Burglars smashed a door at Minds of the Future Academy and stole about $200,000 worth of technology. | News4Jax
Published on December 23, 2025 at 10:58 am
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Minds of the Future Academy was about ready to open its “dream space” in Jacksonville, then burglars struck the property last week, making off with $200,000 in teaching and learning technology
According to the school’s founder and principal, Cynthia Smith, the private school in Jacksonville has been using a temporary space for several years. It closed on its 25,000-square-foot dream location off Beach Boulevard in August.
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“I was crushed, because this is something that not only I was looking forward to my students, staff, the community, we were all looking forward to just moving in here,” Smith said.
The building in the Spring Park area had to be renovated, but the school hoped to get the much-needed renovations done before the spring semester so they could move the students to their permanent location.
The contractor had installed the sprinkler system and was in the process of redoing the electrical work when the workers showed up on Friday and found the property had been ransacked.
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The workers found a glass door that had been shattered by a brick, which is how they believe the thieves got in. The front gate was not open, but the back gate, which the workers always close, was left open, the principal said.
“We started looking around a little bit further, and we started noticing a lot more of our tools are gone,” Jessie Ramirez said.
Because the electrical work was still in progress, cameras had not yet been installed.
Thieves had made off with the contractor’s equipment, along with an estimated $200,000 of teaching and learning technology from the school, including TVs, laptops and smart boards.
The principal said the school plans to work toward a spring opening, despite the loss.
“This is a minor setback. It’s not going to stop us from opening. We don’t have an open date, but we’re going to open,” Smith said.
She’s asking the community to help them rally as they host a “school warming” with an Amazon wish list registry to help direct donations to replace the lost equipment.
This story was produced by News4Jax, a Jacksonville Today news partner.
