The Duval County Public Schools’ (DCPS) Master Facilities Plan returned to the school board last month, under a new name, for board approval of years one through five.
Duval Reimagine: Investing in Impact is a comprehensive initiative designed to address key challenges within the school district based on four focus areas: enrollment and capacity, educational adequacy, facility condition and financial alignment. Those key challenges include an unbalanced facility utilization, increasing deferred maintenance, fluctuating enrollment and fragmented feeder patterns and program access.
“This Master Facilities Plan has a different name, but it’s the same thing,” said DCPS Superintendent Dr. Christopher Bernier. “It’s about giving you more information and being more transparent.”
The 81-page initiative was approved at the July 1 board meeting, with Bernier noting its focus is not school closures or rezonings; rather, it is the return of the Master Facilities Plan for board approval for years one through five.
“It’s what we promised we’d bring back every single year that we would constantly work to revamp years one through five and make sure that we always knew what we were doing over the next five years,” Bernier said.
In its introduction, the Duval Reimagine initiative is described as “reflecting a responsible, transparent and forward-looking strategy for how we invest taxpayer resources and shape the future of education in Duval County.”
An Updated Timeline for MFP Projects
Duval Reimagine includes an updated list of MFP projects, including maintenance and repairs, as well as construction related to consolidations and new builds. DCPS Board Member Cindy Pearson called it a “rolling plan,” explaining the timelines are not fixed and projects can be advanced to an earlier year or postponed as the initiative returns each year for board approval.
DCPS families can already see movement from the timeline included in last year’s MFP. To name a few within our Resident communities, Central Riverside Elementary School’s deferred maintenance has been advanced from the 2034-39 five-year schedule to 2029-34 with a note stating “project pulled forward based on reprioritization.” The new build for Venetia Elementary School has been advanced to this upcoming school year from 2027-28 and is “planned to be built bigger (approx. 1,000 student stations) to consolidate area schools.”
Deferred maintenance for Fishweir Elementary School has been bumped from the 2034-39 timeline to 2028-29. Alternately, the addition proposed for Hendricks Avenue Elementary has been postponed to 2034-39, where it was initially proposed for 2029-34. The deferred maintenance for Douglas Anderson High School joins it in the 2034-39 timeline, with that postponement “due to reprioritization.”
Meanwhile, projects for other schools, such as John Stockton Elementary and Julia Landon College Preparatory and Leadership Development School, remain on the timelines proposed initially in the MFP that the school board voted on last year.
“We’re very excited about the adoption of the five-year plan today and we’ll continue to explore and every time we finish a project on time and under budget, we add a little bit more money to year one and year two and year three,” Bernier said. “So every time we build it cheaper and better, we have more dollars with which to start working on some of the other projects and bring them forward in the plan.”
Considering the Tangible and Intangible
With the initiative also considering projected enrollment up to the 2033-34 school year for the district’s elementary, middle and high schools as well as dedicated magnets, charters and other schools and programs, along with the academic and special programs offered at each school, Duval Reimagine is a multi-pronged approach to assessing and prioritizing district facilities.
“It’s [Duval Reimagine] a lot more comprehensive than what we were given in March of 2024,” Pearson said.
In the district’s approach to projected enrollment, Bernier said it is not counting finished houses, but permitted buildings to project what the district’s growth could look like five to 10 years from now and act accordingly.
“We want to be able to respond to growth in the county to create more neighborhood schools in these areas that are experiencing growth,” Pearson said.
The initiative also details the framework for how the district will be assessing its facilities and making decisions about closures, new buildings, and capital projects, “ensuring that resources are allocated efficiently and equitably.” This framework considers operational efficiency, building condition, and “soft parameters,” which include feeder alignment and school performance grade.
To read “Duval Reimagine: Investing in Impact” click here.
