1
Montessori By The Sea
St. Pete Beach·Pinellas County·Grades PK-06·~101 students
Accepts scholarshipsCo-edAffordable
Tuition$11.8K/yr
TypePrivate
Students~101
ST. PETERSBURG
Best Independent (non-religious) Middle Schools in St. Petersburg under $20K
Independent rankings of Independent (non-religious) Middle schools in St. Petersburg, built from director interviews and verified data — never from school payments.
3 schools indexed0 director-verifiedUpdated this week
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AdmitCompass tracks 3 independent (non-religious) middle-level schools in St. Petersburg. Annual tuition ranges from $9K/yr to $20.0K/yr, with a median of $11.8K/yr across schools that publish a number. 3 of these schools accept Florida Step Up / FES scholarships — roughly 100% of the list — so families using state-funded scholarships have real choice here.
Middle-school admission is the most competitive transition point at many independent schools. Expect a standardized test (ISEE, SSAT, or in-house), a writing sample, and teacher recommendations from 4th or 5th grade. Every school is re-verified through direct outreach to admissions teams; data is refreshed on a 180-day cadence and timestamped on each profile.
See also: Scholarship-friendly, Tuition-Free.
Showing 3 of 3 St. Petersburg schools
- 2Alegria Montessori School Inc.
St. Petersburg·Pinellas County·Grades 01-08·~35 students
Accepts scholarshipsCo-edAffordableTuition$9K/yrTypePrivateStudents~35 - 3The French American School Of Tampa Bay
St Petersburg·Pinellas County·Grades PK-06·~82 students
Accepts scholarshipsCo-edAffordableTuition$20.0K/yrTypePrivateStudents~82
How we rank these schools
Built relationships, not scrapers. AdmitCompass ranks schools using a composite score that blends four signals: enrollment size (a proxy for stability and program breadth), tuition reasonableness within the local market, freshness of our most recent verification, and a small bonus for schools with full admissions detail published on their profile.
Public data comes from the Florida Department of Education (FLDOE), the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), and each school's own admissions pages. The information that actually matters to most families — acceptance rates, deadlines, what a director cares about — comes from direct interviews with school directors and admissions coaches across our active markets.
We do not publish scoring weights or per-axis thresholds. That keeps the moat intact: the rankings reflect actual conversations with people inside schools, not a formula anyone with a crawler could clone. Every profile is re-verified on a 180-day cadence, and the "last updated" date is timestamped on every school page.
Frequently asked questions
What's the average tuition for middle schools in St. Petersburg?
Across the 3 schools on this list, annual tuition ranges from $9K/yr to $20.0K/yr, with a median of $11.8K/yr. Many schools offer financial aid, sibling discounts, or accept Florida Step Up / FES scholarships — check each school's detail page for current aid policy.
How competitive is admission in St. Petersburg?
Admissions selectivity ranges from open-enrollment (most charters and parish schools) to highly selective (top independent K-12 programs). Each school's profile page lists deadlines, test requirements, and any published acceptance rate.
Do these schools accept Step Up / FES scholarships?
3 of the 3 schools on this page accept Florida's Step Up For Students / FES-EO / FES-UA scholarships. That covers most or all of tuition for income-eligible families. Each school's detail page lists the specific scholarship programs accepted.
Is this list updated?
Yes. We re-verify school data on a 180-day cadence through direct contact with admissions teams, plus cross-checks against FLDOE, NCES, and published school sources. Each school profile shows the date of its most recent verification.
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