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The failures of the Duval County School Board, over the past twenty years have been abysmal and city changing. For many, home buying and renting decisions are based largely on the "assigned" neighborhood school. A failing education system goes much deeper than a high drop out rate. It directly impacts the prosperity and livability of the community. Not only is suburban sprawl exacerbated by families fleeing a Duval education but jobs and businesses migrate out of Duval---, following families who are "forced" to make a very easy decision to live near the best schools.
Why?
Education itself has been an inexplicably thorny issue in Duval County since the very first days of Consolidation as the city has struggled to balance the needs of the ignorant to enforce stupid ideological policy with the needs of the students and families who actually utilize the Public Schools of Jacksonville and Duval County.
For example, had it not been for widespread efforts of the part of the good old boy racist system to de-fund 'black' schools and transfer the money to 'white' schools in the fifties and sixties, the city would likely have never faced the humiliation of having our schools disaccredited and subject to federal busing.
By the time that disaccreditation happened, for twenty years the champions of racist political ideology had been at the helm of our school boards and city --- and much of the process of making decisions. It seems inexplicable that this vitally important public infrastructure was actually guided by an attempt to segregate the races and transfer the bulk of the tax resources to schools in 'white' districts.
What exactly, one might ask, does race based ideology have to do with education?
Where was the concern for educating all of the students of this city? Its hard to explain, especially in light of todays incrementally more enlightened society, and yet here is the sad truth.
The school boards prior to Consolidation did not care about this simple, vital commission. They were more identified with politics than education. Racist political ideology was all pervasive by the 1960s. And the Schools were the front lines in a geographical battleground that pit race based districts and areas against one another.
Haydon Burns being sworn in as mayor of Jacksonville in 1949. State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory, http://floridamemory.com/items/show/19175
Like other cities across the old South, even our mayor, Haydon Burns weighed in to support segregation: In restaurants, bathrooms, at water fountains, and most importantly in the schools.
The result of putting politics above Education was catastrophic, and the city is still informed and guided by the fallout of that catastrophe.
In 1964 the days of Disaccreditation came and Duval County schools all lost their certification that children educated in Duval had been educated at all. For a few years, graduates of Duval County were forced to face college admissions boards without a diploma from a recognized school system.
It triggered a massive exodus of children from families who could afford private school---for no other reason than the simple aspiration to be able to send one's children to college.
That pullout established a pattern amongst the middle class to upper middle class families that continues to this day. (More on this later on in the essay.)
Disaccreditation happened in 1964, and the school system wasnt fully accredited again until 1979. Fifteen years.
Further, the Federal mandate to desegregate the schools was ignored and skirted so blatantly that mandatory busing of students began in 1971. It continued until 1999 (http://jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/052899/met_2a1MainD.html) with the dismissal of the 39 year old federal lawsuit against the school system.
Interesting, one might think, but what does this have to do with anything current.
Well there are three important things that directly bear on our current situation.
1. The direct harm that political ideology does to the educational process.
2. The three generation disengagement from the public school system of many of Jacksonville's middle and upper middle class families.
3. The Magnet School Programs.
The direct harm that political ideology does to the educational process.
Had politics not been guided by segregationist theory and ideology, the schools would have been equitable. They weren't. As a result over a third of our kids were educated under the worst possible circumstances with the easily anticipated results.
Forced desegregative busing then took kids from schools that were barely up to modern standards and placed them in schools that, literally, were crumbling down around their ears. Forty years of neglect and underfunding then had to be updated.
Rather than let their children be the guinea pigs of an experiment called 'how to repair a criminally neglected school building that doesn't have enough textbooks while trying to educate students', many more of Jacksonville's middle class families withdrew their kids from public schools and began a legacy of privately educating their children.
Additionally, Jacksonville's 'low tax' ideology from Ed Ball's Porkchop Gang Era had left the schools pitifully underfunded. Even the allegedly 'great' schools from the 1960s were being forced to hold constant bake sales and candy fundraisers in order to cover the basic costs of education.
This was ok in a wealthy neighborhood, with tons of extra money for the community to spare for the local fundraisers (you know, a dollar at a time), but pretty bleak for kids that came from a poor or working class neighborhood that didn't have a few thousand dollars of expendable income.
