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Academic & Community Excellence (ACE) Plan
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Duval County Public Schools (DCPS)
recognizes and supports the need for effective planning
for the future of our community and school district. As
part of this recognition, we are beginning an important
and challenging new endeavor. To accommodate current
and future student transportation needs of our students,
we are forming an Academic and Community
Excellence (ACE) - Transportation Working Group
to facilitate a community based consensus-building and
planning process that will review school transportation
in our district. While DCPS provides exceptional student
transportation services, we do so at costs that we can
no longer sustain given the expected, significant
funding shortfall anticipated in the 2009-10 school
year. Our aim through the transportation process is
to jointly plan and develop the best recommendations
possible for reducing costs within student
transportation while retaining the best service for our
students.
This planning process requires
involvement by all facets of the school community. The
ACE - Transportation Working Group will represent a
broad cross section of the community including parents,
Duval County Public Schools’ staff, and community
members. Members of the working group will have the
important task of facilitating the development of
specific recommendations to help reduce transportation
costs as we prepare to support the district for the
future. They will be responsible for reviewing
demographic and transportation data, examining future
trends that will impact educational programs, engaging
the community in dialogue regarding future direction,
and formulating options for addressing school
transportation needs.
We have completed four working group
and two community meetings, briefed the Superintendent
to obtain his tentative recommendations, and provided
two advanced briefs to the "School Board Members at the
most recent Board workshops (i.e., February 10th and
March 10th, 2009). We obtained over 400 feedback
surveys on the ACE Transportation Draft Scenarios.
To implement these recommendations, the School Board
would need to approve three policy revisions. The
three policy revisions (i.e., Policy #8.30 - Student
Transportation, and #8.32 - Bus Routes, and #5.46 -
Magnet Schools and Programs) will receive a public
hearing and final vote at the next board meeting on
April 7th, 2009. If the policy revisions are
approved in a final vote at the April 7th, 2009 Board
Meeting, then we will begin implementation for this
coming Aug 2009 school year.
Current tentative recommendations
include utilizing new express routes for secondary
magnet transportation, reducing high school after school
activity trips to one departure time per school day
(vice two), extending the walking distance from 1.5 to 2
miles to schools (except ESE) and extending the walking
distance for bus stops from 1.0 to 1.5 miles (except
ESE). Complete scenario information is contained
in the link above on this webpage.
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