End of an era in Duval County as five historic elementary schools close
Friday marked the last day of classes for Duval County students and the permanent closure of five neighborhood elementary schools under a district consolidation plan.
The following consolidations will occur in the 2025-26 school year:
1. Annie R. Morgan Elementary into Biltmore Elementary
2. Kings Trail Elementary into Beauclerc Elementary
3. Susie E. Tolbert Elementary into S. P. Livingston Elementary
In addition to these consolidations, the School Board previously approved the consolidation of R.V. Daniels Elementary School into R.L. Brown Elementary School and Windy Hill Elementary School into a new Southside Estates Elementary School.
>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<
[DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks]
The closures stem from an updated Master Facilities Plan approved last year to address a $1.4 billion budget shortfall.
'For nearly 30 years, this school has been part of our daily routine,' said parent John Sherman, who was able to walk his daughter Hanna just one minute from home to Kings Trail. 'An extra ten minutes isn't a big deal, but I'll miss that community feel.'
Nine-year-old Hanna Sherman admitted she'll miss her friends. 'Some of my classmates are going to different schools,' she said.
District leaders say consolidations will concentrate resources and expand educational opportunities, but many families worry the loss of their local campuses will affect current ease of commutes and disrupt longstanding traditions.
More elementary school consolidations are planned for the 2026-27 school year.
[SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter]
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Yahoo
End of an era in Duval County as five historic elementary schools close
Friday marked the last day of classes for Duval County students and the permanent closure of five neighborhood elementary schools under a district consolidation plan. The following consolidations will occur in the 2025-26 school year: 1. Annie R. Morgan Elementary into Biltmore Elementary 2. Kings Trail Elementary into Beauclerc Elementary 3. Susie E. Tolbert Elementary into S. P. Livingston Elementary In addition to these consolidations, the School Board previously approved the consolidation of R.V. Daniels Elementary School into R.L. Brown Elementary School and Windy Hill Elementary School into a new Southside Estates Elementary School. >>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<< [DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks] The closures stem from an updated Master Facilities Plan approved last year to address a $1.4 billion budget shortfall. 'For nearly 30 years, this school has been part of our daily routine,' said parent John Sherman, who was able to walk his daughter Hanna just one minute from home to Kings Trail. 'An extra ten minutes isn't a big deal, but I'll miss that community feel.' Nine-year-old Hanna Sherman admitted she'll miss her friends. 'Some of my classmates are going to different schools,' she said. District leaders say consolidations will concentrate resources and expand educational opportunities, but many families worry the loss of their local campuses will affect current ease of commutes and disrupt longstanding traditions. More elementary school consolidations are planned for the 2026-27 school year. [SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter]
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Yahoo
Pediatrician who helped expose Flint's water crisis now fighting poverty
Flint, Michigan — At a parade last year in Flint, Michigan, every family and their babies celebrated a gift from the same woman — pediatrician Dr. Mona Hanna. "How can you say no to these babies? Like how can you say no?" Hanna told CBS News. Rx kids, a program she created to give cash to pregnant moms, is an American first. "I wanted something that literally would be able to prescribe away the pathogen of poverty," Hanna said. "I wanted something that I could pull out of my doctor's bag, pull out of my white coat that literally would be able to prescribe away the pathogen of poverty. Poverty makes kids sick. So I wanted to prevent it." She's raised more than $100 million, 80% of which is from private donors. Now, every expectant mother in Flint, regardless of income, can get $1,500 during her pregnancy. Once the baby is born, it's $500 a month for up to a year — no strings attached. "So what we are hearing from our families is that this amount of money is a lifesaver, a game changer for our families," Hanna said. "They can afford to pay their rent. They can buy diapers for their baby. They can buy formula. They don't have to choose between being homeless or having a roof over their heads." When asked how to know if the money is being spent on the right things, Hanna said, "This is based on global evidence. Our multiple surveys, we know that they're spending this money No. 1 on baby supplies, and then on food, rent utilities, transportation, childcare." "We are telling families, 'We see you, we hear you, and we trust you,'" she added. Hanna knows child poverty runs in