The Duval County School Board approved a five-year plan Tuesday that suggests closing 18 schools and building six new ones during that time. The vote was 6 to 1.

For about 18 months, the district has grappled with how to keep the promises made in its 2019 master facility plan. That plan would have closed a similar number of schools — and, in fact, has already closed a handful —  but also would have built 28 new schools.

In total, the so-called Bold Plan called for investing nearly $2 billion in Duval Schools’ infrastructure, and a significant percentage of that would have affected schools on Jacksonville’s Westside. Construction prices after the pandemic made its goals untenable. 

The School Board, and the larger Duval Schools community, expected district officials to present a revised long-term master facility plan Tuesday for a board vote. Instead, Superintendent Christopher Bernier presented a short set of spreadsheets termed a capital plan.

Bernier said the capital plan provided more specific detail about how the district would fund its facility projects.

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“So what the board is voting on tonight is direction for me to begin our building plan for year one,” Bernier said during the meeting. “They are not voting tonight on school closure and consolidations. While those ideas are in the plan, those ideas require further engagement and future board action.”

The plan makes suggestions for school closures, new buildings, renovations and planned maintenance for a period of 15 years, but Bernier told the board it was voting on the five-year plan only. He also said his office would review the plan annually, potentially leading to further changes. 

“We need to be that forward-thinking about our process and ensure that we are coming back every year to revise the plan,” Bernier said during the meeting. “And if we have money available or a school building deteriorates in condition, my responsibility is to make a recommendation to this board to revise the plan and to say why.”

So which schools would close?

Actual school closures require a separate three-step process: a meeting with the affected schools, a public hearing and a board vote. Changes to the geographic boundaries that determine which schools children attend also require a separate process.

The district’s list for which schools will be closed under the new plan has changed many times. The version the board voted on includes eight schools for closure at the end of the current school year, though two of the closures, R.V. Daniels Elementary and Windy Hill Elementary, were already in progress.

The remaining schools the district is recommending for closure will each have meetings about the process in October. The board is expected to vote on the first round of closures on Nov. 4.

Last year, while dealing with construction delays at the new Southside Estates Elementary, district administrators realized it could no longer afford the Bold Plan and went back to the drawing board. A consultant evaluated the district’s schools and created a list of about 30 that it suggested be closed.

The consultant’s list was a flashpoint, and stakeholders for schools across Jacksonville banded together and advocated for their schools for months. District officials spent the summer hosting focus groups and reworking the list.

Numerous iterations of the near-final new closure list have circulated in recent weeks, leading to speculation about which schools might close and, if they do close, when. 

District administrators quietly posted a new version Tuesday, just hours before the board’s vote. The final document still had a glaring typo in the title. 

“I also, for the first time in my tenure on the board, cannot vote for an agenda item because I have concerns about some of the materials, and the accuracy of the materials that have been given to us,” board member Kelly Coker said during the meeting. She was the only board member to vote no.

Bernier told the board that the version it ultimately voted to support Tuesday was final with regard to closures at the end of the current school year. In theory, it could later make changes to closures scheduled beyond this year.

Broken promises

Some schools previously promised a new building are now scheduled to close. Englewood Elementary is one of several schools affected that way. The capital plan calls for the district to write off $2 million already invested in Englewood’s new building as unrecoverable “sunk costs.”

Several board members expressed concern during the meeting that the recent changes made to the list favor schools represented by the very vocal groups of parent advocates. 

“I feel like it takes us one step closer to disproportionately affecting communities that should not be impacted in the way that they’re going to be impacted,” Coker said. “I believe that we are taking steps towards giving the communities that had the loudest voices what they wanted.”

Annie R. Morgan Elementary on the Westside is one of the first schools proposed to close. Warren Jones, who represents that area of the city, said during the meeting that his district will lose a lot of its small, neighborhood schools under the new plan — including Annie R. Morgan, where most students walk to school. 

“I am concerned about the perception that those loud voices are being given a pass,” Jones said. “I think that’s the perception, and we have to address it in some way.”

The plan also is receiving pushback from a Raines High School alumni group, which is concerned that a promised new building for Raines continues to get delayed. The group held a news conference ahead of Tuesday’s meeting, and numerous members spoke during the meeting’s public comment portion. 

School Board candidate Hank Rogers attended. He is running for the District 5 seat of Jones, who is term-limited.

Rogers has the endorsements of Equality Florida and the Jacksonville chapter of the National Organization for Women. His opponent, Reggie Blount, is endorsed by Duval’s Republican Party and Moms for Liberty.