Duval County’s School Board is scheduled to vote July 1 on a facilities plan tying school closings and construction to funding that predicts only tiny increases in enrollment through 2034.
The plan largely restates new construction or closings the board has previously authorized, but showcases work done or planned across the county and identifies issues the school district has to watch to deliver schools that are needed.
“We have built some pretty amazing schools and we’re about to open up two more,” Jim Culbert, the district’s chief information officer and a key voice on the facilities plan, told members at a June 18 workshop.
More openings and renovations are planned over the next few years.
What new schools are opening in Duval County?
A new Jean Ribault High School is scheduled to open in August to replace the original school, which has been a Northside institution since 1957. Ground was broken in September 2023 for the new building, being completed on a $120.5 million budget.
Southside Estates Elementary is getting a new building being that will also open in time for classes to begin in August. The $60.7 million project, which was delayed a year as the district “paused” work on some schools envisioned by a 2019 facilities plan, will consolidate students from both the original Southside Estates and Windy Hill Elementary.
What’s opening new after this year?
A replacement Pickett Elementary School is planned to open in August 2027 to consolidate students from the original K-5 Pickett as well as Reynolds Lane Elementary and S.A. Hull Elementary. The old Pickett closed at the end of the 2024-25 year and Reynolds Lane is being used as a “transition space” during the two years the new $73 million school is being built.
New versions of Spring Park Elementary and Hogan-Spring Glen Elementary are also scheduled to open in August 2027. The two K-5 schools will absorb students from their namesake schools as well as Love Grove and Englewood elementaries. Each school is budgeted to cost $72.2 million. Hogan-Spring Glen will move to Windy Hill Elementary for the 2025-26 and 2026-27 school years.
A table starting on the 58th page of the 81-page plan lists a long-contemplated replacement for William M. Raines High School as being moved up in the timeline from 2032 to 2027. The project, appearing again on the document’s 63rd page as proposed for 2028-29, has a price listed as $131.2 million, but the job isn’t detailed at length.
What else is coming up?
What about Baldwin and the rest?
The plan also mentions other projects on the horizon that either haven’t been finalized or are expected to change.
The biggest example is construction of a new school to replace Baldwin Middle-High School, where the board approved $3.5 million to add portables in 2024 because enrollment was at 134% of its capacity. A $142 million budget for a new school is penciled into the plan but no location has been finalized and the budget doesn’t include the price of the new site. It’s one of dozens of projects whose status s listed as “not started.”
Another evolving project is a $74.8 million makeover of Veneta Elementary, which the plan says will be “built bigger” to accommodate about 1,000 desks so kids from unspecified “area schools” can be consolidated there.
The new plan makes more reference to consolidating schools than a 2019 plan that supporters of a half-penny sales tax for school improvements used to rally support. A school district Q&A webpage says that’s “primarily due to declining enrollment,” although any closings have to be approved separately by the board.
The facilities plan actually envisions tiny increases in overall enrollment through 2033-34.
While almost negligible, the growth would be an improvement on the trend that cut the school district’s enrollment about 8% since 2018-19, although the count added about 600 students in the school year that just ended.
Enrollment, not counting charter schools or home schooling, is projected to rise from 103,286 students in 2024-25 to 104,626 in 2033-34.
The report notes, however, that changes in development patterns will almost certainly move whatever growth comes into areas that don’t have lots of open seating capacity. The school system will meanwhile pay more per student if it keeps running schools with lots of unused school desks, the report adds.
“When schools operate below optimal enrollment, the cost per student rises dramatically,” the plan notes. “… By consolidating underutilized schools, we can redirect those fixed costs to educational programs and teacher support.”
The report shows 117 schools operating below optimal enrollment while 21are over-enrolled.
This story was updated to add a video.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Ahead of school openings, consolidations, Duval School Board taking up new facilities plan
Reporting by Steve Patterson, Jacksonville Florida Times-Union / Florida Times-Union
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
