Feedback meetings on Duval school closing ideas start with pushback from Beaches neighbors

Steve Patterson, Jacksonville Florida Times-Union
Updated ·4 min read

A sea of pink flowed into Fletcher High School for the first of seven public meetings that Duval County School Board members scheduled to get feedback on potential closings or changes at dozens of schools.

The response from most on the Beaches-centered crowd boiled down to two words: Not here.

“We’re not broke, we don’t need fixing. … Go fix the stuff that’s broke,” longtime Fletcher teacher and sports coach Kevin Brown said near the end of the four-hour gathering Tuesday night where 138 people signed up to express their views.

Fletcher is not being considered for closing, but six elementary schools and a middle school in feeder patterns that prepare children who eventually reach that school could potentially close or incorporate additional schools into their campuses.

Rough draft: To plan feeder patterns for Jacksonville schools, administrators figured in these closings

The school on most people’s minds was Atlantic Beach Elementary, the A-graded 1939-vintage building dubbed the “little pink school” whose preservation has become the center of learning of neighborhood organizing efforts to challenge closing suggestions.

A large part of the 200-plus people at the meeting wore pink T-shirts to reflect their support for the school and a string of students challenging the closing suggestions invoked the motto they learned in class: “Change begins with me at ABE.”

School Board Chairman Darryl Willie emphasized that the district isn’t committed yet to closing any schools and said final decisions won't be made until the fall.

Amy Vanmersbergen, left, talks with Colleen November at a meeting Tuesday evening at Fletcher High School in Neptune Beach where residents wore pink tee-shirts to show their support for keeping Atlantc Beach Elementary School off a list of potential school closures. The meeting, which drew hundreds of people, was the first of seven scheduled sessions on possible closures.

Viewpoint: Nate Monroe: Mad about Duval's school closure plan? Blame school-choice zealots

“We are at the very beginning of this process,” Willie told the crowd.

Problems to face

But Superintendent Dana Kriznar, who said early suggestions were developed by consultants using school district metrics that must be matched with site-specific knowledge from neighborhoods, told the audience the reasons the district has even considered closings are real and have to be addressed.

“Over the last few years, we’ve used a variety of methods to balance our budget, including using COVID funding that we got from the federal government. We’ve increased class sizes. We have cut some transportation. We have used some of our reserve funds,” Kriznar said. “But frankly, those things, they’re not going to be options much longer. This is not a can that we can kick down the road much further.”

Residents of Atlantic Beach are rallying to save Atlantic Beach Elementary School, one of several Duval County schools eyed for closure due to rising building costs.
Residents of Atlantic Beach are rallying to save Atlantic Beach Elementary School, one of several Duval County schools eyed for closure due to rising building costs.

A surprise $1.4 billion shortfall in budgeted maintenance and construction financed by a half-penny sales tax that voters approved in 2020 last fall spotlighted financial challenges the school district faces.

But Kriznar said the district’s “master facility plan” was also meant to “right-size” the school district, where enrollment has dropped as thousands of students have moved to charter schools or other alternatives that have cut funding the school district receives based on student numbers.

Tracy Richter, a facilities consultant who worked on school change suggestions that were displayed in Fletcher’s auditorium, said larger school sizes, which were repeatedly criticized Tuesday, used state standards meant to gain efficiency and avoid excessive spending on office staff and other outside-of-class costs.

More meetings ahead

Another six meetings are scheduled June 10 through June 20, each beginning with a 5:30 p.m.. reception and formal public comments starting at 6 p.m. The meetings are scheduled at:

  • June 10, school district headquarters at 1701 Prudential Drive;

  • June 11, Stanton College Preparatory, 1149 W. 13th St.;

  • June 13, Edward H. White High School, 1700 Old Middleburg Road North;

  • June 17, Atlantic Coast High School, 9735 R.G. Skinner Parkway;

  • June 18, Paxon School for Advanced Studies, 3239 Norman E. Thagard Blvd.,

  • June 20, Terry Parker High School, 7301 Parler School Road.

Questions about how to handle schools like Atlantic Beach Elementary echoed Wednesday, when the Jacksonville History Center included that school and several others still in operation among its 2024 list of Jacksonville's Endangered Historic Properties.

"This is not an easy time to be a School Board member," History Center CEO Alan Bliss told a group gathered for the release of the new site list. Bliss said Jacksonville needs "helpful thoughts about sustainable uses for school properties" as people tryo to come to move forward while preserving parts of the past that reflect Jacksonville's identity.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Beaches crowd challenges Duval School Board on need for school closings