JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The future of three Jacksonville middle schools and thousands of students was discussed Tuesday night at a Duval County School Board workshop.
The eight school board members met with interim Superintendent Dr. Patricia Willis and other staff to talk about options if the schools don’t improve to a "C" grade or better this year.
Following legislation passed in Florida this year, Lake Forest Elementary, Matthew Gilbert and Northwestern Middle must have a turnaround plan submitted to the state's Department of Education by next week.
The school board is focusing on three main options for each school:
The three schools have more than 1,300 students.
Board Chair Paula Wright said she has confidence that the three schools in danger due to poor grades can improve, referencing the school board's turnaround track record since 2011.
"The most important thing to me is that we make sure every student, every parent, every teacher, every administrator understand that we value the work that they do," Wright said. "We are fully supporting their efforts and we are encouraging them, but we are going to be walking the walk with them."
The school board reiterated that this process is complex and it has not made any decisions at this time.
Board members said they will be looking for what their Community Assessment Team Meeting brings Thursday. The meeting starts at 6 p.m. and will be held at Matthew Gilbert Middle School.