 2013; the C held through 2017, including the 2015 informational baseline year. The low point in the file is the D of 2018.

Columbia rebounded to a B in 2019. The file lists no grade for the Palm Bay school in 2020 or 2021, then a C for 2022 and a C in the 2023 informational baseline. The B of 2024 began the current streak, repeated in 2025 and 2026 (FLDOE 2025-26, Columbia row). The FLDOE file states each grade but gives no reasons for the changes, so this page does not offer any.

Columbia's 56 percent placed it between Turner Senior Elementary, a C at 52 percent, and Discovery Elementary, a B at 57 percent, in the 2025-26 state file for Palm Bay schools.

Turner, which shares Columbia's 32909 ZIP code, earned 418 points and 52 percent for a C (FLDOE row, Turner), and Discovery on Glendale Avenue NW earned 454 points and 57 percent for a B (FLDOE row, Discovery). Columbia's 450 points put it four short of Discovery. Its science score of 41 sat below both neighbors, which posted 39 at Turner and 47 at Discovery, while Columbia's ELA learning gains of 67 topped Turner's 61 and Discovery's 61.

Enrollment and staffing figures on this page come from NCES, which uses 2024-2025 membership; the grades come from the state's 2025-26 file. The two sources measure different school years, so the Palm Bay comparison above sets each figure beside its own source rather than combining them.

Columbia Elementary lists clubs from Lego League and Destination Mars to beginning and intermediate strings, a student-run news broadcast, VPK, Title I and Brevard After School Care pages on its Palm Bay site.

The Columbia program list describes Lego League as using Lego Robot technology to solve problems on a 3D problem board, and Destination Mars as a contest against other schools to see who can be the best Martian (Columbia Elementary programs). Columbia Elementary News students learn to produce and star in a live daily broadcast. The Art Club is open to grades 4 to 6, and Beginning Strings starts Comets on violin, viola, cello or bass before Intermediate Strings moves to more advanced technique.

Other Columbia offerings on the same list include Columbia Chorus, an E-Sports Club, a Kindness Club that runs projects and fundraisers, a Latin Dance Club, a Yearbook Club and a Walking Club in which students earn a foot token for each mile completed. The site menus also carry a STEM Fair section with handbooks in English and Spanish, a Military Families page, School Advisory Council and Parent Teacher Committee pages, and an occupational therapy section on handwriting and keyboarding skills (Columbia Elementary).

The Waco Boulevard school is a Title I school in the 2025-26 state file, which also reports 98.5 percent of Columbia students as economically disadvantaged (FLDOE Title I and economic status, Columbia). NCES counted 315 students eligible for free lunch and 29 for reduced-price lunch in 2024-2025, a combined 344, or about 60 percent of the 576 enrolled (344 divided by 576) (NCES school detail, Columbia). The two agencies use different measures, so the Palm Bay school's 98.5 percent and its 60 percent lunch figure are reported side by side, not reconciled. Last verified: October 13, 2026, on the Columbia Elementary, NCES and Florida Department of Education websites.