OFFICE OF
THE CITY COUNCIL
117 WEST DUVAL STREET, SUITE 425
4TH FLOOR, CITY HALL
JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA 32202
904-630-1377
JOINT
CITY COUNCIL/SCHOOL BOARD MEETING MINUTES - amended
City
Council Chamber, 1st floor, City Hall
November 14, 2017
11:30
a.m.
Location: City Council
Chamber, City Hall – St. James Building; 117 West Duval Street,
In attendance:
City Council Members Anna Lopez
Brosche (President), Greg Anderson, Danny Becton, Aaron Bowman, Katrina Brown (arr. 12:40 p.m.), Doyle Carter,
Garrett Dennis, Al Ferraro, Bill Gulliford, Reggie Gaffney, Tommy Hazouri, Jim
Love, Joyce Morgan, Matt Schellenberg, Scott Wilson
Excused; City Council
Members Reggie Brown, John Crescimbeni, Lori
Boyer, Sam Newby
School Board Members Paula
Wright (Chair), Becky Couch, Cheryl Grymes, Lori Hershey, Warren Jones, Ashley
Smith Juarez, Scott Shine
Also: Peggy Sidman and Paige Johnston – Office of
General Counsel; Kyle Billy and Kim Taylor – Council Auditor’s Office; Cheryl
Brown – Director/Council Secretary; Carol Owens, Adri Segui, Crystal
Shemwell – Legislative Services Division; Jeff Clements – Council Research
Division; Bill Killingsworth – Director of Planning and Development; Chris
LeDew – City Traffic Engineer; Dr. Patricia Willis – School Superintendent; Don
Nelson – Assistant Superintendent for Operations
Meeting Convened:
12:07 p.m. (following lunch beginning at 11:30 a.m.)
President Brosche called the meeting to order and Council Member
Carter gave the invocation and led the Pledge of Allegiance. A verbal roll call
of both bodies was taken.
School Board Member Warren Jones started the first topic – concurrency
management and funding for schools designated as storm shelters – by noting
that the school district has not received any funding from the concurrency
management system for school purposes. The district has the largest number of
schools 50 or more years old in the state, and plans to build 2 new K-8
schools. The School Board has millage levy authority, but cannot increase its
current millage without a voter referendum, unlike the City Council that can
raise the rate with a vote of the Council. Don Nelson, Assistant Superintendent
for Operations, explained the magnitude of the district’s capital needs for new
schools, repairs, upgrades, expansions and recent hurricane damages. In
response to a question about reductions in the school millage in recent years,
Mr. Jones said that the state controls the district’s millage rate and is
responsible for the reductions in recent years. School Board Member Couch noted
that a recent change in state law requires the School Board to share district
capital funds with charter schools, which are not under the same state
requirement to make and publish 5-year capital plans. Council Member Schellenberg
noted that the St. Johns County Commission recently raised its sales tax to
benefit schools. In response to a question from Council Member Morgan, School
Board Member Jones said that the district has a long list of prioritized needs
that they will share with the Council.
Chairwoman Wright suggested the need to appoint a subcommittee with
members from both bodies to explore how the School Board could begin receiving
revenue from the City’s concurrency fees. Mr. Nelson said that the district is
generating approximately $95 million in capital funding this year and it is
estimated that the charter schools in the county will be eligible to receive
approximately $16 million in capital dollars over the next 5 years. He noted
that the rules attached to uses of funding are not the same for public schools
and charter schools. School Board Member Hershey said that the continuous
millage rate roll-backs by the Legislature prevent the schools from receiving
any benefit from assessed value growth in the county. She noted that the Duval
Legislative Delegation has agreed to visit school storm shelters in the next
month to see the needs.
In response to a question from Council Member Bowman, School Board
Member Scott Shine said that the district is not permitted to go into the
charter school business, except that persistently failing public schools may be
converted to charter schools. In some parts of town the emergence of charter
schools has had little effect on the public schools because they were already
overcrowded; in other areas the charters are drawing students out of public schools
with available capacity, thereby increasing the costs of running half-empty
schools with fewer per-pupil dollars. He said that the district faces the
daunting prospect of having to make $1 billion in repairs and upgrades to
existing schools which will require a huge bond issue at some point.
T.R. Hainline, Chair of the Joint Planning Committee appointed jointly
by the School Board and City Council, explained the committee’s functions. He
noted that public school concurrency was a requirement of state-mandated city
and county comprehensive plans until 2011, when the state law was changed and
the requirement was removed, making that element optional. The Joint Planning
Committee has met 11 times over the last year to discuss school concurrency
issues. Mr. Hainline distributed minutes of a recent meeting of the school
district staff and the School Board appointees to the Joint Planning Commission
to discuss the concurrency system. A basic finding by the School Board staff is
that it is impossible to determine how many children from a new residential
development will attend neighborhood schools because of the wide range of
attendance options available to families (open enrollment, charter schools,
magnets, private schools, etc.). Determining concurrency measurement zones is
problematic; if the zones are too large then they will encompass distant
schools with available capacity and all development reviews will pass; if the
zones are too small (i.e. each school’s attendance zone) then a concurrency
funding account will need to be established for each zone and they will
generate small amounts of funding that are insufficient to make any substantial
improvements. The Joint Planning Committee recommended that Jacksonville
abandon school concurrency, as 24 other Florida counties have already done,
including Palm Beach County. School Board Member Jones noted that most counties
in Florida have impact fees that help fund their school systems, including
fast-growing neighboring counties like St. Johns and Clay.
Chris LeDew, City Traffic Engineer and Chair of the School Safety
Committee, discussed how the City and School Board staff can work together to
address traffic issues relating to schools. He invited City Council and School
Board members to send him any specific concerns about safety issues for the
committee to explore. He reviewed the Committee’s policy on where school safety
zones and crossing guards are warranted. In response to a question from Council
Member Dennis, Mr. LeDew promised to look into the question of whether school
buses can be parked in residential neighborhoods and if not, what enforcement
mechanism is appropriate. Council Member Hazouri urged better communication
among elected officials and staff at both the school district and city
government to highlight problems, make requests, and share information. In
response to a question from Council Member Katrina Brown, Mr. LeDew said that
most of the work done by Traffic Engineering with regard to schools is
complaint-driven rather than proactive, in part because of the small staff and
volume of work that needs to be done.
President Brosche thanked everyone for their attendance and said that
another meeting to continue discussing items of mutual interest may be in
order. School Board Chair Wright said that there is a lot to celebrate in the
school system (only 1 failing school out of 133 district-managed schools in a
B-rated district) and the schools need the City’s support and promotion.
Building neighborhoods and revitalizing economies will revitalize the schools
with new residents and economic progress. Ms. Wright said that she definitely
wants to schedule another joint meeting to discuss how to revitalize
neighborhoods and their schools.
Meeting adjourned:
1:33 p.m.
Minutes: Jeff Clements, Council Research Division
11.15.17
Posted 3:00 p.m.
Tapes: Joint City Council/School
Board meeting – LSD
11.14.17