JACKSONVILLE, Fla.
– Plans to rebuild Venetia Elementary School in Jacksonville are moving forward, but not without some conditions attached.
What was decided
The Joint Planning Committee, bringing together representatives from the City of Jacksonville and Duval County Public Schools, met Friday to continue discussions on the future of Venetia Elementary School.
The committee approved moving forward with the school board’s master facility plan to tear down and rebuild the school with a capacity of 840 students.
Renovating the existing building was taken off the table entirely.
Officials say it would cost more to renovate than to simply rebuild from the ground up.
RELATED | Duval County parents push back on 1,200-seat Venetia Elementary expansion
The conditions
That approval came with conditions.
The committee is recommending a traffic study to address concerns about ingress and egress in the area of Roosevelt Boulevard and Timucuan Road before the project moves forward.
How the plan got here
The plan has been revised several times.
Back in September, the school board originally discussed housing up to 1,200 students, but after significant public pushback, that number was reduced to 840.
Even at that capacity, traffic patterns in the surrounding neighborhood have remained a top concern.
The district has already voted to consolidate Ortega Elementary into Venetia at the end of the 2027-2028 school year.
Combined, the two schools would serve around 814 students.
Staff also suggested several alternative locations for the school, including John Stockton, Timucuan, Ortega, Bay View, Fishweir and Sadie T. Tillis elementaries, but officials say none of those sites were suitable due to size and other factors.
City of Jacksonville Council Member Rahman Johnson says Venetia Elementary has generated a lot of community response.
“I’ve gotten hundreds of calls, emails, text messages, carrier pigeons, whatever you say about Venetia. A lot of people don’t want the school to go and they also don’t want it to be as large as it’s preslated to be, even though the capacity was decreased down to 840 students. A lot of them said, hey, we just don’t want that either. So right now we’re in that place of figuring out what to do,” Johnson said.
The committee’s recommendation will now go before the school board for a final decision.
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