ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. – There are plans in St. Johns County to open five new schools over the next three years as the school district tries to keep up with student population growth.
The district added another 1,400 students this year and Superintendent Tim Forson told News4JAX on Wednesday that growth means new schools are a necessity.
“I think what we recognize is that there is, you know, rapid growth in those two areas both in Nocatee and in Silverleaf,” Forson said.
Keeping up with rapid growth in the county is the challenge that the school district is trying to overcome. A quarterly report released Tuesday revealed plans for two new K-8 schools in the Nocatee and SilverLeaf developments. That’s in addition to three other K-8 schools currently under construction.
Currently, some schools are at or over capacity, especially in the northern part of the county where the district uses portables.
“We use those relocatable classrooms or portable classrooms, we lease them, and so that when we can get the next school built, we can then reduce the number of portable classrooms at a site,” Forson said.
Vanessa Summers, a parent to three students in St. Johns County schools living in Nocatee, feels her kids are still getting a quality education even with the schools being as full as they are.
“I can’t say that we as parents with the education feel that we’re suffering because they have the portables, it’s just more them accommodating the growth,” she said.
The quarterly report said the district currently has approximately 3,400 full-time teachers, with 50% having zero to five years of experience in the district. The district said its greatest needs for teachers continue to be in math, science and ESE. Forson said they expect to add 200 teachers a year based on the county’s growth.
“Is there any concern that you might not be able to fill vacancies when these new schools open?” News4JAX asked Forson.
“We’ll be able to fill them,” he said. “But there’s no denying the concern about human resources... We know we need more teachers.”
Another notable item in the first quarter report was school safety. The district said it’s implementing a new threat management system starting in January. Forson said the district is one of 67 counties in the state to implement that system.
“What it will do will provide consistency across the state as far as what the expectations are at each school, when something happens or when something needs to be investigated to make sure that it’s done. So consistently and timely, to ensure that every child is kept safe,” Forson said.
The school board and the county commission had a special joint meeting Thursday morning to talk about school construction and infrastructure in the area.
That meeting discussion centered around population growth and how to address it to make sure students in the area are being served properly while waiting for new schools to be built. State Sen. Travis Hutson said legislative bills would address those issues in the near future.
“You’re too far behind and we want to help you catch up,” Hutson said. “Some of the policies that we unveil in the senate over the next two or three weeks is going to be to that. I spoke as it relates to construction, you guys mentioned some other things as it relates to curriculum and or personnel, those bills are not mine, but they’re coming as well.”
Hutson said he’ll be an advocate to help get students into classroom seats sooner rather than later.
Forson said school construction from the past three years and the next three years will add room for more than 20,000 students in the district.
“That’s a more explosive window than I think we’ve ever had,” Forson explained. “When you’re talking about three years back and three years ahead and 20,000 students, that’s bigger than many other districts in Florida. So in six years, we’re going to build another school district.”
The K-8 school planned for Rivertown (PP) that’s set to open in 2025 will eventually be transitioned into a middle school. Dr. Brennan Asplen, Deputy Superintendent of Facilities and Operations for the district, says a new high school is on the horizon too.
“I would say another high school will probably happen around the 27-28 (school year),” said Asplen. “So we’re going to be growing quite a bit. The high schools will continue to grow, and then hopefully we’ll be able to build a high school around that time.”
Several members of the public talked during the meeting about the need to pay teachers a higher salary, noting that the cost of living has gone up but teacher salaries haven’t kept up with that. They said they would be willing to pay higher taxes to make that happen. Currently, the district has 60 vacancies open for teaching positions.