This left the schools in a poor position to repair more than half of the schools that were mostly unfunded during the Haydon Burns/Porkchop Gang era of racist segregation ideology.
Photo courtesy of Library of Congress
Had the schools simply approached their jobs as a mission to educate kids, no matter where they were, and spent the appropriate money to do so, what would the result have been?
Would we have spent as much money having to repair ruined structures, replacing old school books, and losing the cumulative effect of children from families with high motivation for education within the school system itself?
The three generation disengagement from the public school system of many of Jacksonville's middle and upper middle class families.
Starting with disaccreditation, the flight of families from the public school system has been alarming.
The statistics actually are pretty shocking and reflect a epidemic sized disengagement from the Public School system.
Only 25% of households in Duval County have a direct enrollment connection to the public schools.
Considering the fact that one hundred percent of us pay property taxes to the school board, the level of apathy on this issue is breathtaking, but consider this. Duval County has a couple of odd metrics for a city of our demographic profile.
1, Despite being the country's, thirteenth largest city in terms of population, we only have the 21st largest public school enrollment.
2. We rank 27th in studies relating to child well being ( http://www.coj.net/departments/childrens-commission/docs/full_report_2011_0324_final.aspx ).
3. We also have a higher proportion of lower income family enrollment compared to higher income family enrollment than any comparable school system in the country.
This reflects some pretty nasty negative realities, all of which reflect a lack of confidence in our public school system on the part of families that value education enough to pay for it. Without the presence of that percentage of education driven students in the student populations, there are fewer peer resources and behavioral modifiers.
It also means that the bake sale motivated parents are fewer when it comes down to the old Education by Bake Sale method.
Theoretically this should work out better per student right? After all, those families which choose to privately educate or self educate their children still have to pay taxes, right? And now those taxes can be spent on fewer children, right? Well not really. Florida has led the way to divert all of that money into private and christian schools. ( http://www.stepupforstudents.org/Portals/0/Resources/Documents/Published-Commentary/12.01.05 Doug Tuthill column in Sentinel.pdf )
Furthermore this exodus from public schools----directly as a result of using the schools as a battlefront for political ideology (segregationist philosophy at the time)----has gone on for three generations as a result of a feedback process. We keep 'up segregating', to coin a phrase. The best and brightest students from the most education driven families are increasingly segregated from the general school population.
Families that can afford to privately educate their children feel forced to do so because of poor school performance, lack of facilities, and discipline.
Of the remaining students, in order to overcome the 39 year Federal Desegregation Order, they are increasingly being placed in magnet schools based on their own performance abilities.
Magnet Schools
One of the main structural components of the Duval County School System is its Magnet School Program.
Perhaps it is the longest lasting legacy of the days of racist control of our school boards during the Porkchop Gang era inasmuch as it was developed as the solution to the Federal Desegregation Order of 1971.
The federal lawsuit found that despite the order to desegregate the schools, only about 150 actual students had actually crossed the color lines to go to a school of a 'different color'. Every single case was an african american child who had enrolled in a 'white' school. There were literally no cases of a european american child enrolling in a 'black' school.
The feds ordered mandatory busing, and whole neighborhoods of schools were bused every day to much further away schools to desegregate the populations.
Socially, this process proved to be a success in the long term, and the improvement in racial relations in the modern era owes a lot to the days of desegregation.
Educationally, it was chimerical at the time, as it raised racial tensions, was profoundly more expensive in terms of more transportation, and forced the majority of the city to actually ponder the appalling physical conditions of the 'black' schools.
Enter Stanton High School.
1953 aerial view of Durkeeville's Stanton High School under construction from the Robert E. Fisher Collection. Photo courtesy of State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory, http://floridamemory.com/items/show/166693
Stanton High School was a 'black' high school. It was located in a 'black' district in a 'black' neighborhood. It was chosen as the site for a 'magnet' school based around academic excellence that would also be a preparatory college academy. More importantly it was a strategy for repackaging the busing of 'white' students to 'black' schools that complied with the federal order without compromising the educational experience for the students.
