JEA said it repaired a leaking water main 25 feet below San Jose Boulevard, and all lanes that were closed for the repair have reopened.

The lanes first closed July 8 near Interstate 295. The closure was extended July 15 after JEA ran into a complication with repairs.

As of 5 a.m. Monday, the two northbound lanes that had been closed for nearly two weeks reopened. Then the two southbound lanes reopened by 12:20 p.m.

The closed lanes caused heavy traffic backups and frustration for drivers.

A JEA spokesperson thanked the community for its patience.

This story was produced by News4Jax, a Jacksonville Today news partner.

The post San Jose Boulevard reopens after water main repair appeared first on Jacksonville Today.

It’s about time, says Bo Cooner, as traffic buzzes by his subdivision off Old Middleburg Road.

Twenty-four years ago, the Better Jacksonville Plan set aside money to widen the two-lane road to four lanes from 103rd Street to Argyle Forest Boulevard — but the work remained a line on a project list.

Thursday morning, the mayor and others officially broke ground on the $30 million project. Cooner stood nearby on Country Mill Lane, where he said he has to wait for Old Middleburg Road traffic to clear so he can leave his subdivision.

“It’s been years of pauses and progress, so it’s really exciting to see this come to fruition,” he said. “Sometimes it takes 10 minutes between the traffic lights to align to get out and turn.”

Another happy person is former Mayor John Delaney, who first proposed the project in the Better Jacksonville Plan, a road and infrastructure improvement plan approved by voters in 2000, estimated then at $2.25 billion.

“I am glad to see it is still working,” said Delaney, who went to the groundbreaking. “It’s now, in today’s dollars, about a $5 billion to $6 billion investment in the community, and now kind of taken it for granted. … We knew it would be about 20 years and expected it to actually be paid off early, but better late than never and it’s good to see it.”

State traffic numbers show that about 44,000 vehicles a day use 103rd Street, many of them turning south at Old Middleburg Road to use the two-lane road past multiple subdivisions and shopping centers. Another 17,100 a day use Argyle Forest Boulevard at its southern termination, where Oakleaf Town Center and a branch library are just some of the development on the southern part of Old Middleburg Road.

Long before many of those developments added to the traffic on the two-lane road, City Council member Rahman Johnson said residents knew it needed to be widened. Now the widening in his district will become what he calls “a bridge to the Westside.”

“Twenty-five years ago, there was not the density of population up and down the road,” Johnson said. “But now we have this opportunity to move cars in and out, which means economic development, which means more businesses, and No. 1, public safety. If ambulances and fire trucks need to get on this road and help people in need, they are now going to be able to do it.”

Along with doubling the number of lanes on Old Middleburg Road, the project will add curbs and gutters, plus a sidewalk, multiuse path, improved traffic signals and a bridge replacement south of Marlee Road.

Johnson said he well remembers the town meeting the city held for the community a year ago to show final designs for the 4.5-mile widening project, and he faced residents more than eager to see the project done.

“They beat me up really bad,” Johnson said with a laugh. “I said, ‘Hey, I’ve only been in office a day!’ But this is what they wanted, and they got it and I am so excited.”

The Better Jacksonville Plan uses funding from gas taxes. This project’s $30 million price tag includes right-of-way acquisition, planning and engineering, and construction costs.

The first phase would run just under a mile from 103rd Street to Parman Road and take about a year. The second phase would head south from there to Argyle Road and take about 24 months. Johnson said he will work to get the phases to overlap to minimize road obstruction for residents.

The Florida Department of Transportation also plans some road work nearby.

An $8.8 million state project, beginning at 103rd Street from Samaritan Way to Shindler Drive, includes resurfacing, sidewalk reconstruction, signal work and road sign installation. FDOT will modify the 103rd Street and Old Middleburg Road South intersection to allow less right and left turns.

The project is set to begin in the fall and last about a year.

The post Long-awaited widening begins on Old Middleburg Road appeared first on Jacksonville Today.

Jacksonville Today Arts and Culture Editor Matt Shaw shares his arts and culture picks for the weekend.

