JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – It won’t be long before the Duval County School Board makes its decision on who the next superintendent of the district will be. Dr. Daniel Smith and Dr. Christopher Bernier were both in town Monday for interviews and a meet and greet.
Smith is currently the Chief of Staff of Loudoun County Schools in Virginia. He also served as acting superintendent from December 2022 to September 2023 before stepping back into the Chief of Staff role at that district. He feels the challenges he’s faced at that district have prepared him to be the Duval County Public Schools superintendent.
“I’m really all about impact and how we can do our best work for our kids. Our teachers need our support, our educators need our support, and our community deserves it. And so I have that experience that I feel like I can bring to Duval. I’ve tackled some of those challenges in my current district. And I know I can do it here, too,” Smith said.
Peggy Rauckis, who works at Atlantic Beach Elementary School, said she appreciates Smith’s diverse background.
“He seems to be very open to alternative ideas to bring our school system back up to where it needs to be. So I was impressed,” Rauckis said.
Bernier recently resigned as the superintendent of Lee County Schools in the Ft. Myers area. He was there for two years, and he left when voters decided to make the superintendent position an elected one instead of an appointed one. He talked about how he would address challenges if he’s selected as superintendent.
“Challenges always require solutions, and when you develop solutions, sometimes those take time,” said Bernier. “But I also understand that’s one of the luxuries that the new superintendent may not necessarily have all the time that they want. So we’re going to have to hit the ground running if I’m the one selected to try to do what’s best as quickly as possible.”
Shane Santora, a teacher at Terry Parker High School, said Bernier was “very articulate.”
“He had a family member that graduated from Terry Parker High School, so my ears perked up immediately. He seems very friendly, very personable. I really liked his stance on leadership and the plans that he seems to want to implement in the district,” Santora said.
If Smith gets the job as superintendent he hopes to make Duval County the premier school district in the nation.
“Some of it is building our climate and culture to be a place where people want to be, some of it is around teacher retention and teacher recruitment,” said Smith. “So there’s a number of ways that we can go about doing this. I think what’s important is that we get out in to the community, talk to our community, talk to our students, talk to our staff, talk to our principals and really talk to our community so that we can be united in our work together.”
Bernier said he wants to work collaboratively to accomplish his goals if he gets the superintendent job.
“I’ve always worked with community, internal and external stakeholders. Everybody has something to share with individuals, as individuals, and they have the opportunity to help address some of our needs,” Bernier explained. “And if we’re impacting children and families, why wouldn’t we include our families, our employees and other people in that decision-making process?”
Ann Solomon is a parent at Holiday Hill Elementary School, which is one of the 30 schools listed for potential closure on the Master Facilities Plan. She shared her takeaways from speaking with Bernier.
“I think that he has a really good plan and a good idea of what it takes to be an effective superintendent. And then we asked him about the master facilities plan, because obviously, that’s impacting our school, and he has a good plan to dig in, to understand the schools to get into the demographics, all things that he doesn’t have access to right now as a candidate,” Solomon explained.
The interview process will continue Tuesday for both candidates. The next superintendent will be selected at a special board meeting on May 23.
You can submit a survey response on the superintendent finalists here.