It was also in appalling physical condition and surrounded by abandoned and run down properties.
So the school board and the highly motivated educators and parents involved in the development of Stanton did what the school board should have done in the very beginning. They began a massive renovation project of the old school. They cherry picked some of the best educators in the teachers union. They thoughtfully developed a curriculum that would be attractive to anyone looking to prepare their child for a college education and academic excellence. In short they created an actual alternative to private schooling. within the context of both the mandatory busing order and the public school system.
Soon afterwards, Mary Frances Whittaker, after three years of struggling opened the Douglas Anderson School of the Arts in another traditionally 'black' school--Douglas Anderson.
Paxon College Prep followed, and the stratagem was so successful that it led to the creation of 'magnet tracks' within the larger high schools.
The problem with the prep schools and the arts school was that the schools turned into majority 'white' schools in all 'black' neighborhoods. The magnet 'track' was created so that only a percentage of the enrollments would be from out of area students. That way a racially desegregated campus was created.
As a result, "white" enrollment soared in 'black' neighborhoods.
It led to the mandate to change from the old 'junior high' (7th, 8th, and 9th) and 'senior high' (10th, 11th, and 12th) school divisions to "Middle School" (6-8) and High School (Freshman through Senior) in order to accommodate a full term for a student within the magnet programs.
The programs were so successful that U.S. District Judge William Terrell Hodges dismissed Jacksonville's 39-year-old school desegregation case, saying the public schools are being run without racial discrimination ''to the maximum extent possible.'' in 1999, and the exultant reporting that the dark days, at long last were over, by Charlie Patton of the Times Union: http://jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/030900/enc_S0309pat.html
The legacy of these shenanigans and the relatively inspired solutions lead to a few inescapable conclusions.
1. The desire to educate children not political ideology should guide the School Board. Ideology is expensive and the goals are at best dubious. It is highly unlikely that future generations will share the passions of the times. Usually quite the opposite.
2. The solution was to do what should have been done in the first place. Rebuild and properly maintain the 'problem' schools. Find and recruit the best teachers available. Thoughtfully program curriculum with the best possible education as a goal. These things weren't rocket science, but it took a federal lawsuit and spreading the self created misery in order to properly motivate change.
3. It is paramount to re engage the generations of families who opted out of public education as a result of our self inflicted wounds.
Lackawanna made the national news in 1964, when the New York Times reported the bombing of Donal Godfrey's home by the Ku Klux Klan. Six at the time, Godfrey was the first black student to attend the previously all white Lackawanna Elementary School (Public School Number Ten). Dating back to 1890, the old elementery school closed in 1993. Today, it serves as a teacher supply depot for the Duval County School Board. The school is located on Lenox Avenue, one block west of McDuff Avenue.
The Current State of Affairs
Once again there is a groundwater change going on in our society that promises to restructure the way we do things on a daily basis. Much in the same way that social changes and technology were changing the world in the 1960s, Civil rights, social media, communications, and changing economic patterns are transforming the world around us.
And once again, our educational system has been frozen on the ground, more interested in fighting ideological battles based on politics than it is in adapting to change and making the necessary reforms to itself that are demanded by the new ground game.
it has been twenty seven years since the last real reform to our school system has been undertaken---that being the implementation of the Magnet School Program.
When Herb Sang and Stan Jordan presided over the launch of the Magnet School concept and Era, there were no cell phones. There was no internet. There was no such thing as streaming video online. Corporations had computers, but people didn't. The laptop hadn't been introduced to americans yet. There were no kindles, iPads, tablets, or online books.
The first Blockbuster video store had just opened in Texas.
The Cold War was still going on.
Since then the science of genomics, immunology, complexity, and nanotechnology have been invented. Jacksonville has been designated a spaceport.
And yet we are still resting on the laurels of how we overcame federal busing and a desegregation lawsuit.
The old Norwood Elementery School was completed in 1926 and served the community for 82 years, before closing in 2008. According to the US Census Bureau, the neighborhood surrounding the school has continued its free fall in population decline, losing 7.2% of its population since 2000. Is there a correlation between economically stabilizing communities like Norwood and the proper utilization of public school property? Or is the public school system and its fiscal situation an island unto itself?
