school board
Letter from Board Chairwoman Brenda Priestly-Jackson regarding Elected vs. Appointed School Board
 I am your elected Duval County School Board Chairperson. I am one of seven elected school board members with similar stories and life experiences.
I am this city’s Generation Xer, born in the late 60s and coming of age in the 70s and 80s. I am a product of Jacksonville’s forced compliance with Brown vs. Board of Education. I am the child of parents that believed that their children would be better served by a Jacksonville that was no longer divided by race and class.
So it was during my formative years in Duval County Public Schools, while attending Lake Lucina Elementary, Rufus E. Payne Sixth Grade Center, Highlands Junior High School, Arlington Junior High School, and Jean Ribault Senior High School, which I learned to admire, respect and appreciate the diversity of our city. It was during this time that I came to understand that Jacksonville was not a melting pot, but rather a vegetable soup, and that was a good thing. You see in a vegetable soup, each ingredient holds on to its on unique property and together contribute to the best taste, consistency, and aroma.
During those years, it was a city where every citizen was encouraged and supported to reach his or her potential.
It was this Jacksonville that I came of age during the Godbold years that seemed to respect all voices that had something positive to contribute. During this Jacksonville, there were city youth “summer fun” programs for the young, the MOB (Mayor’s Older Buddies) for the elderly and the think tank known as the Amelia Island Planning Conference.
During those years, mayors didn’t run on divisive agendas that separated us as a city or curry benefits for a few. Instead, the mantra was that if you apply yourself and work hard, Jacksonville has a place for you.
It was from this platform that my husband and I decided early in our marriage that we would move back to my home town and rear our family. I sold my husband on a belief that Jacksonville had this ethos that regardless of a person’s station in life, as classified by gender, race, religion, or class, it offered limitless possibilities. In essence, it was the best example of our democracy at work.
Because of all those in this city that helped me along the way, I wanted to do something more. So, I ran for elected office. I believed then as I believe now that to whom much is given much is required and Jacksonville has given me so much.
I was not anointed or appointed to run for office. I was elected, after winning the trust of the people. I knew then, just as I know now that the citizens of Jacksonville are best suited to elect their leaders. We are after all citizens of this city and not subjects of a mayor or any other entity.
As a University of Florida College of Law graduate I could advance several arguments on why the idea of an appointed school board is unconstitutional unless approved by a state wide voter referendum. Or I could say that the Duval County School Board is one of the most diverse elected bodies in our city. Or I could say the usurpation of our beloved citizen’s right to vote for their elected school board members removes them from deciding how approximately two billion dollars of their tax payer funds will be spent and instead vest that right in a mayor.
You see, the Duval County School District’s budget is approximately two billion dollars a year and this money comes primarily from our citizen’s tax dollars. Citizens should continue to control those citizen/taxpayer funds by maintaining their right to vote for school board members. Who is better than the citizens to vote for the people who will determine the use of those funds when determining our city’s educational needs? Should any mayor ever have that kind of power, authority and control?
I imagine that these were the types of questions that our state constitutional authors envisioned when they established our state constitution and codified this notion of checks and balances and separation of powers.
However, I won’t talk too much about that. Instead I will encourage all citizens to contact their elected city council members and tell them to reject the Charter Commissions recommendations regarding changing the governance structure of our elected school board and to let the citizens keep their right to vote for their school board members. Tell the city council that giving the authority to the mayor to appoint the members of the school board amounts to taxation without representation and vests too much power in the hands of any single individual. After all, the Jacksonville that we love is the Bold New City of the South and a place where every citizen is afforded an equal voice and vote in making a better Jacksonville for future generations, regardless of where they live.
Brenda Priestly Jackson
Duval County School Board Chairwoman
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