As we come to the close of the
2008/2009 school year, I would like to take a moment
to thank you for your commitment to your students'
education and to Duval County Public Schools.
As you know, we have faced many
challenges this year with the
budget
shortfall. Our School Board had to make some
difficult decisions in order to have the least
impact on the classroom, including the closing of a
school and changes in
transportation and the
secondary schedule.
We are not out of the woods
yet; this budget situation is a multiple year
problem. We spent a significant amount of one-time
money this year and we still face the Federal
stimulus package “cliff” in two years. We will
continue to be prudent in spending in order to
ensure our students continue to receive a high
quality education.
While we are still awaiting the
final decision on school grades from the State
Department of Education, it appears that the hard
work of our teachers, principals, support staff and
the community has paid off, with a significant
number of our
schools potentially improving their letter grades.
Our
Strategic Plan was in place for the entire
school year and we have continued to make progress
in becoming the best large urban school district in
the nation.
We continue to make academic
gains and our graduation rate has risen more than 7
percentage points in the last 10 years.
I would also like to thank
those of you who are helping us reach our goal of
having more volunteers and mentors in our schools.
This year we had an increase of more than 1,000
mentors from 2008. We have a long way to go to
reach 20,000 mentors by 2020, but with your help I
know that we will get there.
I hope that each of you have a great summer! Thanks
again for all that you do, and for your continued
support of Duval County Public Schools.
