The Florida State Board of Education is asking Duval Superintendent Nikolai Vitti to revise two of the district's school boundary changes.
Vitti attended the state meeting Thursday to present plans to fix six low-performing schools. Those include turning Oak Hill Elementary into a center for autistic kids and Hyde Grove into an early-learning center.
Vitti said the problem with those two schools is that student reassignments included some D schools.
For instance, students who live in the Oak Hill Elementary area were reassigned to Jacksonville Heights, Cedar Hills and Gregory Drive Elementaries. Gregory Drive received a D.
But he said it isn't an issue because students can choose where they want to go and the district encourages it.
“We allowed parents to not only consider the new boundaries, but we certainly allow them to pick other schools in the area including magnets, charters, non-dedicated magnets, and most of those schools were provided with transportation,” Vitti said.
Vitti said the district will rectify the problem by sending a letter to parents assigning those children to a C or better school, while also letting them know they can opt for a different one.
He said many students already have. Students who previously were assigned to Oak Hill have chosen 45 different schools to attend and students previously assigned to Hyde Grove are going to 54 schools.
He said he doesn’t want those students’ parents to think the letter means they can’t go to the school they’ve selected.
“Parents need to clearly know and understand that whatever school they selected at this point, they can remain at that school,” he said.
The Board of Education accepted Vitti’s four other school plans, including three using a “hybrid model.”
Photo used under Creative Commons.
