Local

Duval School Board meeting gets heated after week of tension

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Tensions rose at a Duval County School Board meeting on Friday.

This comes after intense drama between the school board Chair Ashley Smith-Juarez, and Superintendent Nikolai Vitti.

Action News Jax learned Smith-Juarez called for Vitti to resign, but he refused.

“I will never, I will never withhold information from the public, about what’s going on in this board room that affects their interest,” said school board member Scott Shine.

Those were the strong words Shine used after his fellow board members criticized him for releasing a letter to the media about problems between Vitti and Smith-Juarez.

Action News Jax showed you the letters from earlier this week, when Juarez said Vitti did not have high enough standards for students. She has since denied wanting him to leave.

Friday, in a board meeting that was standing room only, parents, teachers and community leaders voiced their support for Vitti. Smith-Juarez initially ignored our questions after the meeting, but did agree to talk later.

“If it was my intention to call for a vote on the superintendent’s contract, I would have called for that on the agenda,” said Smith-Juarez.

“All of us are deeply passionate and committed to children and we all made sacrifices to do this work and sometimes we have differences of opinions,” said Vitti.

Both Vitti and Smith-Juarez worked out their differences. Both apologized and decided to move on.

The board will meet in a public workshop to talk about the future of the district. That meeting will take place on Monday morning at 9 a.m.

Trending on ActionNewsJax.com: