Venetia Elementary School might grow to 840 students instead of 1,200, Duval County school officials told people at a September 29 update on upended plans to replace the 84-year-old school.
School district Operations Chief Jim Culbert
told a group of neighbors, parents and educators he has stopped considering changing enrollment boundaries except for consolidating Ortega Elementary into Venetia as the School Board approved in August.Culbert said he’s aiming to seek board approval for the new school ― succeeding a Venetia that had just 350 students in 2025 ― at the board’s November meeting.
Neighbors had expressed deep concerns at a July 16 meeting about the district’s earlier plans for the 1,200-student school.
Activism against those plans played
a large part in the board’s September 1 decision to reject a request to authorize $2.2 million in design and early construction spending.
Some criticism persisted at the latest meeting, but reaction was broadly more favorable.
“Most of the room thinks we’re not there yet,” Hugh Morris, who has lived near the school since 1969, told Culbert as he worked through concerns about details including traffic impacts.
Culbert said the school district received a traffic study September 28 that has been forwarded to city traffic engineers, adding that their input will be crucial to the project's future.
Others were vocally supportive.
“This plan is beautiful,” said parent Samantha Navarro, who has children at Venetia for six years. Although critics had continued to question the ability to handle more school buses and family cars at the school at 4300 Timuquana Road, Navarro referenced a new site plan and added: “this parking lot is beautiful.”
The new school would have 40 general-education classrooms as well as five pre-kindergarten classrooms, art and music rooms and “inclusive environments” designed to meet a broad range of student needs, according to a project summary circulated at the meeting.
The school would also have a cafeteria with a stage for indoor events, an open-air amphitheater, two skill labs and a media center that Culbert said would be focused on books instead of electronic media, Culbert said.
In contrast to the $70 million budget penciled in for the 1,200-student building, Culbert said the revised plan would cost $49 million or less, although the project summary listed the budget as $52 million.
The project is still scheduled to be ready for occupancy in July 2028. That would allow Ortega students to transition there directly after their own school closes in May 2028 and would allow Venetia students to return from their temporary location at the formerly closed Hyde Grove Elementary School on Lane Avenue South.
During a public comment part of the update, Duval Teachers United President Tammie Brooks-Evans told Culbert and his audience that Venetia teachers are eager to get into new quarters.
"What they're waiting to hear is when are we moving forward?" she asked.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Less than once planned, DCPS still wants new Venetia Elementary by 2028