Friday

Fabric of a Nation + Summer at the Cummer 

Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens | Riverside

The popular (and free) Summer at the Cummer series kicks off a new season of programming on Friday with live music indoors (Arvid Smith) and out (Mama Blue), food and drinks, outdoor games and art activities. The free event is every Friday through August 9. Summer at the Cummer is also a great opportunity to peep the just-unveiled Fabric of a Nation: American Quilt Stories, a textile-heavy exhibition tof 44 works from the 17th century to the present day. 4 p.m.-9 p.m. More info. 

Friday & Saturday

Slow Burn: The American Dream and The Zoo Story

San Marco Church | San Marco

Lumen Repertory Theatre presents two of the six remaining opportunities to catch the regional company’s production of renowned playwright Edward Albee’s powerful one-acts. Noted actor and director David Alford (best known for his role in the television drama Nashville) takes on directing duties for the dark satire The American Dream and co-directs and acts in the absurdist tragicomedy The Zoo Story. Both Friday and Saturday performances are held at 8 p.m. Tickets and more info.  

Sunday

The Jazz Jam

Wildcrafters | Riverside

The popular summer musical happening known as The Jazz Jam returns to Wildcrafters for three consecutive Sundays, beginning July 21. Hosted each week by Duval-bred, Grammy-winning drummer Ulysses Owens Jr., this Sunday’s jam features the Florida contingent of Owens’ Generation Y, an ensemble of emerging jazz talent. 7 p.m-10 p.m. Free to attend but space is limited, so get there early. More info. 

The post ARTS PICKS | July 19-21 appeared first on Jacksonville Today.

A political figure says something a person doesn’t like, a person picks up a gun to kill said figure and their offending opinion. In America, it’s a tale as old as time.

Saturday’s attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump is not a nadir in this nation’s contentious election cycle or even its 248 years of history and counting… hopefully. We are not at peak low. The violence in Pennsylvania Saturday is merely par for the course. 

America is a violent nation. Always has been. And as long as gun rights are proffered above and preferable to a person’s right to life, as evidenced by the Supreme Court’s Bruen decision, America always will be. Violent. 

How short are the modern memories of people, pundits and politicians in this country? 

Before a man pulled the trigger of a semi-automatic assault rifle — which Congress refuses to ban no matter the depravity of tragedy — in an attempt to kill the Republican nominee for president, that same nominee, four years prior, watched for hours as 2,500 people stormed the U.S. Capitol looking for then Vice President Mike Pence, then House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and others to lynch from the gallows erected outside on the lawn. 

Speaking of former Speaker Pelosi, it was only two months ago a man was sentenced to 30 years in prison for breaking into her home and bludgeoning her husband with a hammer in 2022. The long-serving Congresswoman from California was the intended target.

Have we forgotten that rounds from an assault rifle were found in the White House residence windows in 2011 during the Obama administration? That too was an assassination attempt.

Four U.S. Presidents have been assassinated, but political violence is not limited to those who occupy the highest office in the land. 

Republican U.S. Representative Steve Scalise of Louisiana was shot during practice for the Congressional baseball game in 2017. Democratic U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona was shot at a rally in 2011. In 1856, U.S. Representative Preston Brooks caned U.S. Senator Charles Sumner because of his abolitionist views. That the nation devolved into a civil war just five years later is prescient irony. And let’s not forget about the founding fathers. Aaron Burr shot and killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel because he was politically jealous.

Political violence in America, which is generally centered on the ideas of justice, liberty, freedom and equality, is not only heaped upon those who hold office. Every person in this country with a differing opinion than that of their neighbor or even their next of kin can become a victim: killed, assassinated, lynched, maimed, murdered, beaten, bludgeoned, caned or connived against. 

This violence happens to the politicians and the people. It’s been 104 years since the Election Day Massacre in Ocoee, Florida, where 50 Black people were killed because they exercised their right to vote. It’s been 151 years since hundreds of Black people were killed in the Colfax massacre in Louisiana after a contested gubernatorial election. 

