By Jennifer Logue
In an era of school choice and new technologies, public schools are going to have to adapt, innovate and start marketing themselves to keep students enrolled and engaged, the chairman of the Duval County School Board said.
At an Aug. 13 meeting of the Jacksonville Business Professionals, School Board Chair Darryl Willie said Jacksonville’s public school system is facing a pivotal moment in its future.
“Education has changed so much in the last decade – it is so different than when you and I went to school,” Willie said. “It’s just a different situation that our teachers are facing, our students are facing, and I truly believe the large, traditional public education systems have not been able to adjust quickly enough and adapt quickly enough to where we are right now.”
In a discussion moderated by Jacksonville attorney and JBP member Chris Hand, Willie discussed the myriad of opportunities, changes and challenges currently facing the Duval County Public Schools. As DCPS welcomes new Superintendent Dr. Chris Bernier, the school system is facing declining enrollment, increased construction costs for new schools and the possibility of closing dozens of existing schools to address a $1.4 billion deficit.
“We truly believe right now we’re on that cusp as a county,” Willie said, “and we need to talk about how we can get there.”
Marketing schools
In discussing the future of the Duval County school system, Willie used words like “marketing” and “customer service” – phrases not commonly associated with public schools.
And that, he said, is part of the problem.
“There weren’t traditionally large marketing departments (in public schools), where they had to focus on recruiting families, because it was the only game in town,” Willie said. “Once you move away from that monopoly, and now you have school choice, you have to adjust.”
Willie discussed the financial impact of school choice on the public school system, noting that a school system structured to educate 150,000 students now has a far smaller total enrollment – and the loss of associated revenue – but the same infrastructure and personnel costs.
“I love having choice,” he said, “but when it comes down to what choices folks are making, it affects the bottom line.”
In addition to school choice, he noted, many families moved to home schooling or virtual educational options during COVID 19. When the pandemic ended, they didn’t come back. Willie said new superintendent Bernier recognizes the importance of both marketing public schools and customer service.
“We all know if you go somewhere and the customer service is bad, you’re not going to go back,” he said. “Our parents and families are the same way: If they come to a school or interact with us online and they don’t have a positive or easy or accessible experience, then they’re going to go the other way. We have to be better.”
One way that public schools could do that, Willie said, is to embrace new technologies such as artificial intelligence to streamline and simplify the enrollment process and overall student experience.
“Our young families, they do every single thing on their phone,” he observed. “The fact that we hand this packet of papers and say, ‘come in here and fill it out’? I guarantee there are other schooling options that say, ‘don’t worry, just fill it out online.’ That is a barrier we have created for ourselves.”
Willie acknowledged, however, that marketing a public school system as large and diverse as Duval County has its challenges.
“It’s sort of like this franchise model, but all the franchises are vastly different,” he said. “You’ve got a school that does art, you’ve got a school that does tech, you’ve got a school that does a military academy. You have to go into each school and market specifically for that school.”
Among the innovative programs the school system is offering, Willie said, are scores of high school academies, with age-appropriate complementary programming in such areas as web design and computer programming available at the middle school and even elementary levels. To promote workforce development, DCPS has created the “Duval Ready” program that teaches students the communication, time management and teamwork skills needed to succeed in the workplace.
As for the public concern generated by a master facilities plan that recommended the closure of dozens of neighborhood schools, Willie stressed that the final plan slated to be voted on by the school board in October will likely be less drastic yet still require some school closures.
“There’s likely still going to be some heartburn,” he said. “Because we can’t do nothing.”