JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Duval County Public Schools has released updated plans for a new Venetia Elementary School after residents raised concerns about traffic and the size of the proposed campus. The School Board voted earlier this month against moving forward with plans to begin designing the school.
The district’s initial proposal would have accommodated 1,200 students. Under the revised plan, capacity would be reduced to 840.
Sue Armstrong, who has lived in the Venetia neighborhood for 36 years, said she is concerned about congestion and preserving the area’s history.
“We have Timuquana Country Club traffic. We have Navy traffic going up and down Roosevelt Boulevard. We have accidents on Roosevelt Boulevard all the time,” Armstrong said.
Jim Colbert, chief operating officer for Duval County Public Schools, said the smaller campus is a better fit for the neighborhood.
Colbert said a new traffic study was completed Tuesday and sent to city of Jacksonville traffic engineers.
“The traffic studies showed that we’d need to have a queuing length that would support about 175 total cars, so we actually made the queuing length to support 225 cars in it. So it’s well over capacity of what we really truly need there,” Colbert said.
The district expects the school to require 19 buses and accommodate 123 parent pickups. The campus plan also incorporates two nearby retention ponds to maintain drainage in the area.
Longtime Venetia Elementary parent Deborah Eichelberger said the aging school needs to be replaced.
“This is not a renovation. That school was falling apart. They had heating coming from the floor, which was unsafe for kindergartners and first graders,” Eichelberger said.
Eichelberger said she understands residents’ traffic concerns but believes investments in students should remain the priority.
“Venetia Elementary has been an A school for a number of years. They’re going to continue to be an A school for many years to come,” Eichelberger said.
The lower student capacity also reduced the project’s estimated cost. The original budget was about $170 million. The revised proposal is expected to cost less than $49 million.
The new plan is scheduled to go before the School Board for a vote in November.
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