SOUTHWEST MIDDLE SCHOOL

SOUTHWEST MIDDLE SCHOOL is one of the average-sized middle schools in PALM BAY, Florida, run under BREVARD, with 997 students on its rolls from grades 7 through 8. That puts it 26% bigger than the typical public school in Florida, which averages around 794 students.

Within BREVARD, which oversees 109 schools and 73,587 students, SOUTHWEST MIDDLE SCHOOL is one campus in the system.

Demographically, SOUTHWEST MIDDLE SCHOOL lists that the most-represented group is White (42%), with the rest of the student body spread across multiple groups. Beyond that, the school reports 28% Black, 20% Hispanic, 9% multiracial. That is noticeably less White than the county at large, where the share is closer to 73%.

On the income-and-resources front, Staff filings list 52 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 19.2:1 students per teacher. That tracks the state average closely. An estimated 54% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal. That share is above Brevard County's rate of about 42%.

On a residual basis (actual vs predicted given the student mix), SOUTHWEST MIDDLE SCHOOL sits in the middle band of the BeatsExpectations distribution. Schools with this campus's student mix typically land near 54.2%; this one delivers 44.0%.

Across the wider county, ACS estimates for Brevard County put the typical household earns roughly $78,476 per year, roughly 34% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and census figures put the poverty rate at about 7%. In all, Brevard County runs 113 public schools (combined enrollment of about 73,587 students), of which SOUTHWEST MIDDLE SCHOOL is one.

JOHN F. TURNER SENIOR ELEMENTARY SCHOOL is the nearest neighboring public school, about 0.1 miles from this campus. Within five miles, there are 8 other public schools. On composite proficiency, SOUTHWEST MIDDLE SCHOOL comes 8th of 9 in the immediate cluster, beneath the nearby-schools average of 54.9%.

The campus sits in a downtown setting.

Five-year trend. Over the past 7-year window, the student count edged up 18%: 842 students in 2018 compared to 997 in 2025. The Black share of enrollment increased from 21% to 28% over that span. Class-load math has widened: from 15.9:1 in 2018 to 19.2:1 in 2025.

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