ATLANTIC BEACH, Fla. — Atlantic Beach is hosting a town hall at the Gail Baker Community Center Saturday to discuss a resolution regarding Atlantic Beach Elementary School, one of schools that could close according to a proposal from Duval County Public Schools.
Atlantic Beach City commissioners unanimously passed the resolution Monday at a city meeting. Residents donned pink after the color of the school.
At a School Board meeting earlier this month, board members stressed this is only a proposal and the board doesn't have a goal of closing schools. Citing high construction costs, schools whose futures seemed certain after voters approved a half-penny sales tax for building improvements in 2020 are on the chopping block.
A gap in construction funding could register as high as $1.4 billion, pushing school board members toward the proposal.
“We’ve got a financial scenario on our hands that just is not going to end well if we don’t adjust,” School Board member Kelly Coker said during a workshop last month.
The loss of the "A" school would be a "detriment to the Atlantic Beach community," the resolution states. Atlantic Beach Elementary has been open since 1939 and currently has close to 500 students. A petition to save the school has been signed by more than 1,400 people.
The city further asked that the school located at 298 Sherry Drive remain open "respectfully requests the Duval County School Board takes action to ensure that Atlantic Beach Elementary School continues to operate as the community's elementary school and is not subject to closure."
On Monday, former Atlantic Beach Mayor Suzanne Shaughnessy said she never imagined something like this could actually be proposed. Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan came to show her support on Monday.
"It seems extraordinarily unlikely that this school would ever make it onto some list that would be seriously considered for closure, simply because it is so well supported by the community, it is so well attended, it is an 'A' school, it is a staple of Atlantic Beach," Deegan said.
Westside High and Fishweir, John Stockton, Lone Star and Seabreeze elementaries as well as Anchor Academy were also on the list.
The threatened buildings were all slated for work, varying from ordinary maintenance to total replacement, that was part of a $1.9 billion facilities initiative dubbed “the Bold Plan” the board adopted in 2019 that relied partly on the sales tax.
The Bold Plan includes construction of 28 new schools, including several now under construction.
School officials have been revisiting that initiative since last fall, after costs at the first projects funded by the sales tax finished so far over budget that completing the entire work list was recalculated to cost $3.9 billion — more than twice the price voters heard before approving the tax, according to the Florida Times-Union.