The Duval County School Board tackled charter schools and decided to delay seeking mediation help Tuesday night.
Mediator
Board members had agreed last month they needed a mediator to help board members and the superintendent with team building and communication. Members were expected to rank potential mediators Tuesday so district staff could begin negotiations with the top pick and work down the list until a contract with one could be reached.
However, Board member Paula Wright said the board only received two responses so they deferred the ranking a couple weeks.
“We’re anticipating two more from other organizations so we will have more information and other proposals by Oct. 11,” Wright said.
The board decided on the third-party after making headlines last month when a member asked the superintendent to resign.
Seaside Charter
Board members unanimously approved the application for a new K-8 charter school in the Mayport area.
Seaside operators already run an elementary charter, Seaside Community Charter School, which is an A school.
The schools use what’s called the Waldorf teaching method, with heavy focus on art and hands-on learning.
Seaside school staff and parents turned up in force after some board members, like Becki Couch, had expressed concerns the school wouldn’t be diverse enough after giving priority to students who went to Seaside’s voluntary prekindergarten, which isn’t free. Although VPK is free to Florida kids, Seaside offers an extended day so parents pay for child care.
“I had a little pause with that because it kind of creates a diversity issue when it’s a paid preference, you kind of pay for your priority into the school,” Couch said.
Seaside board members say that’s typically applied to just five or six kids a year.
Low-performing Charters
The school board also approved improvement plans for seven charter schools that received D or F grades last year.
Charters that earn two F’s in a row are automatically terminated.
Charters get public school dollars, but are controversial because they are privately run.
Vystar
The board approved student-run VyStar bank programs to go in Fletcher and Mandarin High Schools next year.
Vystar has these programs in 11 northeast Florida schools, three of them in Duval County. The most recent began this school year at First Coast High School.
Students selected for these programs get class credit to run a real in-school VyStar branch. Board member Scott Shine thanked VyStar staff Tuesday.
“This program has provided a gateway to not only educate and train our students about finance and working in banking,” Shine said, but also has been a gateway for some of them to come employed.”
Reporter Lindsey Kilbride can be reached at lkilbride@wjct.org, 904-358-6359 or on Twitter at@lindskilbride
