55 Pinellas Schools Named to America's Healthiest Schools List, Four Earn Top All-Star Honor

Fifty-five Pinellas County schools have been named to the 2026 America's Healthiest Schools list, and four of them climbed all the way to the top tier. Dixie Hollins High School, Douglas L. Jamerson, Jr. Elementary School, Mildred Helms Elementary School and San Jose Elementary School earned All-Star status from the Alliance for a Healthier Generation, a national nonprofit that grades schools on nine measures of student and staff well-being.

The district announced the honors Aug. 26. Nationally, the Alliance recognized 1,376 K-12 schools across 35 states and Washington, D.C. this year, and only 200 of them reached All-Star status. Pinellas County's four All-Stars account for 2% of every All-Star school in the country.

For parents, the list is a rare chance to see how their child's school stacks up on something other than test scores. The Alliance judges schools on social-emotional health and learning, staff well-being, family and community engagement, nutrition and food access, wellness policies, physical education, health education, tobacco-free campuses and school health services. A school earns All-Star recognition only if it meets the bar in all nine areas at once.

The Alliance for a Healthier Generation has run the America's Healthiest Schools program since 2007 and says it has now recognized 3,780 schools nationwide for making health a priority, from cafeteria menus to how teachers manage stress in the building. The program is backed by Kaiser Permanente and Kohl's Cares, and the Alliance has set a goal of reaching 5,000 total recognized schools by 2030.

California led the nation with 283 recognized schools this year, followed by Texas, South Carolina and Kentucky. Pinellas County Schools did not release the full roster of all 55 recognized campuses beyond naming the four All-Stars, but the district said the recognition reflects work happening across the county in cafeterias, gyms, counseling offices and front offices, not just in a handful of flagship programs.

Families who want to see how their own school compares, or whether their child's campus is on the broader list of 1,376 nationally recognized schools, can search the Alliance's database directly. The district has not announced whether it plans to release its complete local list of all 55 schools, so for now the four All-Star names are the ones parents can point to with certainty.

For more on this and other school news, visit Pinellas County Community Website or follow us on Facebook. Got thoughts on how your child's school is doing on health and wellness? Join the conversation in our Community Forum, and check out more education stories from around the county.

Header photo: MatthewHoobin / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)