The massacre of voters, the assassinations and attempted assassinations of presidents, other politicians like Robert F. Kennedy and political influencers such as Martin Luther King Jr., Fred Hampton, Medgar Evers, or Florida’s own Harry and Harriette Moore are all links in a never-ending chain of America’s bloodlust for violence. 

This country has long been off leash.

We violence because we don’t talk, we don’t try to understand, and we definitely don’t try to restore or repair. We hate. We fight. Then lie and say we’re united, one and indivisible. 

The United State of America is an idea. The pithy prose and venerable verse associated with our most beloved iconography are goals. They are not nor have they ever been a reality in which any of us have lived. Not Democrat. Not Republican. Not independent, Libertarian, or non-party-affiliated. Not white. Not Black. Not rich. Not poor. Not indigenous or native. Not citizen. Not immigrant. Not gay, straight, gender-nonconforming or anywhere else on the alphabetic rainbow of pride. 

We violence over suspicion: loud music and hoodies and pretextual traffic stops and fittingness of descriptions i.e. race. 

We violence over rights: a woman’s right to choose what’s best for her life, body and family; a person’s right to live proudly as femme, masc, two-spirit, non-binary, cis-het, trans, or poly; a child’s right to learn truth in history and not the parts that make certain groups look better than they are. 

We violence when we’re angry. 

We violence when we’re depressed.

We violence when we worship a different God—or sometimes even the same. 

We violence when we’re afraid. 

We violence when we hate. 

We violence when we claim to love. 

We violence when we think we’re superior. 

We violence in the name of imperialism. 

We violence in the name of excellence. 

We violence because we’re violent. 

The United States ranks 28th in the world for gun violence. Among our supposed comparable developed nations, though, we are dead last. There were 656 mass shootings in the United States last year, 40 of them qualified as mass murders. We routinely ship weapons of mass destruction to other countries to aid in genocide and call them noble war efforts in the name of safety, security, protection and peace. As a nation we have been at war with ourselves since the revolution and continue to be so torn.

Our courts act with impunity flouting precedent and setting new ones that deny democracy in favor of a future coronation of a king. And the answer to these legalistic aggressions has been and is still violence. 

That doesn’t make it right. 

But let’s not act like it isn’t who we are. 

The post OPINION | Violence’s greatest hits, or don’t you remember? appeared first on Jacksonville Today.

St. Johns County residents will receive a notice in the mail showing that their property taxes will likely increase when the new fiscal year begins in October. The county wants the extra cash to fund road repairs, hire new firefighters and increase salaries for police officers.

The St. Johns County Commission voted 4-1 on Tuesday to approve a tentative budget for the next fiscal year that would increase residents’ taxes. It’s still early in the budget-setting process, and that number could come down.

County Administrator Joy Andrews walked the Board of County Commissioners through the proposed $1.215 billion budget, showing what an increase in tax revenue could pay for. Top of that list were expansions to the county’s land acquisition program and much-needed road improvements.

“Our commitment to catching up our county’s infrastructure remains our first and most important highest priority,” Andrews said. “We have allocated significant funds for road repairs, bridge maintenance and new construction projects.”

Some of those projects include widening parts of County Road 210, building parks and demolishing the county’s old jail.

To fund it, the county’s Finance Department went in expecting it would get $40 million in property taxes from residents. The county could do that by keeping its tax rate the same, but since property values have risen, property taxes will increase.

County Commissioner Krista Joseph was the lone dissenting vote on the proposed budget. She wants to see the County Commission have a serious discussion about lowering the tax rate to the rollback rate, meaning the tax rate that would give the county the same revenue from property taxes as it raised the previous year. 

“I think with the economy the way it is, there should be some way we can roll back the taxes on the community,” she said. “There’s many ways to do it without touching police and fire, which is the excuse I’m going to hear from the other commissioners. I definitely think now is the time.”

Joseph wants to see the county put off expenses like formulating the county’s long-term comprehensive plan for 2050 and upgrading some software for a year or two until prices of everyday goods go down.

But going to the rollback rate would strip $25 million out of the county’s proposed budget, and others on the County Commission said that just wasn’t realistic, especially not this early in the process. 

