PUBLIC SCHOOL

The new school marks the third elementary school — out of 28 new public schools being constructed in Duval County — to be built under the taxpayer-funded master facility plan.

Duval County Public School leaders plan to break ground Wednesday on a 94,000-square-foot rebuild of Southside Estates Elementary School, which will see the consolidation of students at the school’s current campus and Windy Hill Elementary, when it opens in August 2024.

Duval County Public Schools is in the market for “parents and community members” who want a hand in reviewing instructional materials used in the county’s classrooms.

Parents have been surprised to find their schools’ bookshelves empty during the review process as districts across the state perform a mass review of all classroom libraries and media centers.

Duval County Public Schools is performing a mass review of all classroom libraries and media centers throughout the district after the Florida Department of Education handed down directives parallel to new state law.

Ten of Duval County’s 40 charter schools are now working to improve their operations after receiving “D” or “F” grades from the state.

Residents told News4Jax there have been issues with people entering the school for a long time.

The cause of a fire Sunday morning at an abandoned school on the city’s Eastside is considered suspicious, according to the Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department.

Andrew Cuomo said Monday he's ordering schools in certain New York City neighborhoods closed within a day in an attempt to halt a flare-up of the coronavirus. Andrew Cuomo said Tuesday, saying the severity of shutdowns would vary by proximity to the hot spots. In orange zones, schools also will be remote-only, and nonessential enterprises considered high risk — such as gyms and personal-care businesses — will be closed. In yellow zones, businesses and schools can stay open, with mandatory weekly testing of a yet-to-be-determined percentage of students and teachers. In New York City, about 11,600 people have tested positive since Sept. 1, compared with less than 7,400 in August.

The city's plans to send kids back into classrooms rely on an ambitious plan to do random virus testing of pupils and staff throughout the school year. The New York and Los Angeles systems are respectively the nation's largest and 2nd-largest school districts. New York City elementary school students began returning to school buildings Tuesday after starting the year remote. Middle and high school students started going back Thursday. Boston Public Schools will offer random virus testing to 5% of teachers weekly, under an agreement with the teachers union.

Some say it's haunted and some tell ghost stories about the children who attended classes at Annie Lytle Elementary School. The janitor never killed kids," said Paul Bremer, with the Annie Lytle Preservation Group. The Annie Lytle Preservation Group has put up signs, letting you know the thing you need fear is a trip to jail, not ghosts. The Annie Lytle Preservation Group is warning trespassers that the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office has ramped up security ahead of Halloween. In the past, the old school building has been defaced, set on fire, broken into and littered with trash from trespassers.