started a petition in December<\/a> urging the city to enforce safety rules for the school. Nearly 400 people have signed it. <\/p>\n\u201cWe\u2019re just asking the city to enforce the rules they set for the school \u2014 like having crossing guards at drop-off and pickup, staggering the times, and making sure privacy barriers are in place,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Discovery School\u2019s head, Petra Obritzberger, responded to the petition with a letter stating the school staggers drop-off times and does not have an intersection requiring a crossing guard. <\/p>\n
The letter emphasized the school\u2019s efforts to be a good neighbor.<\/p>\n
Obritzberger was unavailable for an interview but shared this statement: <\/p>\n
The Discovery School continues to work closely with the City of Jacksonville Beach to maintain full compliance with all applicable city requirements and legal regulations. Our priority has always been to operate responsibly and in alignment with established guidelines while serving the educational needs of our students.<\/p>\n
\u00a0As an independent, not-for-profit school, we have served the Jacksonville Beach and larger community for 35 years.\u00a0 We remain committed to being good neighbors and look forward to sustaining our productive partnership with local officials to ensure The Discovery School remains a positive community presence for many years to come.<\/p>\n
Discovery School\u2019s head, Petra Obritzberger<\/p>\n
Despite the school\u2019s assurances, neighbors like Brzuska say the problems persist. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not a fight against the school, this is us standing up for our community. This is us just standing up for our safety and for our quality of life,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The City of Jacksonville Beach acknowledged the traffic concerns and said city staff are working with residents and school leadership to find solutions. <\/p>\n
In a statement sent to News4JAX, a city spokesperson said: <\/p>\n
The City is aware of the traffic concerns during school drop-off and pickup times and continues to monitor the situation closely. While traffic congestion during these periods is not unique and occurs at schools throughout the Beaches, City staff have met with concerned residents and school leadership and are working collaboratively to identify potential solutions focused on safety and traffic flow. At this time, the school is operating in compliance with applicable requirements.<\/p>\n
Spokesperson for City of Jacksonville Beach<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE BEACH, Fla. \u2013 Jacksonville Beach resident Donnie Brzuska is raising concerns about traffic safety near Discovery School,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":132992,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[65345,116,2130,118,117,504,729],"class_list":["post-132991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-discovery-school","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-beach","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-safety","tag-traffic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132991"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132991\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/132992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}