Flint's bloodstream. In 2015, she brought national attention to the city's corroding water pipes and linked them to children with lead poisoning. Now she's tackling poverty. In four areas of Michigan, any expectant mother can apply. But in Flint, the program reports 60% of enrolled families have an annual household income of less than $10,000. When Angela Sintery was pregnant with her daughter Jolena, she remembers filling out a five-minute questionnaire. "Two weeks later, I had money in my bank account," Sintery said, adding that the money allowed her not to stress out and focus on her baby instead. Michigan State Sen. John Damoose is a conservative Republican from a red district. He's no fan of handouts, but pushed hard to get Rx Kids in his district. "It's extremely efficient. There's no government bureaucracy whatsoever. This is actually a great program that meets people right where they need it," Damoose said. Since early last year, Rx Kids has spread roughly $10 million to more than 2,200 families. "This is a plug-and-play program. It is already built with dollars at the table. We are ready to go live in communities across the nation," Hanna said. SpaceX loses contact with its Starship, spins out of control These 3 record breakers have one thing in common Reporter's Notebook: John Dickerson reflects on his spelling woes
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Yahoo
Mona Hanna says federal funding cuts reminiscent of precursor to Flint water crisis
Howard Crawford, left, Matt Elliott, center, and Mona Hanna, right, speaks at a panel about the impact of cutting federal funds for higher education research during the Mackinac Policy Conference on Mackinac Island, Mich., on May 27, 2025. (Photo by Andrew Roth/Michigan Advance) MACKINAC ISLAND – Dr. Mona Hanna says federal funding cuts by the administration of President Donald Trump are reminiscent of the circumstances that led to the Flint Water Crisis she helped expose. 'It wasn't just the austerity of changing the water to save money,' Hanna said. 'It was years of austerity in state government and federal government that really had hollowed out our bureaucracies – our Department of Natural Resources at the time, our public health departments that had become skeletons of themselves and they only really could react to crises, and they didn't have the infrastructure to really be proactive and to prevent issues.' She said that when those institutions failed, researchers stepped up. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX 'It was research that was the scientific safety net,' Hanna said. 'It was the source of truth. It was the check and balance to kind of protect a community.' Among the programs that have already seen its funding cut is the Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program, Hanna said. Hanna was speaking during a panel at the Mackinac Policy Conference sponsored by Michigan State University. University President Kevin Guskiewicz said other projects at MSU that are either at risk of losing funding or already have include a project to create more resilient crops, research to improve health outcomes for expectant mothers and babies, and a Detroit wastewater surveillance program that was among the first to detect COVID-19. 'Federal investment enables high risk, early stage innovation that commercial entities wouldn't likely fund,' Guskiewicz said. 'It's the starter fuel, as we like to say, for breakthroughs in health, security and technology.' Howard Crawford, senior scientist and scientific director at Henry Ford, researches pancreatic cancer. Pancreatic cancer patients have a median survival of about 10 months, Crawford said. 'The first thing they usually hear from their doctor is to get their affairs in order,' Crawford said. 'And the thing that I always want to tell everyone that ever hears that … is get yourself to a university hospital, because that's where the second opinions are going to come, that's where the clinical trials are being conducted, and that's your best hope.' But he said the research he and others have done is already starting to make an impact, with the five-year survival rate more than doubling since he began 25 years ago, largely due to work done in university hospitals. 'This progress we've made, this is stuff that started 40 years ago, not four years ago, and what we have to have is a continuity of research so that we can make this progress mean something,' Crawford said. While scientists could be on the verge of a breakthrough in treatment, Crawford said that work is jeopardized by the ongoing uncertainty around funding. He said that's in part because the public doesn't understand the impact of the work researchers do. 'We spend all of our time writing papers and writing grants, and that's what we have to do to function, but if the public doesn't understand that's what we're doing, why we're doing it, what is happening in the laboratory, what we're bringing to them in the next few years, that's our goal, and we need to be better,' Crawford said. Hanna added that 'we need to get out of our ivory towers, classrooms and labs and clinics, and get more comfortable in these public spaces.'
