In recent months, the district\u2019s planning documents<\/a> have turned to listing a line-item for a \u201cbudget for closures\u201d instead of specifying which schools it plans to close each year \u2014 a vast difference from the specific list of recommended closures<\/a> that caught public attention in 2024.<\/p>\n Two years ago, a consultant developed a list of about 30 schools they said the district should consider closing. Ortega and several nearby schools were on that list.\u00a0<\/p>\n Amid a backdrop of community panic over the specter of closing schools, Chris Bernier became superintendent. He reassured stakeholders that the list was a draft<\/a> and did not represent an actual decision.<\/p>\n In October 2024, Bernier released a new facilities planning document, which he said was not a commitment to close schools. When he asked the board to vote on his new capital plan<\/a>, he said explicitly the board would be voting only on \u201cdirection\u201d for the building plan.<\/p>\n \u201cThey are not voting tonight on school closures and consolidations. While those ideas are in the plan, those ideas require further engagement and further board action,\u201d Bernier said in 2024<\/a>. \u201cThe requirements of board policy 8.51, 8.53 and 5.44 are very clear to this superintendent. In order to consolidate or close a school, there is a three-prong process.\u201d<\/p>\n That process, he said, requires gathering community feedback, holding a public hearing and having a board vote \u2014 none of which has happened for Ortega yet.<\/p>\n The board did later vote to close half a dozen schools that fall and voted last year to close two more \u2014\u00a0though it\u2019s adjusting the timing of several closures \u2014 giving each school its own vote.<\/p>\n Old Ortega<\/p>\n Nestled into the Old Ortega Historic District<\/a>, Ortega Elementary was constructed in 1923 in the Mediterranean Revival style.<\/p>\n The district says it wants to put the century-old building on the market as soon as possible because of its historic value. They say they want to find the right buyer for the building that current board Chair Charlotte Joyce once said she\u2019d sooner lie down in front of the door than allow to be torn down.<\/p>\n Typically, closed school buildings make their way to the surplus list months or years after a school is shuttered. District officials say putting Ortega on the surplus list now allows them to put it on the market and take their time finding a buyer.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe fully understand the historic nature of this school, this community,\u201d Duval Schools operations chief Jim Culbert told Ortega parents last week. \u201cWe want to have as long a period of time as we can to vet out a buyer that\u2019s going to do what is in the best interest of the community.\u201d<\/p>\n Ortega students will consolidate into a rebuilt Venetia Elementary when it opens in 2028, district officials say, as outlined in a seven-year-old facilities planning document called The Bold Plan. The School Board in 2019 voted to approve then-Superintendent Diana Greene\u2019s master facility plan.\u00a0<\/p>\n The district says that vote was the approval it needed to close Ortega.<\/p>\n \u201cThe official Board action to close Ortega Elementary and consolidate it into a new Venetia Elementary occurred in 2019 as part of the adoption of the district\u2019s facilities plan,\u201d District Spokesperson Laureen Ricks wrote in an email to Jacksonville Today.\u00a0<\/p>\n Ricks said that vote \u201cestablished the framework for several future school consolidations tied to new school construction projects\u201d \u2014 the first example of which was the consolidation of Henry F. Kite and Martin Luther King Jr. elementaries into the new Rutledge H. Pearson Elementary when it opened in August 2023.<\/p>\n After gathering the requisite community feedback, the board held public hearings and voted Nov. 2, 2021, to consolidate Henry F. Kite and to consolidate Martin Luther King Jr. elementaries with the planned Rutledge H. Pearson. Construction began the following year, and the new school opened in 2023<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n The old Martin Luther King Jr. building was declared surplus last year. The district still owns the Henry F. Kite building and now uses it for its Bridge to Success program<\/a>.<\/p>\n Questioning the process<\/p>\n Duval Schools has closed (or begun the process to close) about two dozen schools in the last decade.\u00a0<\/p>\n School Board policy \u2014 8.53: Closing and Consolidation Impact Review Process, specifically \u2014 says the district must involve the community in decisions to close and consolidate schools. And, documents from the early days of The Bold Plan\u2019s implementation<\/a> seem to suggest that the district intended to use the \u201cthree-pronged approach\u201d Bernier referenced.<\/p>\n Ortega\u2019s parents say that\u2019s their issue: The agenda item to surplus the building was their first hint that Ortega\u2019s closure is imminent.\u00a0<\/p>\n Stone, the parent from the meeting at Ortega, tells Jacksonville Today he feels the district has not been honest with the community about its process.<\/p>\n \u201cMaybe it does need to be closed. Maybe it doesn\u2019t make sense anymore. \u2029Fine \u2014 we\u2019re okay with that, but show us the data that shows that,\u201d Stone says. \u201cNow we\u2019re building a 1,200-student school, and we only know about half of the students that are going into there, and we\u2019re going to do the process after we build it? That\u2019s absurd.\u201d<\/p>\n The district has already started the project to rebuild Venetia Elementary, and construction is scheduled to begin in January. It will have 1,200 student stations \u2014 something the district says makes it a cost-efficient build, but critics counter is far bigger than the district\u2019s own preferred size for elementary schools.\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/ortega-signs.png\")
In 2024, signs supporting schools appeared across Jacksonville. | Cait Armstrong Salazar, submitted<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/venetia.png\")
The current Venetia Elementary, on June 24, 2026 | Megan Mallicoat, Jacksonville Today<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/ortega-stone.png\")
Alex Stone, standing at right, is an Ortega parent who attended the community meeting in the school\u2019s auditorium on June 24, 2026. He\u2019s talking with Jim Culbert, left, and Corey Wright, right, at the front of the room. | Megan Mallicoat, Jacksonville Today<\/p>\n