HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. – The Hillsborough County School Board will discuss the county’s low-performing charter schools at a meeting this week.

School officials said that in the recent release of school performance grades, seven charter schools received a grade of D and one received an F.

On Tuesday, the board will discuss these grades and listen to individual school representatives’ plans for improvement.

BridgePrep Academy of Tampa, BridgePrep Academy of Riverview, Excelsior Prep Charter School, Florida Connections Academy, Kid’s Community College Riverview Southeast, Village of Excellence Academy and Walton Academy for the Performance Arts all received D grades.

The Colaboratory Preparatory Academy received a grade of F.

The schools will send a principal and a representative of their board of directors to the workshop on Tuesday.

According to the Florida Department of Education, less than 4% of all students in Florida received a grade of “D” or “F.”

The state also said that of the 602 charter schools with a grade in 2024, 69% received a grade of “A” or “B” in 2024.

Still, Jessica Vaughn, vice chair of the Hillsborough School Board, said the scores of schools on the list have declined over the past four years.

Vaughn said the district spends a total of about $250 million annually on charter schools but has little control over how those schools are run.

“We’ve had a lot of discussions about this – can the school board actually do anything about a D and F school?” Vaughn said. “And in recent years, the legislature has pretty much tied our hands when it comes to charter schools.”

During Tuesday’s meeting, representatives from each school will tell the board how they plan to improve student achievement. And once those plans are approved by the board, schools must put them into action.

Under state law, a charter school’s contract is automatically terminated if it receives an “F” grade twice in a row.