Pinellas County, Florida

Pinellas County Education, Geography, and History

Pinellas County is a county located in the state of Florida. Based on the 2010 census, the population was 916,542. Pinellas County was created on May 23, 1911 from Hillsborough County. The county seat is Clearwater, and its largest city is St. Petersburg. This county is named for the Spanish Punta Pi?l, or "Point of Pines".

Pinellas County is included in the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL Metropolitan Statistical Area.

Etymology - Origin of Pinellas County Name

This county is named for the Spanish Punta Pi?l, or "Point of Pines".

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: CensusBureau Quick Facts

Pinellas County History

Pinellas County seceded from Hillsborough County in 1911. This county is named for the Spanish Punta Pi?l, or "Point of Pines". The Pinellas Peninsula, dividing Tampa Bay from the Gulf of Mexico, and a small part of the mainland were incorporated into the county.

Geography: Land and Water

As reported by the Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 608 square miles (1,574 km²), of which, 280 square miles (725 km²) of it is land and 328 square miles (849 km²) of it (53.94%) is water.

The county is the second-smallest county in Florida by land area, larger than only Union County. Pinellas forms a peninsula bounded on the west by the Gulf of Mexico and on the south and east by Tampa Bay.

Neighboring Counties

Bordering counties are as follows:

• North: Pasco County
• East: Hillsborough County
• Southeast: Tampa Bay
• West: Gulf of Mexico

Education

Primary and secondary education

The county is served by the Pinellas County School District. The current superintendent is Dr. Michael Grego. The district, the nation's 24th largest, comprises 143 schools, including 72 elementary schools, 17 middle schools, 2 K-8 schools, 17 high schools, and 35 additional facitilities including ESE, adult ed, career/technical, and charters. A new middle school is in the works at East Lake High School. The district also operates the K-12 Pinellas Virtual School. Among the many notable magnet programs in the district are three International Baccalaureate (IB) programs, at St. Petersburg High School, Palm Harbor University High School, and Largo High School, the Center for Advanced Technologies (CAT) at Lakewood High School, the Pinellas County Center for the Arts (PCCA) at Gibbs High School, three middle school Centers for Gifted Studies, at Thurgood Marshall Fundamental, Morgan Fitzgerald, and Dunedin Highland Middle Schools, and Florida's only Fundamental High School, at Osceola High School. Two of the district's high schools are also ranked in Newsweek's 2012 list of America's Best High Schools.

Pinellas County Schools also offers many courses for academically advanced and gifted individuals.

The county is also home to many private schools, including Admiral Farragut Academy, Canterbury School, Calvary Christian, Clearwater Central Catholic, Keswick Christian School, Shorecrest Preparatory School, and St. Petersburg Catholic High School, among others.

Colleges and universities

Pinellas County is home several institutions of higher learning, including Eckerd College, the University of South Florida St. Petersburg, the multi-campus St. Petersburg College, the Stetson University College of Law in Gulfport, and the main campus of Schiller International University in Largo,[48] after previously being located in Dunedin.

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