As the Duval County Public Schools (DCPS) Board prepares to vote on the closure of Ortega Elementary at its upcoming August meeting, with the plan to consolidate it into a new 1,200-student build at Venetia Elementary, some parents and community members are asking the district: What’s the rush?
Concerned residents turned out in large numbers at a series of community meetings in June and July to ask questions and share concerns about the new build planned for Venetia Elementary School, which now stands empty as students and faculty have been relocated to Hyde Grove Elementary School for the current school year. Conversations swirled about how the larger footprint and increased traffic would impact the Venetia community, which already faces significant traffic congestion during drop-off and pickup times during the school year.
“We live with a 350-student school, and the traffic is terrible,” said Susan Donnell, who lives two blocks from Venetia Elementary. “During pickup and drop-off, they’re lined up on other streets because there’s not enough room. It’s physically impossible.”
Donnell added she is not opposed to a new build for Venetia Elementary, but she is concerned about the proposed size, pushing instead for a new build that fits the size and character of the Venetia neighborhood.
The new build is not without supporters, however. At a public meeting at Hyde Grove Elementary School on July 16, Venetia Elementary School teachers spoke in support of the new build.
“We are excited for our A school to get a new build,” said one Venetia teacher during public comment. “We’re excited for that new build for our A school, and we’re excited for our children to get that big building for their hard work because they’ve been working so hard.”
For many, though, the impact an influx of more cars and school buses could have on the neighborhood remains a concern.
Laura Garcia, a parent at John Stockton Elementary School, has family living in the condos near Venetia Elementary and echoed Donnell’s comments.
“You can barely get in there now, and that’s 368 kids,” Garcia said.
During these community meetings, DCPS officials shared information about a traffic study, which they said is ongoing, though some residents expressed confusion as to why the traffic study is incomplete when preparations for demolition have already begun at Venetia, though actual demolition isn’t expected to begin until January.
Following the July 22 meeting, DCPS Deputy Superintendent Corey Wright said the traffic study is on schedule.
“The traffic study is on time in this process,” Wright said. “We typically do the traffic study in conjunction with preparing to demolish a building and design the new building. I think there was probably an opportunity to better inform the community about the process in general and what comes when, so we’re working to do that.”
A prototype of what the new 1,200-student Venetia Elementary School could look like.
“The traffic study will definitely provide guidance and inform some of the patterns in which the traffic would come into the building, and definitely make certain the traffic patterns, the intake, the queuing lines will be able to accommodate the number of students that will be in attendance,” Wright continued.
Residents inquired about the name of the engineering firm conducting the traffic study at the July 16 meeting, and DCPS officials were unable to answer. Resident News later inquired with DCPS and was told that the traffic study is being completed through PBK Architects, the project designer.
DCPS District 5 Board Member Reginald Blount attended all three community meetings, along with several other district board members. Following the July 22 meeting, he said the community has valid concerns, and he wants to see them addressed.
“I think they’re legitimate concerns to the point where we’ve really got to go back to a workshop to discuss this, if that’s an option, and see if there’s a different way forward rather than the current,” Blount said. “Just to see, I’m making no promises.”
Ortega Elementary School was identified for closure in the district’s 2019 Master Facility Plan. At its Aug. 4 meeting, the DCPS Board is also expected to vote on whether to identify Ortega Elementary as surplus property, though Blount told Resident News there is a separate process to place it on the market. Speculation surrounding the building’s future has already begun to circulate through the neighborhood.
Alex Stone, an Ortega Elementary parent and president of the Friends of Ortega nonprofit, said the building should remain a community resource.
“Ortega is an historic building. It’s a contributory structure to the neighborhood. To not have it be a community resource and be sold to a private entity or a charter school is completely defeating the purpose of the building,” Stone said. “…To abandon that value is just a travesty. To further that and it go to somebody else, and it not remain with the community is just absurd, and it’s just disheartening too.”
Blount said he’d prefer to see the property continue to serve the community in some way.
“My preference is always that we repurpose the property first for the community, fast enough where the charter schools don’t grab it, and then see where we go from there,” Blount said. “I’m always about the community first before we look at real estate moguls all over the city trying to get it.”
Community meetings will begin in January to discuss redrawing the boundaries for the new Venetia Elementary School, which could result in additional school closures in the surrounding areas. Wright said currently the only school identified to close and consolidate into the new Venetia building is Ortega Elementary.
The new Venetia Elementary School is expected to open in time for the 2028-29 school year.