There are plans in St. Johns County to open five new schools over the next three years as the school district tries to keep up with student population growth.
The district added another 1,400 students this year and Superintendent Tim Forson told News4JAX on Wednesday that growth means new schools are a necessity.
“I think what we recognize is that there is, you know, rapid growth, and, and those two areas both in Nocatee and in Silverleaf,” Forson said.
Keeping up with rapid growth in the county is the challenge that the school district is trying to overcome. A quarterly report released Tuesday revealed plans for two new K-8 schools in the Nocatee and SilverLeaf developments. That’s in addition to three other K-8 schools currently under construction.
Currently, some schools are at or over capacity, especially in the northern part of the county where the district uses portables.
“We use those relocatable classrooms or portable classrooms, we lease them, and so that when we can get the next school built, we can then reduce the number of portable classrooms at a site,” Forson said.
Vanessa Summers, a parent to three students in St. Johns County schools living in Nocatee, feels her kids are still getting a quality education even with the schools being as full as they are.
“I can’t say that we as parents with the education feel that we’re suffering because they have the portables, it’s just more than accommodating the growth,” she said.
The quarterly report said the district currently has approximately 3,400 full-time teachers, with 50% having 0 to 5 years of experience in the district. The district said its greatest needs for teachers continue to be in math, science and ESE. Forson said they expect to add 200 teachers a year based on the county’s growth.
“Is there any concern that you might not be able to fill vacancies when these new schools open?” News4JAX asked Forson.
“We’ll be able to fill them,” he said. “But there’s no, there’s no denying the concern about human resources, the teachers that are out there that need to build new schools to fill those staffs, just to deal with the growth that we have on whether we built a school or not. We know we need more teachers.”
Another notable item in the first quarter report was school safety. The district said its implementing a new threat management system starting in January. Forson said the district is one of 67 counties in the state to implement that system.
“What it will do will provide consistency across the state as far as what the expectations are at each school, when something happens or when something needs to be investigated to make sure that it’s done. So consistently and timely, to ensure that every child is kept safe,” Forson said.
There is a special joint meeting between St. Johns County and the school district on Thursday morning starting at 9:30 a.m., to talk about the overview of the school construction funding process and a presentation for school infrastructure projects.
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