DCPS Seeks Public Input On School Changes, Closures

[Tacachale]

Through Thursday, April 4, Duval County Public Schools (DCPS) is seeking public input on a proposed $1.95 billion facilities master plan that calls for building new schools and closing - and potentially demolishing - several older ones. What should the school board do with its schools?

Read More: https://www.thejaxsonmag.com/

[Charles Hunter]

There were some posts on this topic over in the Downtown Development thread. Could some kindly Admin move those over here?

[Tacachale]

It'll probably easiest just to link to it:

https://www.metrojacksonville.com/forum/index.php/topic,35438.0.html

[Charles Hunter]

*sigh*

[Bill Hoff]

Update from Dr. Green:

While the bulk of the proposed plan received minimal commentary, several of the school-by-school scenarios drew comments that require further community engagement.

We will work to find solutions that can meet the needs of future students and address current community feedback. The scenarios that remain under discussion include:

·         J. Allen Axson/Chets Creek Elementary schools

·         Venetia/Ortega Elementary schools

·         Ribault High School/Ribault Middle School

·         Raines High School/Northwestern Middle School

·         Jefferson Davis Middle School

We will continue the conversation on these scenarios in various ways. In some of these instances, I will hold more dialog in the school community to better understand concerns. In others, we will conduct additional surveys to evaluate potential alternatives.

We have already made some changes to the master plan based on this round of surveys:

·         We will preserve the historic architecture of Kirby-Smith Middle and Loretto Elementary in the replacement process, and

·         We will meet the need for a middle school in fast developing southeastern Duval by making the proposed new K-5 into a K-8.

[thelakelander]

Hmm. Good for Springfield. Not so good for minority neighborhoods that don't have a great voice. For example, the historic architecture of Matthew Gilbert is just as much as important to preserve and reuse as Kirby-Smith and Loretto. The same could be said of Annie Morgan.

[Tacachale]

Hmm. Good for Springfield. Not so good for minority neighborhoods that don't have a great voice. For example, the historic architecture of Matthew Gilbert is just as much as important to preserve and reuse as Kirby-Smith and Loretto. The same could be said of Annie Morgan.

Agreed. Gilbert is certainly the equal to Kirby Smith. It's interesting, if not surprising, that folks seemed to rally around Kirby Smith but not Gilbert. I wonder if there's still time to change that.

[Captain Zissou]

They're planning to demo Raines and Ribault?  How is that possible?  Those are two of the largest schools in town serving the same neighborhood.  Where will those kids go?

[thelakelander]

Hmm. Good for Springfield. Not so good for minority neighborhoods that don't have a great voice. For example, the historic architecture of Matthew Gilbert is just as much as important to preserve and reuse as Kirby-Smith and Loretto. The same could be said of Annie Morgan.

Agreed. Gilbert is certainly the equal to Kirby Smith. It's interesting, if not surprising, that folks seemed to rally around Kirby Smith but not Gilbert. I wonder if there's still time to change that.

Gilbert is in the Eastside. Kirby-Smith is in Springfield. My guess is Springfield is more organized, leading to more people responding to the survey due to Kirby-Smith being in it. There's time since they don't have the money to do half of this. Sounds like we need an article at a minimum to spread the word.

[thelakelander]

They're planning to demo Raines and Ribault?  How is that possible?  Those are two of the largest schools in town serving the same neighborhood.  Where will those kids go?

Demo of the existing and rebuilding 100% new. Quite a few schools on the demo list in NW Jax are mid-century. Structurally, I seriously doubt all that concrete is beyond repair.

[Tacachale]

They're planning to demo Raines and Ribault?  How is that possible?  Those are two of the largest schools in town serving the same neighborhood.  Where will those kids go?

Demo of the existing and rebuilding 100% new. Quite a few schools on the demo list in NW Jax are mid-century. Structurally, I seriously doubt all that concrete is beyond repair.

Especially if schools built at the same time like Fletcher are doing ok.

[itsfantastic1]

Just highlighting my quote from the previous linked thread.

So I went to my local District 7 master plan forum and specifically asked the gentlemen giving the presentation about historic buildings listed as demolished (including Loretto elementary). He and his company are aware citizens are up in arms that the term demolished is being used, however they did it for two reasons. First; they make the assumption that a full demolition and rebuild of a school would be the most expensive option compared to re-purposing a structure (with they say only accounts for 10% of overall costs). This was to present a worst case scenario for the funding aspect that the district is trying to secure.

Second, once funding is identified; each school will get an individually tailored construction plan that will involve more local community input on what should be done if identified as a major renovation or demo/rebuild. They fully admit they haven't thought of what each school's plan involves short of what the FCI values says should happen with the school. Also, they have not prioritized any one school over another due to funding not being secured yet.

Interestingly, I asked if all funding needed was secured; were we looking at carbon copy of concrete pod-type buildings everywhere and they said no; they are currently not planning on saving money by value engineering a prototype that fits all schools.

[thelakelander]

^The quicker they can go from deciding major renovation vs demo/rebuild, the better. For example, it appears Kirby Smith and Loretto are off the demo/rebuild list already, despite no funding being identified.

[itsfantastic1]

That would appear to suggest that they got a large amount of feedback from those community surveys that said those schools/areas won't even consider demolish, which will feed into the cost estimates. I believe that was the point of the community feedback period.

Also, I still think it comes back to the assumption they made for funding that a demo/rebuild is the costliest option; so schools that got identified by their FCI formula as "replacement candidate" got the demo/rebuild tag so there wouldn't be cost overruns with the job. Especially with a county as tax-adverse as Duval when compared to the other Big 6.

Speaking with Co-op Strategies (not the district), they didn't really seem to have a preference towards demo or conserve; they are just trying to estimate costs of the whole plan as conservatively as they could. I think, as many on this thread are doing; it's on the local community to decide what is worth saving and make it known to the board.

[Westside Guy]

Update from Dr. Green:

While the bulk of the proposed plan received minimal commentary, several of the school-by-school scenarios drew comments that require further community engagement.

We will work to find solutions that can meet the needs of future students and address current community feedback. The scenarios that remain under discussion include:

·         J. Allen Axson/Chets Creek Elementary schools

·         Venetia/Ortega Elementary schools

·         Ribault High School/Ribault Middle School

·         Raines High School/Northwestern Middle School

·         Jefferson Davis Middle School

We will continue the conversation on these scenarios in various ways. In some of these instances, I will hold more dialog in the school community to better understand concerns. In others, we will conduct additional surveys to evaluate potential alternatives.

We have already made some changes to the master plan based on this round of surveys:

·         We will preserve the historic architecture of Kirby-Smith Middle and Loretto Elementary in the replacement process, and

·         We will meet the need for a middle school in fast developing southeastern Duval by making the proposed new K-5 into a K-8.

Do you have a link to her statement?