There has been much discussion about closing schools in order to save the public school system funds in the short term. However, have we truly considered the overall cost to the taxpayer and community concerning the negative economic impact of shutting down schools in already distressed neighborhoods? In Detroit that hasn't worked out so well. Considering the majority of schools on the list are located in the Northside and Arlington, what does it say about the future economic viability of what should be some of Jacksonville's most fiscally sustainable neighborhoods?
Time for an Overhaul?
So now we are presented with the possibility created by an election year fluke in which 4 of the seven school board seats are up for election.
Four is a simple majority of the board, and that is enough to create a real change in direction.
These seats are won by the hundreds, not the thousands of voters, and we have the ability to jump start the process.
The four seats are from districts 1, 3, 5, and 7.
School Board District 1
Martha Barrett vs Cheryl Grymes
Jake Godbold has come out swinging for Martha Barrett, and for good reason. Martha has been one of the most universally liked and popular public figures in jacksonville for twenty years. She is a warm, magnanimous, well intentioned person with a lot of friends, and she is the incumbent.
She is facing off against Cheryl Grymes, who is also a former board member.
It would be impossible to make a recommendation based on who is the nicest or most affable person. But the Times Union got it right in regards to this race. ( http://jacksonville.com/opinion/editorials/2012-08-10/story/duval-school-board-grymes-assertive-experienced ) Martha has been there for 3 consecutive terms and hasn't done a damn thing except get re elected. The School Board needs action and boldness, and lovely as she is, Martha is not the person to be able to supply this. Cheryl on the other hand is driven, has remained proactive in education and is committed to meaningful reform. This election is a no brainer.
If you want to help the city, vote for Cheryl.
School Board District 3
This race the field of excellence narrows down to two very motivated and dynamic women, Suzanne Jenkins and Ashley Juarez Smith.
Suzanne was one of the original posters on our old metjax website, and was an openminded thoughtful representative for downtown during her terms on the City Council. She can think outside of the box and has experienced almost every twist and turn of politics that Jacksonville has to throw at you.
She sponsored and passed the relaxation of downtown parking regulations championed by this publication and has a maverick character that allows her to fight for an unpopular issue until people can at least put aside their preconceptions. She would make a very strong School Board Candidate.
Ashley Smith Juarez is incredibly bright, well funded, experienced and passionate. She has energy, comes without any political baggage, is not interested in the kind of score keeping that mars so many of the local politicians. She is a true believer in technology and the need for reform.
Ashley Smith Juarez is a newcomer with a tremendous backround in education and no hidden land mines in the political landscape. In the upcoming struggle to reform the school system, its going to be about teamwork and the ability to play excellently with others, qualities for which Ashley is noted.
Both candidates would make amazing School Boardmembers, but Smith-Juarez should get the nod by an inch.
School Board District 5
In this district, the times union called Connie Hall 'safe' ( http://jacksonville.com/opinion/editorials/2012-08-10/story/pervalia-gaines-mcintosh-good-choice-new-era-school-board ) on grounds of her status as a veteran in the district. Her competition is Pervalia Gaines McIntosh, who has a habit of saying really common sense things, quite often in public.
Balanced by that is Chris Guerrieri, an impassioned blogger and educator whose criticisms and watchdog role in the school board is literally too valuable to consider compromising by electing him to the office. Also he trolled one of his opposition candidates discussion threads, which isn't a great indicator of being able to work well with others--a necessary skill if we are actually looking at concerted change and reform.
Pervalia is an enticing choice, but Hall's 'safety' is also her strength, and for good reason. She is for reform, including technology implementation, and she will provide confidence and continuity over the next four years.
School Board District 7
Once again we agree with the Times Union on the two best candidates ( http://jacksonville.com/opinion/editorials/2012-08-10/story/jon-heymann-idea-candidate-school-board ) The rest of the others are a colorful mix, including a tea party ideologue, but none of them seem to have much chance of winning. (in two cases, this is probably for the best)
However on balance, Corree Cuff has shown a willingness to work for the public, go out and get the votes, listen carefully to her constituents. She participated in live discussion with MetroJacksonville.com readers, she is for reform, and she is a hardcore believer in children's well being and walkable communities.
