Longtime Atlantic Beach resident Carolyn Zisser brought Diane Ravitch's book "Slaying Goliath" with her to address the Duval County School Board on Tuesday, April 16, 2024. Zisser was among nearly a dozen people who implored the board to keep Atlantic Beach Elementary open. | Will Brown, Jacksonville Today
Published on April 16, 2024 at 6:19 pm
On a day when Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill governing charter school takeovers, parents and community members implored the Duval County School Board on Tuesday not to close their traditional public schools.
Andrew Murdoch says the brightest part of his day is walking with his daughter as she rides her bicycle to West Riverside Elementary. His daughter’s school is one of 37 that a consultant in March suggested Duval County Public Schools close.
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The district expects to hold as many as seven community meetings over the next three months about changes to its Master Facilities Plan, its blueprint for renovating or rebuilding schools. Dates have not been finalized, and the board will not make any binding decisions until at least September.
“We owe it to our children to give them the opportunities and choices to be able to grow,” Murdoch said. “My daughter gets to spend time with people she would never come across. That’s a great thing.
“There is learning at school in terms of grades and education. Absolutely, we should focus on that. It’s not just getting the grades; it’s growing individuals.”
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Murdoch was one of nearly a dozen parents who spoke to the board Tuesday morning as it considered its agenda for the May 7 meeting.
Tuesday’s speakers championed West Riverside Elementary, Fishweir Elementary in Avondale, Holiday Hill Elementary on the Southside and Atlantic Beach Elementary.
Board member Charlotte Joyce said the list of schools referenced by the consultant are fluid.
“There could be schools that are not listed on this that could still, potentially, be consolidated,” Joyce said. “I want to make sure the community is clear. It’s very fluid, which is why we are going through this exercise.”
Dates for those meetings were not announced Tuesday.
In March, the consultant proposed closures to ensure more campuses have at least 85% capacity amid an educational environment where parents have more options than they did when many Duval school buildings were constructed.
Districtwide, traditional public schools in Duval County have witnessed a decline in enrollment since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. The percentage of white students also has declined during that time, while Black and Hispanic enrollment has increased to 59% for the 2023-24 academic year.
Nevertheless, an overwhelming majority of Tuesday’s speakers were white.
One of the few speakers whose appearance reflected the majority of Duval County Public School students is Robert Stafford, a consistent critic of how the district spends the dollars it has collected through the half-cent sales tax referendum.
Stafford was perplexed how the district’s Master Facilities Plan appeared to shift from a focus on replacing schools based on their age, to replacing or consolidating schools due to student enrollment.
“To pivot from facilities condition to facility utilization, when did that happen?” Stafford asked the board. “What’s the cutoff point? Choose a direction and stick with it. Don’t tell me about a Master Facilities Plan when you’re going to push all that aside for the utilization rates.”
The school district is in Phase I of the Master Facilities Plan. In January, staff paused projects at 12 schools until it receives clarity about proposed changes to the plan.
Operations staff told the board the district proposed starting Phase II of the Master Facilities Plan in 2026. However, this spring’s discussion has delayed the completion of Phase I projects and the start of Phase II.
Board member Lori Hershey said it behooves the district to explain that even high-performing schools may need to consolidate. She said right-sizing the district is painful.
Because 23.1% of middle school students attend a charter school and 17.4% attend a magnet school, it has created what the district considers middle school deserts. To address that issue, the Master Facilities Plan proposed closing elementary schools like Atlantic Beach and Seabreeze and consolidate them with Neptune Beach and San Pablo elementary respectively.
The proposal the district reviewed in March and discussed Tuesday encouraged the conversion of current campuses into K-8 schools in Mayport, Arlington, Fort Caroline, Wesconnett, on the Westside as well as the Dinsmore and Biltmore and neighborhoods in Northwest Jacksonville.
Hershey said there is a wildfire in the community over the Master Facilities Plan.
She said there is a misconception that a decision has been made. Interim superintendent Dana Kriznar and board chairman Darryl Willie stressed again Tuesday that no decision has been made.
“This is not set in stone,” Willie said later in the meeting. “I wanted this to be the starting point so folks know where we are.”
Emi Kimbrough was one of the few who spoke up for all traditional public schools in Duval County. Kimbrough is a substitute teacher who attended John Stockton Elementary as a youth.
Kimbrough focused on the parents who could not attend Tuesday’s five-hour-long meeting that began at 9 a.m.
“These schools are just as vital as Stockton, Fishweir and Atlantic Beach Elementary,” Kimbrough said. “Schools like Annie Morgan, which has historically been low-performing, are not low-performing because of an inherent flaw in the school. They are low-performing because of a lack of resources.”
Toward the end of the meeting, after most of the people who spoke during the public comment period had left, board member Warren Jones asked aloud: How do you right-size the district when you don’t know what Tallahassee will do next year?
The bill DeSantis signed Tuesday specified a school district’s responsibilities as it implements a turnaround plan for a traditional public school that is being converted to a charter school.
Hershey also asked for clarification on the impact of the bill (HB1285), which DeSantis signed at Jacksonville Classical Academy in North Riverside.
Unbeknownst to Hershey, DeSantis was asked his vision for traditional public schools.
“In Florida, the money follows the student and the family,” DeSantis told reporters. “It’s not embedded in a certain system or certain framework. And, so, the student and the family will be making those decisions. Even with robust choice, you are still going to have huge enrollment through the school districts.”
The governor added that school districts have responded by offering programs parents want and are being forced to compete with other school options.
Moments after DeSantis wrapped up his remarks, Kimbrough acknowledged to the School Board that Atlantic Beach is perennially an A-rated school. Kimbrough said it will take resources and public commitment to ensure more traditional public schools have similar educational outcomes.
“Schools like Atlantic Beach Elementary should be used as a model for what we want for every one of our neighborhoods,” Kimbrough said. “They should not be closed. But neither should the schools that are working to get there.”
After the public comment period, individual board members met with parents who spoke on behalf of schools in their district. Joyce met with a Fishweir parent. Cindy Pearson briefly spoke with the Holiday Hill parent, and Jones met with Murdoch.
Later in the afternoon, board member Kelly Coker, during a separate workshop, said the board needs a policy for how to move forward with school closures.
Coker wants to provide the public as much information as possible because, she believes, there would be additional acceptance of the district’s plans if that were the case.
“I applaud what they are doing,” Coker said. “I love what they are doing. They are grateful. That first speaker, what she said was what about the parents who can’t and don’t. I’m deeply concerned about what’s happening in Arlington. There are community leaders in Arlington who are involved, but you won’t see 100 people show up.”
“How do we make sure we put in place those schools that don’t have that advocacy group that they get watched over with the same effort, the same eyes, the same intent. We serve all children, not just certain school communities.”
