JAMES TILLMAN ELEMENTARY MAGNET SCHOOL

Located at 1415 29TH ST E, in PALMETTO, Florida, JAMES TILLMAN ELEMENTARY MAGNET SCHOOL is an average-sized elementary-level community that works with 614 students (grades pre-K through 5), run under MANATEE.

Within MANATEE, which oversees 80 schools and 54,215 students, JAMES TILLMAN ELEMENTARY MAGNET SCHOOL is one campus in the system.

On the student-mix side, JAMES TILLMAN ELEMENTARY MAGNET SCHOOL records that the largest single group is Hispanic at 45%, but no single group is in the majority. The remainder looks like 28% Black, 19% White, 7% multiracial. The wider county runs roughly 18% Hispanic, putting the school's mix visibly more Hispanic than the area baseline.

On the resource side, Staff filings list 37 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 16.6:1 students per teacher. The state averages around 17.5:1, so this campus is tighter than the state norm typical. Roughly 73% of students at JAMES TILLMAN ELEMENTARY MAGNET SCHOOL qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, often used as a Title I proxy. That share is higher than Manatee County's rate of about 51%.

Adjusting for the school's free-and-reduced-lunch share, JAMES TILLMAN ELEMENTARY MAGNET SCHOOL performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 44.5%, the actual is 56.0%, a residual of +11.5 points.

Around the school, Manatee County reports that median household income runs about $78,457, 35% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and the poverty rate sits near 6%. Across Manatee County's 86 public schools (combined enrollment of about 54,208 students), JAMES TILLMAN ELEMENTARY MAGNET SCHOOL is one campus in the mix.

The closest other public school is LINCOLN MEMORIAL MIDDLE SCHOOL, roughly 1.0 miles away. Counting just inside five miles, 8 other public schools cluster around JAMES TILLMAN ELEMENTARY MAGNET SCHOOL. Among the 7 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), JAMES TILLMAN ELEMENTARY MAGNET SCHOOL ranks 1st on composite proficiency, above the local average of 42.9%.

JAMES TILLMAN ELEMENTARY MAGNET SCHOOL operates from a residential location.

Looking at the recent track record. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at JAMES TILLMAN ELEMENTARY MAGNET SCHOOL has rose 12%, going from 547 students in 2018 to 614 in 2025. Black enrollment moved from 35% to 28% across the same window. The student-to-teacher ratio grew from 13.7:1 in 2018 to 16.6:1 today.

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