Heyman's campaign on the other hand returned no information regarding his platform. Also, he appears to be too intricately involved as a vendor and his business relationship as a private enterprise with the School Board is just a little too close for cricket.
Corree Cuff would be another young, inspired, passionate team player, and has the extra benefit of not relying on school board money for her livelihood.
Summation
Lets face it, things have to change.
Its time to update, to reform, to move the district beyond the flawed past. It is time to reinvent.
We will never find our way to empowered, green campuses peopled with healthy children being instructed by some of the worlds greatest minds via webclassting that graduate well informed creative productive disciplined students ready to change the world for the better if we continue doing things the way we have been.
We are spending too money where we shouldn't, not enough where we should, for too little results in the name of too much ideology.
We have to move forward, and its time to put a team in place that can actually make that happen.
Cheryl Grymes, Corree Cuff, Connie Hall and Ashley Smith Juarez (and in the alternative Suzanne Jenkins) would be a good start.
Editorial by Stephen Dare
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KenFSU
August 14, 2012, 08:54:08 AMReally great piece Stephen.
Two quick comments:
1) That is an incredible photo (the desegregation one).
2) My wife's first teaching job was at Norwood Elementary. That was a really, really special school. We both miss it dearly.
aaapolito
August 14, 2012, 09:01:32 AMNice article. I agree that we have to do something about Duval County schools to make sure that every child has the opportunity to obtain an excellent education. Today, as the article suggests, may be a step in that direction by installing the right leadership to help get our schools to that point.
thelakelander
August 14, 2012, 09:08:36 AMGreat page at the TU to get the rundown on candidates in all the races: http://news.jacksonville.com/elections/2012/
For school board, I live in District 7. I'm going with Coree Cuff. I think her fiscally strong professional background will be an asset as well as her willingness to incorporate technology into the educational process. It also helps that her 11-year-old is currently enrolled in the public school system.
jaxlore
August 14, 2012, 10:21:53 AMGreat article and recommendations.
fieldafm
August 14, 2012, 10:22:40 AMIn the past, I really wouldn't have cared much about a school board race. Based on studying the issue over the past year (specifically Duval County school performance, college attainment levels and the quality of leadership in our school system), I have come to realize how critically important the School Board and consequently our school system is to our community.
What some may say is an inconsequential election today really couldn't be further from the truth.
Our School Board needs strong leaders. Voter turnout has been very low so far this morning. I urge you to do your duty as someone who cares about your city and vote. If you are on this site, you do care for your city. Do yourself and your community a favor and vote. There are some very strong candidates running today. Our children and our city's future depends on it.
Voting is very easy. There have been virtually no lines at any precincts this morning, and BY LAW your employer can excuse you to go vote. The way voter turnout is today, voting should take 5 minutes. It took longer for me to get a Slurpee this morning (true story).
As an aside, I am also going to plug my vote for Ruth Ann Hepler for County Court Judge Group 12
riverside planner
August 14, 2012, 11:09:17 AMGreat article. I experienced the desegregation order first hand and it did not make for the greatest educational experience. Being bussed from the Southside to the Eastside to a "Sixth Grade Center" was a logistic nightmare, and the effect of going to a new school for one year on the overall educational experience was not that great either. At the high school level, Mandarin High School (where I attended) was not permitted to offer AP math and science classes (we could take calculus, physics, etc., but could not sit for the AP exams). Students wishing to take those classes were supposed to go to Raines or Ribault (can't remember which one) as part of integration efforts. I do not know of a single person who took that option. While the magnet program can be a good thing, I'm not sure that the way it has been implemented is benficial to the students or the community. Logistically, forcing kids to endure hour long commutes to and from school is not the answer.
My daughter will be starting kindergarden next year and we are struggling with where we should send her. It should not be this difficult of a decision.
