The Duval County Public Schools administration building, with a bronze statue of children reading in front of it. | Claire Heddles, Jacksonville Today
Published on April 23, 2024 at 10:11 am
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The Duval County School Board announced six semifinalists for its superintendent vacancy on Tuesday morning — five men and one woman from Florida and beyond.
The candidates are:
- Christopher Bernier, former Lee County superintendent of schools.
- Joe Phillips, chief information officer in Broward County.
- Cheryl Proctor, deputy superintendent of instruction and communities for Portland Public Schools in Oregon.
- Daniel Smith, chief of staff of Loudon County Public Schools in Ashburn, Virginia.
- Luis Solano, deputy superintendent of labor and chief operating officer for Detroit Public Schools.
- Adam Taylor, former superintendent of Rutland City Public Schools in Vermont.
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Smith and Solano were the only candidates whom all seven School Board members recommended.
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Taylor and Proctor both applied to serve as Duval’s superintendent last fall in a search that was suspended for a lack of qualified candidates.
Board chairman Darryl Willie said the applicants this time around are strong. Last fall, the Florida School Boards Association advised the Duval County School Board that making a mid-year hire might hinder the number of applications — and that’s what happened.
“What we saw in those six candidates, regardless of size, is folks who No. 1 care about student achievement, have been able to maneuver, get inside a school district and really make change,” Willie said. “We’re excited about the candidates.”
This search will have a new superintendent in place ahead of the start of the 2024-25 academic year.
More about the candidates
BERNIER: Bernier resigned as Lee County superintendent on April 8. He was appointed to the position in May 2022, but in November 2022 voters in Southwest Florida moved to make the position an elected position beginning this year and he expressed a desire to work as an appointed superintendent.
Bernier helped Lee County Schools recover from Hurricane Ian and the devastation it caused schools in his district. He was endorsed by current Lee County School Board member Chris Patricca as well as former Orange County Superintendent Barbara Jenkins.
PHILLIPS: Phillips is a retired Army officer who has devoted most of his post-military career to working in information technology in districts throughout Missouri and Florida since 2015. He was the chief information officer for Kanas City Public Schools between 2018 and 2021, a period when the district sought to earn reaccreditation from the Missouri State School Board of Education.
PROCTOR: Proctor helped Portland Public Schools achieve its highest graduation rate since 2010 and spent 17 years of her career as an educator and principal in Broward County Public Schools. She applied to be the Brevard County superintendent in 2023 and was not named a semifinalist.
SMITH: Smith has spent the last 21 years of his career as an educator and administrator in Virginia. He has never worked in Florida.
SOLANO: Solano was endorsed by former Duval County Superintendent Nikolai Vitti. Solano has served as the associate superintendent for Collier County Schools in Naples and as a teacher and administrator with Miami-Dade Public Schools between 1997 and 2012.
TAYLOR: Taylor is currently a consultant for a California-based firm that appears to be connected to a labor organizer who has sought to unionize Amazon in Alabama and elsewhere.
Board member Cindy Pearson considered Taylor a bubble candidate because of his work in central Vermont as well as his lack of a doctorate degree. Taylor served as a regional superintendent at West Contra Costa Unified School District in Richmond, California, between 2012 and 2018.
“He has all the right positions. It was the size of the most recent district that concerned me,” board member Kelly Coker said of Taylor’s candidacy.
Next Steps
Lori Hershey is one of two board members who were in place when former Superintendent Diana Greene was hired in 2018.
“This is laid out differently from the last superintendent search that we did,” Hershey said during the meeting. “There are more opportunities for the community to come together to meet (the candidates).”
The semifinalists will answer questions from board members in writing and via video and submit those by May 2. On May 7, the board will hav ea special meeting at 2 p.m. to select the three finalists.
On May 13 and May 14, the finalists will answer questions from board members, focus groups and the community.
“We want the community to come out and really meet these individuals, both from a formal setting and informal setting,” Willie said. “At the end of the day, this person is going to be out and about in our community being the face of education.”
