The Duval County School Board will vote Tuesday on whether to rename the Young Men’s and Young Women’s Leadership Academy as Jacksonville STEM Academy at Eugene Butler.

The name change is proposed because the district recently changed the school’s magnet program offerings. Beginning in August, the school phased out the leadership program known for its single-gender instructional model and introduced a program in agriscience in its place.

During a workshop last month, the board discussed its upcoming vote to rename the school. 

District 4 rep Reggie Blount said he had heard community support both for and against keeping “Eugene Butler” as part of the new STEM academy’s name. District administrators said it would be a longer process to remove Butler’s eponymous name — and might confuse prospective students — and so chose to keep it. 

“We decided just to move forward with ‘Jacksonville STEM Academy at Eugene Butler.’ It would be the easiest fit,” Principal Leon Mungin told the board. “We have amazing things going on. We had a great recruitment season, and we didn’t want the parents and the students to be confused when they look at what school they’re going to.”

According to district spokesperson Arwen FitzGerald, the magnet program change was approved during a community review process last year. 

“The name change is an adjustment to align with the new program at the school,” she todl Jacksonville Today.

FitzGerald emphasized that the school would stay open — something supporters advocated for during a contentious round of school closures in October 2024. 

Superintendent Christopher Bernier proposed closing the leadership academy then as part of a cost-savings measure he said was needed to make up for a “$100 million debt.” The school’s supporters and students pleaded with the School Board to keep it open; Bernier withdrew his proposal.

Six months later, documents provided by Duval Schools show the district again proposed discontinuing the leadership academy program — and this time presented a plan to replace it with the STEM-focused agriscience academy program.  

Documents included within Tuesday’s meeting agenda say the change was approved through a community review the district calls an ACE process. It is unclear who served on the school’s ACE committee, though board policies suggest district and school administrators, as well as a parent representative.

It’s also unclear when the committee gave its approval, though documents suggest it was likely in late spring 2025.

District records show Mungin was transferred to the school as its principal in time for the current school year, in July 2025. Its previous principal, Tamara Feagins, was transferred to J. Allen Axson to serve as that school’s principal. Mungin, an experienced and award-winning administrator, began his teaching career as a science teacher in Duval Schools.

Butler’s beginnings

A decade ago, then-Superintendent Nikolai Vitti created the leadership academy at Eugene Butler. The school had had a long string of failing grades from the state, and enrollment was dropping. Vitti said he’d seen the single-gender format work in other districts. 

Named for one of Jacksonville’s storied Black educators, Eugene Butler Junior-Senior High School opened in 1966 — more than a decade after Brown v. Board of Education, but five years before Duval Schools got a court order to integrate. 

Construction delays complicated the school’s opening but didn’t stop its first head football coach, Alvin G. White, from recruiting players for its inaugural season. 

The school’s first principal, George B. Nairn, made the news for his plans to incorporate a new technology: educational television. Butler’s new program, too, will grow Duval Schools’ portfolio of tech teaching tools.

Yvonne Day, who is the district’s director of science, says the STEM academy will “provide students with hands-on learning experiences in agricultural technology, environmental concepts, computer science, artificial intelligence, and data science.”

The goal is to give students tools that will be immediately useful in real-world career settings.

“Jacksonville STEM Academy will enhance our district by increasing access to quality STEM education opportunities, creating career-connected pathways and fostering graduates who are ready to join Jacksonville’s innovation economy,” she wrote in an email.