West Tampa Elementary is a Title 1 Renaissance School, located in the heart of historic West Tampa. We are a small community-oriented neighborhood school.  Our motto is “Work Hard. Be Nice”.  We offer students rigorous academic instruction combined with rich experiences and opportunities to explore each other’s diverse cultures and backgrounds. We have a veteran staff of teachers who believe all students can succeed by holding learners to high expectations.  We take pride in maintaining academic success while creating partnerships in the community to support our learners.  Our academic offerings include all three early childhood programs (Head Start, VPK, and Peeps); multi layers of support for English Language Learners (ELL); and Exceptional Student Education that focuses on each individual student’s needs and strengths.  We focus on helping our students succeed through building emotional intelligence through Social Emotional Learning and our partnership with Frameworks of Tampa Bay. Students experience academic growth at West Tampa due to our data driven instructional decision making and commitment to serving our community.

History of Our School

In 1987, West Tampa Elementary School opened in its new pod-type building in the multicultural neighborhood northwest of downtown Tampa. The new edition of the school was opened by Carl Barone. However, the roots of this school date back to the 1920's. Today's West Tampa Elementary has a direct lineage to earlier city schools: A.L. Cuesta Elementary, Macfarlane Park Elementary, and West Tampa Middle School. The first building erected on this site dates back to 1927 when it was a junior high. However there is an earlier reference to West Tampa School in the 1873 Board minutes making it one of the oldest schools in the district. Just as these schools served a diverse population during their years of operation, West Tampa Elementary serves a diverse population today.

(Source: The HIstory of Hillsborough County Schools: 1848-2000. Compiled by the Department of Research and Development, June 2000.)