JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Members of the Duval County School Board held a workshop on Tuesday to discuss the Schools of Hope program, an effort by charter schools to locate in underused district space.
Last year, the Florida Department of Education expanded the Schools of Hope program to allow certain charter schools to co-locate in public schools for free, if there’s enough room and the plans meet other criteria.
Action News Jax previously told you about Miami-based charter operator, Mater Academy, and its plan to move into Duval County schools. The charter school sent letters to Duval County, requesting to move into 25 district schools.
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But in December, Mater Academy withdrew 23 of those offers, still leaving room for the charter school to move into Merrill Road Elementary and Fort Caroline School of the Arts.
On January 8, DCPS formally rejected Mater Academy’s co-location applications for both of those schools due to it being ‘materially impractical.’
“For Fort Caroline, the reasons that we use were around their specialized arts program,” said Eugene Hays, Director of the Office of School Choice Pathways for DCPS. “The way that building is utilized is not exactly coherent to use with a co-located school. For Merrill Road, you as a board have already approved the merger of Don Brewer into Merrill Road, and that’s not going to leave enough student stations.”
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But school board members still have questions about how a charter school co-located within a district school would logistically work.
“How does the DOE determine that a School of Hope applicant has a proven track record?” asked DCPS School Board member Cindy Pearson.
“As far as resources like the resource officers, things like that, is that something that’s worked in?” asked DCPS School Board member Reginald Blount.
School board members hope to get some answers during the Florida Department of Education’s rule-making workshop for schools of hope on Monday, January 26.
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