JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The topic of school closures in Duval County has been at the top of parents’ minds since Duval County Public Schools rolled out the proposed Master Facilities Plan as a way to tackle a massive budget issue.
With the recent release of Florida school grades, News4JAX took a closer look into how the nearly 30 schools on the list for potential closure measured up
While school grades are not the only factor, parents of students at high-performing schools are hoping that school grades will help their case to get their child’s school off the chopping block.
Stockton Elementary is one of those schools. It has been an “A” school for over 20 years.
TEST RESULTS | Florida has handed out grades for every school. See how your school performed.
Laura Garcia said even though the potential school closures aren’t happening this year, it’s still causes a lot of anxiety.
“It’s not happening this year. But it could happen in two years. So I pick the school for my kid to go K through five. And I would like to know that that’s going to happen, and especially kindergarten parents that are trying to pick. We need to know what’s happening,” Garcia said.
Another long-standing “A” school on the potential closure list is Atlantic Beach Elementary.
Emily McCarthy has two kids enrolled at the school.
She stressed that the school board should listen to what community members have to say and adjust accordingly.
INTERACTIVE MAP: Duval County School Board’s proposal to close & realign schools
“If there are schools that the communities are asking for something different, they want a new build or a new take, let’s start there,” McCarthy said. “The ones that are where the communities are fighting back and saying, ‘Do not do this. We are going to take our kids out of public school if you close down these schools,’ then please, we want them to listen to us.”
McCarthy also wanted more clarity on the process of selection for the potential schools. She said closing nearly 30 schools is too much.
“We don’t need to close that many schools. We’re starting off too big. They need to go back to the drawing table and figure out what schools actually need a change and an injection of funds and new buildings and which ones don’t.”
Garcia hoped that parents could “get away from the conversation of school closures” because she didn’t believe that was the answer.
"I think that’s just an easy out for budget issues. I think we need to look and dive deeper into the facility condition reports. Do we need to redo all these schools and just kind of look at alternative methods beyond just closing in institutions?” Garcia said.
Of the 28 schools listed for potential closure, three schools didn’t have complete data.
Three schools increased to “A” grades. Thirteen schools maintained their grades ranging from “As,” “Bs,” and “Cs,” and eight schools decreased a letter grade.
McCarthy is a part of a focus group to address the closures, while Garcia works closely with the Stockton representative in that focus group. They told News4JAX the school board sent an email Thursday that said the revised Master Facilities Plan would not be sent out next week as expected.
The new date for the revision is unclear.
News4JAX emailed the school district Friday afternoon to get answers about when the revised plan proposal would be available. They responded that district offices are closed on Fridays during the Summer.