Port Malabar Elementary — Palm Bay, Florida

Port Malabar Elementary is at 301 Pioneer Ave. NE, Palm Bay, FL 32907, a Brevard Public Schools campus for prekindergarten through grade 6.

The school's page lists the main office at 321-725-0070 and a fax at 321-735-9746, and its banner reads Welcome To Port Malabar Elementary, Home of the Pelican (Port Malabar Elementary). In the federal directory, Port Malabar Elementary School is a regular public school, open and not a charter, with grades PK through 6, NCES School ID 120015002038 and State School ID FL-05-2061 (NCES, Port Malabar Elementary). NCES classes the Pioneer Avenue location as City, Midsize (locale 12).

NCES still lists the legacy site portmalabar.es.brevard.k12.fl.us, while the working page now sits under brevardschools.org, which is where the Pelican address, phone numbers and program list on this page were read.

Port Malabar Elementary earned an A in Florida's 2025-26 school grades file, dated as of September 1, 2026, scoring 65 percent of possible points, one year after a C in 2025.

Port Malabar collected 516 points across 8 components, or 65 percent, and tested 95 percent of eligible students (FLDOE, Port Malabar Elementary). An elementary A starts at 62 percent of points, so the Pioneer Avenue school cleared the A line by three points (FLDOE grading scale). The 95 percent testing rate sits exactly on the legal floor: Florida law says each school must assess at least 95 percent of its eligible students (Florida Statutes s. 1008.34).

Science was the strongest Port Malabar component at 74, followed by English Language Arts learning gains at 70 and ELA gains of the lowest 25 percent at 67 (FLDOE components, Port Malabar). Math achievement, at 56, was the lowest score on the Pelican campus, and third graders posted 64 on the grade 3 ELA measure.

A jump from C to A gives Port Malabar Elementary two statutory hooks: budget latitude for A schools and two-grade improvers, and eligibility for the state's School Recognition Program.

For Port Malabar, the relevant text is in Section 1008.34, which says each school that earns an A or improves at least two letter grades may have greater authority over the allocation of its total budget from state, lottery, grant and local funds (Florida Statutes s. 1008.34). Section 1008.36 creates the Florida School Recognition Program to give financial awards to schools that receive an A or improve at least one letter grade, with awards depending on the funds appropriated and the number and size of schools selected (Florida Statutes s. 1008.36).

The same statute assigns spending decisions to people inside the school: award money is used as decided jointly by the school's staff and its school advisory council, and if they cannot agree by February 1 it is divided equally among classroom teachers. Port Malabar's site lists a School Advisory Council (SAC) page under About Us (Port Malabar Elementary). This page does not report whether or how much Port Malabar received for 2026, because no source fetched for it states an award.

The 2026 A is the first for Port Malabar Elementary since 2014, after a run of C grades from 2015 through 2018 and B grades from 2019 through 2024.

The state file's history columns open with C grades for Port Malabar in 1999 and 2000, followed by an A every year from 2001 through 2012 (FLDOE grade history, Port Malabar). The Pelican school then posted a B in 2013, an A in 2014, and C grades in 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018 before a B in 2019 (FLDOE, Port Malabar 2013 to 2019). After the testing gap, Port Malabar was graded B in 2022, B in the 2023 informational baseline year and B in 2024, slipped to C in 2025 and reached A in 2026.

No Port Malabar grades appear for 2020 or 2021. The Florida Report Cards site explains that 2019-20 accountability measures were not calculated after spring testing was canceled, and that schools that did not opt in received no summative rating for 2020-21 (Florida Report Cards).

Port Malabar Elementary enrolled 628 students in 2024-2025, taught by a classroom staff NCES measures at 45.60 full-time positions, a ratio of 13.77 students per teacher.

First grade was the biggest Port Malabar class with 98 students; NCES counts 38 in prekindergarten, 80 in kindergarten, 91 in second grade, 75 in third, 72 in fourth, 91 in fifth and 83 in sixth (NCES, Port Malabar Elementary). Boys outnumbered girls 338 to 290. By NCES race and ethnicity categories the Pioneer Avenue school enrolled 284 White, 144 Hispanic, 128 Black, 62 multiracial, 7 Asian and 3 Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander students.

Port Malabar is a Title I school in the 2025-26 state file, which lists its economically disadvantaged share as 100 percent (FLDOE, Port Malabar Title I). At the lunch counter the federal tally is 369 Port Malabar students qualifying for free meals and 32 for reduced-price meals, 401 in all, or about 63.9 percent of 628 (401 divided by 628). The school's Title 1 menu posts a 26-27 Parent and Family Engagement Plan, a 2026-2027 School-Family Compact for Learning and a 2026-2027 Annual Meeting Snapshot.

The two Port Malabar poverty figures are not the same measure. NCES defines its lunch count as the unduplicated number of students eligible for the Free Lunch and Reduced-Price Lunch Programs under the National School Lunch Act of 1946, and it reports that all 369 free-lunch students at Port Malabar qualified by direct certification, the route for children in households receiving SNAP or other assistance. The FLDOE column is a separate economically disadvantaged percentage published with the grades, so the 100 percent and 63.9 percent figures for the Pioneer Avenue school describe different things and are both reported here as published.

Port Malabar Elementary lists a morning student newscast called Pelly TV News, a Garden Club, a co-ed soccer team, a Destination Mars team, a Book Club, art and music.

On the Port Malabar page, the Pelly news crew works every morning as producers and on-camera stars, the Garden Club works to create a positive environment on campus, and the PME Soccer Team is a co-ed squad coached through physical education (Port Malabar Elementary programs). Music offers Chorus and Strings with Winter and Spring Concerts, and the art program is built on the elements of art and principles of design. School events named in the Port Malabar menu include Truck or Read, 100 Days of School, Dr. Seuss Day and Literacy Day.

Parent pages on the Port Malabar menu add a Supply List 2026-2027, ELA Family Guides for the B.E.S.T. Standards, an introduction to the FortifyFL App, Parent Launchpad and FOCUS resources, PTO bylaws and a Classroom Libraries page. For families, the Port Malabar menu also links to Brevard After School at Port Malabar, the ReaXium School Bus Ridership Program in English and Spanish, Reading Scholarships through Step Up for Students, MealViewer and MySchoolBucks for the cafeteria, and a Purple Star military point of contact reachable at 321-725-0070 ext. 48679. Citywide, the Palm Bay new resident guide puts the public school count at eleven elementary, three middle, three high and three charter schools (City of Palm Bay new resident information).

When a storm threatens Palm Bay, closing Port Malabar is not a school-level decision: the city's emergency page says only the Brevard Public Schools superintendent issues that directive, and it gives the district number as (321) 633-1000 ext. 797 (City of Palm Bay emergency preparedness). Last verified: October 13, 2026, against the Pelican school's Brevard Public Schools page and the state grades file.