Duval County school officials have rejected efforts by a “Schools of Hope” operator to co-locate new charter schools in shared space inside two existing public schools in Arlington.
“The district is unable to approve the request,” school district Charter Schools Director Eugene Hays wrote Jan. 8 in a two-page reply to charter school operator Mater Academy.
Schools of Hope have sparked concerns among many traditional school advocates because state rules allow charters to co-locate rent-free while receiving per-student payments from the state.
In October, Mater had proposed co-locating new charters in as many as 25 Duval schools, then pared down that ask to just Merrill Road Elementary and Fort Caroline Middle School.
Although state rules are written to require districts to accept co-location when proposed by state-approved “Hope Operators” like Mater, Hays’s reply cited reasons that co-location would be “materially impracticable,” the only grounds allowed for saying no.
Hays pointed out that the School Board had already approved consolidating students from Don Brewer Elementary into Merrill Road starting in the 2026-27 school year, a choice the board made in 2024.
Mater’s plan called for gradually enrolling 474 charter school students at Merrill, starting in August 2027, and Hays wrote that Merrill “will not have the student stations available to accommodate” the charter operator’s plans.
On Fort Caroline, Hays noted that it’s used as a dedicated magnet school for arts instruction and “has been modified to facilitate this specialized arts program.”
He also wrote that state law requires co-locating Hope schools to be in attendance zones of “persistently low performing” schools or areas the state labels “opportunity zones,” neither of which apply to Fort Caroline.
It’s possible the rules for Hope schools might change before any open in Jacksonville anyway.
School activists around the state have been lobbying the Florida Legislature to change the Hope effort in the legislative session starting Jan. 13. The School Board agreed Jan. 6 to add Hope reforms proposed by the Florida School Boards Association to its own legislative agenda for 2026.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: DCPS rejects ‘Schools of Hope’ charter’s bid to share public schools
Reporting by Steve Patterson, Jacksonville Florida Times-Union / Florida Times-Union
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