All that said, go out and vote! The decisions that most directly impact your life are made at the local level, so be part of selecting the decision makers.
cguerrieri
August 14, 2012, 12:51:40 PMBy Troll, Mr. Dare means I wrote, I think district 5 needs a fresh set of eyes not Betty Burney part two which is what Hall will be and people should vote for Gaines Macintosh or myself. Apparently Mr. Dare disagrees and likes the direction the district has been heading in. I on the other hand do not.
Chris Guerrieri
stephendare
August 14, 2012, 01:08:01 PMChris, I am perfectly able to express myself, thank you anyways.
By "troll", I meant that you tried to hijack a thread about one of your opponents without declaring yourself as a person with a direct personal interest in the outcome of the election.
As a blogger yourself, you know exactly what that means, And it's not very above board.
Instead of submitting your own bio and candidate statement, you decided instead to deface another candidates. Unsporting to say the least, and a good indicator as to whether or not you are suited to hold office in an open government that should value direct honesty and which requires you by law to operate in the sunshine.
You have to have more going for you than these shrill accusations that your opponent is actually somebody else.
MissMinda
August 14, 2012, 01:22:42 PMI shared the article on my Facebook page. I'm hoping many read and go out and vote today.
stephendare
August 14, 2012, 04:38:15 PMno telling what the results are until 7 pm one supposes.
Thanks for the kind words about the article guys.
This board has got to be fixed.
There are three more seats coming up for election shortly, and it looks like if we dont start finding and promoting candidates worth voting for, its going to be more of the same----and not just for the school board.
Its time to get smart dynamic people wiht a little vision in there.
ON this much, I agree with Chris Guerrieri whole heartedly.
Tacachale
August 14, 2012, 05:16:47 PMStephen, I'm very happy to see such well considered endorsements coming from Metro Jacksonville. I hope to see more of this in the future.
stephendare
August 14, 2012, 10:54:36 PMwow. Great Job Metrojacksonville voters!
It looks like it went our way tonight!
Suzanne and Ashley in Runoff
stephendare
August 14, 2012, 11:07:15 PMSchool Board Dist. 1: Cheryl Grimes, 56%
School Board Dist. 3: Suzanne Jenkins vs Ashley Smith Juarez in a runoff!
School Board Dist. 5: Connie Hall, 60%
School Board Dist. 7: Jason Fisher vs John Heyman in a runoff Corree Cuff only polled 13.44 %
Read more at Jacksonville.com: http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2012-08-14/story/political-veteran-faces-nonprofit-director-duval-school-board-district-3#ixzz23a0KpGnb
stephendare
August 14, 2012, 11:18:20 PMIn a race slated to be neck-and-neck the entire way, challenger Cheryl Grymes defeated incumbent Martha Barrett for the District 1 seat on the Duval County School Board.
Shortly after election results were released, Grymes, 58, said she believed her leadership and courage led to her win.
“I’m looking forward to seeing what the rest of the board will look like and, from there, bringing on a new superintendent,” Grymes said Tuesday night.
Grymes said she was aware of the difficulty in defeating an incumbent board member but felt voters picked her because “people are really ready for a change.”
“And I have a great deal of respect for Martha,” Grymes said. “It was really difficult. It was tough raising money. We all really just worked hard.”
During the past several weeks, Barrett and Grymes have ran clean, cordial campaigns, politely yet firmly laying out their stances on each issue.
However, the Jacksonville Public Safety Officers, which created negative mailers in the District 3 race, also created negative mailers in the Barrett-Grymes race.
The safety officers is an electioneering communications organization chaired by Paul Daragjati, the lawyer of Jacksonville’s Fraternal Order of Police. The group’s treasurer is Nelson Cuba, president of the police union.
On the front of the mailer, a big bold headline says “Cheryl Grymes wants the school board to go back like it was in 1997.” On the reverse, the mailer asks voters to “Tell Cheryl Grymes we aren’t going back! Our schools are moving forward.”
Grymes said Tuesday night that she saw the mailer and called it disappointing.
“It really was not of merit,” Grymes said, adding that the message only “motivated some of my supporters.”
“Someone actually sent me a check because of it,” Grymes said.
Grymes served on the School Board 12 years ago. She said Tuesday that her next four years will be much different than in the late 1990s.
