JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Duval County students return to class Monday, August 13. The new school year includes a new superintendent with lofty goals for the district to take the lead in educational improvement.
Student success, academic improvement and improving school performance are among the initial goals for Dr. Diana Greene. She began her teaching career at Mamie Agnes Jones Elementary School in Baldwin years ago and has since served other Florida school districts. Now she’s back home in the Jacksonville area and is counting on Team Duval to spearhead the movement toward academic improvement.
"The fact we have school choice, parents can find those programs their child has an interest in and be able to work to get to that school,” said Greene. “The students are much more engaged in the academic process when they are at a program that is of interest to them.”
School safety
School safety is also a priority and Greene knows that effective parent and family communication is key, and emerged as a central topic of dialogue in the wake of the deadly Parkland shooting incident. One security upgrade involves the School Safety Assistant program.
“It's been challenging for those individuals to make it from the interview all the way through the end of that recruitment process,” Greene told News4Jax anchor Bruce Hamilton. “We are struggling to find people who can come in, interview, pass a psychological, a polygraph, then pass the arms training with the sheriff's department. They must pass that at an 85 percent level, which is very challenging, higher than a sheriff or deputy.”
WATCH: Interview with Dr. Diana Green on The Morning Show
Team Duval
Greene said that first and foremost, educators here believe in our students and it’s that belief that fuels what she dubs Team Duval’s motivation to go the extra mile.
“Team Duval makes up the entire community of Jacksonville, whether it's the superintendent down to the classroom where the rubber meets the road. We need everyone in between to rally around our students, rally around our schools, and become engaged in the educational process,” Greene said. “It's easy to criticize the school district but the real work is finding solutions, be part of the solution, help us move our school district to that 'A' rating.”
Budget
And even though this has been a challenging budget year, art and music are back as a major part of the curriculum. Greene added, “Our goal is we're going to really focus on our budget this year, so we can ensure we're not going to use those positions to balance the budget in the upcoming years.”
Turnaround schools
There are currently 29 turnaround schools in the district.
In her first year as superintendent, Greene is focused on bringing the school district together to provide students with the best education possible and to make sure that low scoring schools get the resources and support they need to be successful.
WATCH: Superintendent's plan to turn around schools
She will go over her turnaround plans with the school board to discuss ways to improve schools who scored a ‘D’ or ‘F’ on the state report card. She recently hired former state education employee, Wayne Green, to lead the charge.
“It’s all about focus and through Wayne Green, we’ve developed a focus strategy to ensure that those schools have the resources and support that is needed,” Greene said.
Part of her plan includes hiring more assistant principals to support new teachers, implementing supplemental curriculum, and providing more professional development.
Greene said one of the big keys to making sure students and schools are successful is communication. She will present her plans to the school board Tuesday night.