JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Seaside Charter School on Thursday announced plans to move forward with its third campus, despite recent comments by the Duval County superintendent and school board members about the school lacking diversity.
There are currently two locations. One is in Atlantic Beach off Mayport Road, and the other is off San Jose Boulevard near Baymeadows Road. The third location that Seaside Charter plans to open in August would be along Dunn Avenue on the Northside.
"I am so pleased and so proud to be opening this school in this community," Angela Lott, future principal of Seaside Charter's Northside campus said at a news conference Friday afternoon.
In a board workshop last week, Superintendent Dr. Diana Greene and some board members said the two current campuses lack diversity and the new Northside campus would be in a high-minority area, which would create separate and equal schools. She and some board members expressed the desire to deny Seaside Charter’s proposal for a new school.
Seaside Charter responded in a statement, saying, in part, “The district’s own staff report states that the application meets the legal standard for addressing racial/ethnic balance and provides a diversity plan for this purpose.”
Seaside Charter also goes on to say it submitted and enacted its diversity plan at both schools last summer. Seaside Charter said it never received any word back from the district that there were concerns.
Seaside Charter Board Chairman Ronald Harnek said the school is being treated differently.
"We found out that Seaside is the only school that has been asked to develop them," Harnek said. "We’re not the only school in the county that has diversity issues but we have complied with what they’ve asked."
News4Jax asked Duval County Public Schools whether that's true and had not received a response to that specific question as of late Friday afternoon.
According to the school district, the problem is the high percentage of non-minority students at their current schools. For comparison, minority students make up 12 percent of Seaside Charter Atlantic Beach. Atlantic Beach Elementary School has 25 percent minority students, Mayport Elementary School has 44 percent and Jacksonville Beach Elementary School has 46 percent.
According to the district, another factor is that Seaside Charter’s application for the Northside location is K-5, but that the application is a replica of its current Atlantic Beach location, which references proposed standards for middle school grades.
"Nothing was brought up about diversity in the interview or any of the other things they said we were deficient or only partially met," Harnek said. "So when we saw the recommendation, we were very disappointed."
Harnek said Seaside Charter was trying to work with the district, but now will plan to open the school through a state statute that he said allows a high-performing charter to co-locate to another site to allow for expansion.
Next week’s Duval County board workshop agenda has already been posted. Greene’s recommendation to the board is to deny Seaside Charter’s Northside campus application. That meeting is at 6 p.m. Tuesday and the board is expected to vote.
Below is the district's full statement on the matter:
The recommendation to deny the application for Seaside Charter’s North Campus is based on a number of factors.
"First, the application was submitted as a replication of the applicant’s high performing K-5 charter school. However, the application does not substantially replicate that of the applicant’s high performing charter schools.
"A material difference between this application and the applicant’s high performing school is the grade configuration. While the applicant indicates that the application is for grades K-5, there are references throughout the application to middle school students. References include proposed standards for 6th, 7th and 8th grade students in core content areas, references to instructional sequencing for middle school students, and a recommendation that a middle school student serve as the student representative on the school advisory committee.
"Additionally, the proposed application has admission criteria that appear to restrict access by students of a particular race. Based on the planned location of the school and the notification provided to the district by the applicant, the school is not likely to have a diverse student population."