When Laura Bearl and her husband moved their family to the Fishweir neighborhood, it was specifically so their children would have just a five-minute walk to the highly rated elementary school.
Under Duval County Public Schools’ (DCPS) current Master Facility Plan proposal, however, that 5-minute walk would become roughly 40 minutes if Fishweir Elementary School were to close and its student population consolidated into Ruth N. Upson Elementary School.
“I have this grand notion of maybe riding my bike with a little chariot beside it [for my younger children], but I certainly couldn’t do that for my elementary school-aged child,” Bearl said. “She would have to ride her bike, and then I would have to figure out how to get her bike home.”
Fishweir parent Valerie Boote agreed.
“It’s a very, very busy spot,” she said. “They have to cross train tracks at both points to make it down to the street that Ruth Upson is on. I just can’t fathom children doing it.”
As Duval County students prepare to return to school, families across the city are experiencing a sense of uncertainty following the release of the proposed Master Facility Plan. Released in the spring, the MFP proposes addressing a $1.4 billion budget deficit in part by closing nearly 30 schools – including several A-rated schools or historic schools such as Fishweir Elementary, John N.C. Stockton Elementary, Ortega Elementary and West Riverside Elementary. Under the current proposal, students from Stockton and Ortega elementary schools would be consolidated into Venetia Elementary School, while Fishweir students would attend Ruth N. Upson. West Riverside students would be relocated to Central Riverside.
Traffic and transportation concerns
The proposed school consolidations would result in significant changes for families used to walking their children to school. To get an idea of what that walk would be like for Fishweir students, Bearl organized a group walk from Fishweir to Ruth Upson. She said pedestrian safety remains a top concern for families like hers.
“Jacksonville changes over time,” she told The Resident. “There’s more people, there’s more cars. Roads are wider, the speed limits are faster, so I really just wanted to experience all those things. I wanted to document those things, so that people who are unfamiliar with the area would get some kind of evidence to what’s going on so it’s not so abstract.”
Bearl created a YouTube video documenting the walk and the two routes Fishweir students could take to get to Upson. One route – which involves crossing Roosevelt Boulevard at the Florida State College at Jacksonville-Kent Campus, was deemed “too dangerous to attempt,” with the group citing the road’s width, poor visibility, lack of crossings on the other side and a history of traffic fatalities.
Instead, the group crossed Roosevelt Boulevard at Edgewood Ave. South, traversing just over two miles between the two schools.
“We crossed Park Street, that was a little hairy, we crossed Roosevelt, that was even scarier,” Bearl said in the video.
School Board Chairman Darryl Willie said that historically, DCPS has transformed closed schools into a bus hub where students can catch buses to their new schools.
“We’ve done that for a number of schools when they’ve consolidated before,” Willie said. “I’m assuming we’ll use something similar to that if we move forward with any sort of consolidation or closures, but it will be on a case-by-case basis.”
A ‘whole new plan’
During the summer, DCPS hosted district-wide community forums, followed by a series of smaller Feeder Pattern Community Review Group meetings to gain input and feedback to inform the creation of a new MFP.
“This is going to be a whole new plan,” Willie said. “You’re going to see a whole new (school closure) list.”
West Riverside Elementary parent Stephanie Garfunkel was part of those focus group meetings and said she appreciated the opportunity to participate.
“I was really pleased that the district gave us an opportunity to have a deeper conversation about the facilities plan,”
she said.
For Garfunkel, one of the major takeaways from those meetings was that DCPS needs to find the right approach when considering a school for potential closure.
“…The community really wants to make sure that the district is looking first not at the cost of the building of a school but actually how successful that school is at attracting students, serving a diverse student body and what kind of academic outcomes that school is achieving,” she said.
At the July 2 school board meeting, several parents shared their concerns regarding what they said are discrepancies in facilities index assessments and so-called Castaldi analyses of a school’s physical condition.
Fishweir parent Valerie Boote noted what she called major discrepancies in Fishweir’s report, such as replacing both vinyl flooring she said was in “excellent condition” and a chainlink fence – much of which was replaced just four years ago – at a cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Willie said such discrepancies are not uncommon, because Castaldi reports only include items that are past their useful life, whereas a facilities index report is more robust and thorough. He added, however, that the school board took note of such questions and concerns.
“We have the facilities and operations team doing a mini audit, so to speak, where they’re actually going in and checking in on some of those numbers,” he said.
At the July 2 school board meeting, newly sworn in Superintendent Dr. Charles Bernier emphasized that the new MFP proposal would be yet another draft for which additional community input would be sought before it is finalized.
Willie said it is likely that this revised MPF will include changes to the school closure list, although “it won’t be the last, sort of end-all-be-all list.”
He also said he expects the current school board to be the one to vote on the final MFP proposal. The election for school board representatives in districts 1, 3, 5 and 7 will be held Aug. 20, but the winners of that election won’t begin their terms until November.
“The idea is that we vote on it with this board that’s intact,” Willie said.
