Final day of Duval school name change voting brings last minute campaign pushes
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Dueling campaign signs posted at McDuff Avenue and Park Street in Jacksonville, Fla. on May 7, 2021. (Copyright 2021 by WJXT News4Jax - All rights reserved.)
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The community input portion of the months-long process for deciding whether to rename nine Duval County Public Schools campuses is scheduled to end at 6:30 p.m. Friday.
Polling locations at Robert E. Lee High School, Andrew Jackson High School, Jean Ribault High School and Jean Ribault Middle School will wrap up a two-week ballot process, during which alumni, students, PTA members, attendance zone residents and employees are able to weigh in on the decision.
Community members who live within the specific school zone
Each stakeholder group a person represents counts for one vote meaning a person who falls into more than one group category can vote as many times. For example, an alumnus who lives within the school s zone would be able to vote twice.
What should I bring?
Balloting is only being done in-person, so people who plan on voting need to come with proof that they fall into their stakeholder group.
According to Duval County Public Schools, staff and faculty should bring district-issued IDs, students should bring their student IDs, alumni should bring a picture ID as well as their school diploma or yearbook and community members need to bring proof of residence.
Voting begins on names for Robert E. Lee High, 3 other Duval County schools
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JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Students, teachers, parents, alumni and people in the community can start voting on whether to change the names of four local schools today. It’s the final phase of the public balloting process and includes the school that has gotten the most attention, Robert E Lee High School.
Voting starts at 10 a.m. Monday on school campuses. The ballots allow the voter to first mark a category, to be in favor of a change or keeping the name. If a person is in favor of a change, another mark is cast for the preferred name from a set of pre-determined options.
While the chamber is not asking the school board to revise its process for renaming schools which began last year it is pressing Superintendent Diana Greene to recommend new names for the six schools and for the school board to approve those recommendations in its votes.
Greene s recommendation is expected in mid-to-late May.
“This is an economic development issue,” JAX Chamber Chair Henry Brown, who serves as President and CEO of Miller Electric, said in a statement. “We are asking companies to invest here, and for top talent to move and live here. We say that we are open to everyone and I believe that we are. But, right now, we have six school names that tell African Americans otherwise.”