JACKSONVILLE BEACH, Fla. — Jacksonville Beach Elementary School is one of the brightest that not just Duval County, but the entire state of Florida has to offer. Action News Jax told you last month when it was ranked the best elementary school in the state, with a perfect 100 percent of students ranking proficient in math and 97 percent proficient in reading.
Parents toured the school Saturday as part of the start of the school choice period, which allows parents and students to get a firsthand look at school options for the next school year.
However, parents told Action News Jax one big issue is, many of the kids who want to go to Jax Beach Elementary aren’t actually able to attend the school.
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“What you don’t know, is in this case with Jacksonville Beach Elementary, we have a waitlist,” Jax Beach Elementary mom Cynthia Veintemillas Labuz told Action News Jax. “We have a waitlist of over 150 students. Yet we’re not receiving those students.”
This comes as Jax Beach Elementary School parent teacher organization president Stephanie Deverson says the school has already cut two teachers, and is about to cut the third, due to the district saying there’s not enough kids to fill the classrooms.
“Currently this school is facing losing another teacher, that would be the third teacher of the year that we would be losing,” Deverson explained on Saturday.
“They’re cutting teachers because ‘you’re enrollment’s down, you don’t have enough students to fill these classrooms’ … but we do. There’s a waitlist,” Labuz argued. “So why don’t you call those parents?”
Now, Labuz is demanding transparency from Duval County Public Schools on how administrators decide when to accept or deny students on any given school’s waitlist.
Action News Jax reached out to district leaders and the school choice office for clarification on that decision making process, but are still waiting to hear back.
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