CENTRAL FLORIDA,None — Florida high schools received their letter grades on Wednesday.
All schools in Osceola and Seminole counties earned As or Bs, according to a report.
Also, for the first time, Orange County did not receive D or F grades.
Edgewater High School received its first-ever A grade.
However, for one Orange County school, a C grade was something to celebrate. Evans High School received a C grade for the first time after years of receiving Ds and Fs.
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- Web Links: For school grades information
- Slideshow: Inside the new Evans High School
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Evans principal David Christiansen said the area superintendent called him first thing Wednesday morning.
"I said, 'You sure?' He said, 'We're sure,'" said Christiansen.
Christiansen said it's a huge weight lifted off his shoulders just two days after moving into a brand-new building in Pine Hills.
He said the new campus and now an improved state grade are among the first steps to changing the stigma the school had.
"What I felt like was a big weight lifted off, because Evans, for years and years, had this D-F kind of negative stereotype and now we've shed that. Our 'C' is not our end outcome obviously, but it represents progress," Christiansen said.
Christiansen also said he pulled all of the students out of class, gathered them in the courtyard, and when he made the announcement, their cheers could be heard throughout the neighborhood. Some of the seniors were even crying, knowing they played a large role in boosting the school's grade from a D to a C for the first time ever, Christiansen said.
The pressure was put on him five years ago when he was hired as principal. Christensen said he has removed 75 teachers since then, because they did the bare minimum to keep their job.
Christiansen also said the majority was transferred, but a few were eventually fired.
"They had the wrong expectations. They had low expectations," he said.
As new teachers were hired, Christiansen said he found money in his tight and shrinking budget for three new curriculums that 700 students now take advantage of.
The IB program, a rigorous liberal arts track for high achievers, helped attract 160 students from Apopka, Winter Garden and Ocoee.
WFTV learned that students enrolled in industry programs can get certification in a craft, even before they graduate.
"They push us until we're tired, and then they push us some more," said Evans High School student Joanne Nazaire.
Nazaire is senior class president, and said she is glad she followed her heart to stay at Evans, despite a push from her mother to transfer because of the stigma.
Now, she can go on to college and say she was a part of the change at Evans.
"I cried. It's like a dream come true," said Nazaire.
Christiansen said he's not satisfied with a C grade, but the school has made so much progress that he would send his children there, which is something he wouldn't have done five years ago.
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