None of Hernando County ’s high schools had ever earned an A grade from the state before this year.

Now the district has three.

Springstead High School in Spring Hill and Nature Coast Technical High School in Brooksville both earned the state’s highest mark for the first time, the Florida Department of Education reported Friday. Weeki Wachee High School, which opened in 2010 and has not had a graduating class, also earned an A earlier this year, though its grade was calculated using fewer components than the other high schools.

“I’m excited because of all the hard work that has to go into getting As and Bs,” said superintendent Bryan Blavatt. “The staff, the teachers, everybody, has to be focused on student performance for the scores to be like that.”

Hernando's A grades come amidst an overall increase in the number of A schools throughout the state and despite a new state grading formula that many superintendents said would drive marks lower. The total number of FLorida high schools and combination high schools earning an A increased from 148 to 231, a jump of 56 percent.

Springstead has been a B school for the past three years, while Nature Coast has earned a B for the past two years. It was a C school the year before that.

But there’s more good news for the district.

Hernando High School and Central High School both earned Bs for the second year in a row. Both schools were D schools for the 2008-2009 school year.

“I’m very, very excited about Springstead and Nature Coast getting an A, but I’m just as excited that there’s been a tremendous turnaround at Central and Hernando,” Blavatt said. “It’s one thing to pull your grades up, which they have, but to sustain that, it takes a lot of work.”