“Back then most of our issues were over a lawsuit over some sensitive issues, and we didn’t really talk about academic achievement too much,” she said. “And I’m sure this time we’ll have some significant budget issues that we didn’t have to deal with 12 years ago.”
Barrett, 62, will leave the seat with some substantial experience in public governance. She served on the board from 2000 to 2008.
She returned in 2009 after winning a special election and has served ever since.
Read more at Jacksonville.com: http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2012-08-14/story/former-duval-school-board-member-grymes-knocks-incumbent-barrett#ixzz23a5hWHAA
stephendare
August 14, 2012, 11:19:57 PMLongtime educator Connie Hall ran away with victory Tuesday in the Duval County School Board District 5 race.
Hall handily defeated substitute teacher and community advocate Pervalia Gaines-McIntosh and teacher and blogger Chris Guerrieri to succeed her friend Betty Burney on the board.
Burney endorsed Hall for the seat.
Hall did not return calls for comment.
Hall touted her 36 years of education experience in Duval County and her familiarity with the system as the reason voters should support her.
Prior to the election, Hall said her No. 1 priority would be to improve teacher morale. She said she wanted to empower educators by giving them more opportunities for training and support. She also said she wanted retired teachers and administrators to work with novice teachers and leaders.
Hall had said confronting a tough issue like the need to consolidate some of the schools was “inevitable.” Doing so would require transparency and honesty, she said.
During the campaign Guerrieri shined a light on a contract Hall’s company Ready for Tomorrow had pending before the School Board. Guerrieri noted Burney’s husband and board member W.C. Gentry had donated money to Hall’s campaign.
Read more at Jacksonville.com: http://jacksonville.com/news/politics/2012-08-14/story/connie-hall-easily-wins-duval-school-board-district-5#ixzz23a6OCnPH
Jaxson
August 17, 2012, 11:38:55 PMI agree with Stephen that past serves as a rich prologue to our present education problem. Duval County's public school system was run by a group of people who worked their hardest to preserve a divisive system that favored one group's future and prosperity while neglecting even the basic needs of others.
This way of running things, from superintendent down to the newly-hired teacher, was the culture that died hard when Duval finally integrated their schools. Imagine the shock of some teachers who were being transferred involuntarily to an inner-city school because they were being used as pawns in this social experiment. I am sure that resentment was difficult for some teachers who seethed over being put into a culture that they were raised to believe as bad. These feelings may have manifested themselves in the form of unfairly punishing minorities through inconsistent enforcement, ignoring white student on black student assaults, or who openly expressed their prejudice. I do not claim to know how many, but I know that today's situation between minorities and authority figures stems from the fact that these children are the offspring of parents who were those aforementioned students who came under attack from their teachers.
Today, the education field embraces diversity and wants to build better schools for all, but often meets the most resistance to parents of color who still carry those negative memories of how they became collateral damage in the integration battle. This relationship between schools and families further falls apart when the 'street life' carries more currency with young people than advancing themselves academically and starting a career.
Jaxson
August 17, 2012, 11:51:09 PMI honestly believe that Chris Guerrieri's passionate style does not come from anything but accumulated from years of asking the school system to hear him that he tired of the same reindeer games that may be played on Prudential Drive and the Schultz Center. Longtime teachers tend to view many of the middle management to be over-paid consultants and professional development people who stay useful and justify their jobs by making life a living nightmare for the teachers who do not roll over and play dead for the latest new program that must be adopted. There is one 'rock star' who thinks that he is the 'sh*t' because he goes around talking about how being a shop teacher transformed him into the offspring of David Bowie, Mick Jagger and Eric Clapton. Like an infomercial salesman who was sent from the hardware gods to show teachers how to be the superior master teacher that he is. We're being blitzed by folks like this everyday. The fear is quite palpable among teachers who fear their regular inspections. Well, that is the system that my friend Chris wanted to wake up voters to. I believe Chris to be an honorable advocate for public education by exposing in his blog and in the local media the issues that faced educators regarding the very political nature of schools today. Many may perceive him to be strident or rude, but I believe that nobody would question his sincerity. He put a lot on the line for his ideals and I hope that he has a good school year.