Problems in Duval County School System

Buyer, Seller, Duval County, St. Johns County, School Information

Duval School System Imploding?

You know there is an issue when the Florida Times Union headline is, "Too many facilities are either overcrowded or under-utilized."

Duval School System Takes the Initiative

Duval County School system is starting meetings called the "Community Excellence Plan" in order to get opinions from the public on how best to handle the current problems.

Cause of The School Problems

The problems are created and compounded by many issues and even the law:

"shifting demographics, declining enrollment, concurrency requirements" and the class size amendment.

Urban Sprawl in the Class Rooms: Downtown has Empty Seats and Populated Areas Overcrowded

There are 14,000 empty classroom seats mostly around the downtown area. And in the Southside, Westside, Northside and Mandarin area we have some overcrowded schools as reported by the Florida Times Union.

Additional Problems in Duval County

"The district estimates about $900 million is needed for school construction and the average age of school buildings is 46 years." There might be some raises in the school portion of the property tax if Duval County can't finds enough money to renovate & rebuild.

Solutions to the School Problem

The meetings are just for the county to explain the current situations and to talk over possible ideas that might work to fixi the situation. Further meetings will be scheduled after these first rounds as solutions are discussed. Some of the possible solutions are changing school boundaries, closing some schools, renovating or building new schools.

Time Frame to Fixing the School Problem

It is reported that if there is a boundary change it could be implemented as early 2009-2010. But the other options will take five years or longer.

You can find the article here until they archive it: Duval Invites Public Comment on School Enrollment

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