$220K in renovations to help shine light on school in Jacksonville’s urban core

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — While some schools are making cuts to music classes, Jacksonville Arts and Music School is expanding theirs with the help of generous donors.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held inside of the school Friday afternoon to show off $220,000 in renovations.

“You don’t want music to be in your audio when you’re trying to film so it was important that we spread everybody out,” Executive Director Jason Peoples said.

Peoples says the donation from local businesses came just in time.

“We knew this year we wanted to push for something called the JAMS 100 which is 100 students in the building, so we knew it was vital to expand to accommodate those students,” Peoples said.

When the program at the school began it started with twenty students.

10th grader Jaylen Robinson is taking film and dance classes.

She is among sixty students at the school.

“It inspires, it creates leaders,” Robinson said.

Peoples says the 6,000 square-foot expansion will provide performance spaces for art, music, film, and robotics.

“We doubled that with the new renovation,” Peoples explained.

For students like Jaylen, the renovation is good news.

“Being a leader is not just JAMS, you have to be a leader everywhere in the world. It also helps you to be good followers,” Robinson said.

“There is a need for diversity and inclusion in our leadership to get where we want to be and we’re here to make sure we provide those leaders,” Peoples added.

Peoples said their goal is to get 200 hundred students signed up for the music program. He says phase four will also include parking and flow of traffic nearby the school.

Jacksonville Arts and Music School gave Action News Jax pictures of the renovation:

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