Duval Schools headquarters | Megan Mallicoat, Jacksonville Today
Published on November 18, 2025 at 10:04 pm
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The Duval school district has received letters from three charter school companies outlining plans to open “Schools of Hope” within dozens of district buildings, but the district believes two of the companies’ notices are not valid.
“We are reviewing recent co-location requests from Mater Academy for 25 schools, Somerset Academy for 25 schools and BridgePrep Academy for 33 schools,” district spokesperson Arwen FitzGerald wrote in an email to Jacksonville Today.
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Somerset Academy, which is owned by the same for-profit parent company as Mater Academy, and BridgePrep “are not eligible for consideration under Florida law” because they aren’t state-designated Schools of Hope operators, according to FitzGerald.
“We are currently evaluating the requests from Mater Academy and will keep our families and staff informed throughout the process,” she said.
When it comes to any notices that are deemed valid, FitzGerald said Duval Schools will “fully comply with state law.”
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The notices are in response to a recent expansion of the state’s Schools of Hope program, which incentivizes seven approved charter operators to open schools in neighborhoods served by underperforming traditional public schools. The new rules require school districts to allow “Hope Operators” to use public school buildings rent-free — while districts cover their operational costs and the charter companies receive state funding for the students they enroll. It’s a change that district leaders say they are lobbying in Tallahassee to change.
Mater Academy first sent its notices to Duval Schools last month, but Superintendent Christopher Bernier said the notices arrived prematurely and were therefore invalid. According to two district staffers, Mater sent the new round of letters on Nov. 11.
Most of the schools Mater is targeting in Duval are within School Districts 4 and 5.
“If you look at the core of what this policy does, it does not help to elevate our public schools,” District 4 School Board rep Darryl Willie tells Jacksonville Today. “It puts us in a very tough spot to have to be financially responsible for a whole other set of schools and students that we are not receiving dollars for.”
Last week, the School Advisory Committee at Jacksonville’s Mayport Coastal Sciences Middle School drafted a resolution in opposition of Schools of Hope. Every public school in Florida has a SAC — they’re mandatory — and these groups of parents, teachers and community members add “an important layer of accountability,” Duval Schools says.
John Meeks, a Mayport Middle history teacher and secretary-treasurer of the SAC, calls the Schools of Hope program a “bad-faith argument.”
Mayport Middle isn’t on any of the lists for Schools of Hope, but Meeks says the group drafted the resolution to “avoid our silence being an indication of approval of what we believe to be policies that harm our students and our community.”
Meanwhile, Schools of Hope have been championed by Republicans in the Florida Legislature and by Gov. Ron DeSantis, who said in September, “the School of Hope program was designed to provide students in persistently low-performing schools with a pathway to a world-class education. Hope Operators are nonprofit charter networks with a record of success serving low-income families and ensuring access to a high-quality education without barriers. The goal of the program is to close achievement gaps between low-income students and their peers.”
Schools of Hope beyond Duval
In October, Miami-based Mater Academy also sent one letter to St. Johns County Schools — presumably notice of its intent to open a school on the campus of First Coast Technical College, though the school’s name is incorrectly listed as “institute” instead of “college.” Documents provided to Jacksonville Today by a spokesperson for St. Johns County Schools show Mater sent a new notice on Nov. 11, though it still listed the school’s name incorrectly and this time also included the address for Suncoast Technical College in Sarasota.
Spokespeople for the Clay, Nassau and Putnam school districts all tell Jacksonville Today they have not received any similar notices. Baker County Schools didn’t respond to a similar inquiry by this story’s deadline.
