River City Science Academy's Mandarin campus has earned the Florida Department of Education's (FLDOE) School of Excellence designation for the 2025-2026 school year.

RCSA Mandarin is one of five RCSA campuses to receive the honor, according to a school network announcement published Oct. 29. All six RCSA campuses also earned an "A" school grade.

The five campuses designated as Schools of Excellence are RCSA Middle-High, RCSA Elementary, RCSA Mandarin, RCSA Intracoastal and RCSA Southeast. The network said two additional campuses received the designation this cycle, bringing its total to five.

What the designation means

The School of Excellence program, created by the Florida Legislature in 2017, recognizes schools with sustained high performance. To qualify, a school's grade-calculation score must rank at or above the 80th percentile among schools with the same grade groupings. That ranking must hold in at least two of the previous three school years, according to an FLDOE memorandum dated Oct. 23.

The State Board of Education designated the 2025-2026 Schools of Excellence on Oct. 14, the memo from Paul O. Burns, Ed.D., states. Statewide, 768 schools across 51 local educational agencies earned the designation. Of those, 612 maintained their status, 86 renewed it and 70 were newly designated. Duval County is among the agencies listed.

Practical benefits for schools

The designation carries real perks. Schools of Excellence are exempt from rules requiring minimum daily or weekly reading instruction time. They also gain flexibility on school-day start and end times. Class-size compliance is calculated based on the average number of students at the school level.

Principals at designated schools receive autonomy provisions under state law. Teachers can substitute one school year of employment at a School of Excellence for 20 in-service points toward certificate renewal, up to 60 points in a five-year cycle.

Schools that qualify keep the designation for up to three years before they must renew.

As we reported Oct. 27, U.S. News ranked RCSA Mandarin No. 46 among Florida middle schools. The School of Excellence designation is a separate state recognition based on multi-year performance data.

The full list of designated schools is posted on the FLDOE's accountability reporting page.