When residents receive their tax notices in the mail next month, they’ll see that the county is considering a property tax increase. That number can go down at the next budget meeting scheduled for Sept. 3, but it can’t go up. Commissioner Henry Dean said setting a higher number to begin with is the judicious option.

“I would love to go to rollback,” he said. “I really would. There are families out there … that are struggling with the costs of groceries, the cost of gas, you name it.”

Other sticking points on the budget included funding for the county’s land acqusition program — currently funded at $500,000, which Dean would like to see pumped up to $5 million — and increasing starting salaries for sheriff’s deputies from $55,000 to $58,000.

The next time the county will discuss alterations to next year’s budget will be Aug. 6. A formal budget workshop is scheduled for Sept. 3. The county is expected to adopt its 2025 budget Sept. 17.

The county’s Aug. 6 meeting will begin at 9 a.m. in the county auditorium at 500 San Sebastian View. The Sept. 3 budget workshop is scheduled to start at 5 p.m. in the same location. 

All county meetings are streamed live on the county’s website and saved for future viewing.

The post Higher taxes likely for St. Johns County residents appeared first on Jacksonville Today.

A man from Yulee man has become the latest Northeast Florida person arrested on charges related to the Jan. 6th breach of the U.S. Capitol.

Garth Walton, 32, was arrested Monday on charge of civil disorder and assaulting or impeding officers, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.  In addition to those felonies, Walton faces several misdemeanor charges including entering a restricted area and acts of physical violence in the Capitol grounds.

Police bodycam footage shows Walton on Capitol grounds as officers formed a defensive line outside the building, court documents say. Wearing a red and blue Trump ball cap, Walton is seen grabbing a barricade and pushing it into the officers. He is then seen pushing the barricade again before throwing a pole at officers, documents say.

Investigators also learned that Walton stayed at a hotel in Washington, D.C., from Jan. 5 to 7 in 2021. Investigators showed images of Walton from Jan. 6 to Nassau County sheriff’s deputies, who confirmed it was the same person they saw at an incident July 1, 2023, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

Since Jan. 6, 2021, more than 1,470 people have been charged nationwide for crimes related to the Capitol, including at least seven in the Jacksonville area, U.S. Attorney’s Office documents show.

The post Yulee man charged in Jan. 6 Capitol breach appeared first on Jacksonville Today.

The Wells Fargo name is gone from the Downtown skyline.

The name atop the former Wells Fargo Center was removed Sunday. A helicopter flew away each of the 20 letters and deposited them at a lot across from the Maxwell House Coffee plant on East Bay Street.

Wells Fargo has been downsizing its leased space and decided not to retain its naming rights. An entity managed by Argentic Investment Management LLC of New York City said in April that it had acquired the building at 1 Independent Drive and would market it a new anchor tenant.

The 37-story building opened in 1975 as the Independent Life Building.

The post Wells Fargo name removed from Downtown tower appeared first on Jacksonville Today.

Fewer people are trying to take their guns onto planes in Jacksonville.

The Transportation Security Administration says it’s found 27 guns so far this year, 25% fewer than the first six months last year at Jacksonville International Airport. That’s despite an increase in the number of passengers screened in the first half of this year.

Overall at Florida airports, the TSA says the number of guns has dropped 3.5% compared with the first half of last year.

Guns can be transported on commercial flights only if they are unloaded and packed in a locked, hard-sided case.

Penalties for trying to carry a weapon onto a plane include criminal citations, arrest or having your TSA Pre-Check eligibility pulled.

The post Fewer guns confiscated at Jacksonville’s airport appeared first on Jacksonville Today.

Voting rights groups said Thursday they will not appeal a federal court ruling that upheld the elimination of a majority-Black congressional district in North Florida.

The announcement came a month after a three-judge panel refused to reconsider a March 27 decision that said the groups had not met a key test of showing that the Legislature acted with racial motivation in 2022, when it overhauled Congressional District 5, which stretched from Jacksonville to west of Tallahasse.

A separate challenge to the redistricting plan remains pending at the Florida Supreme Court.

The cases focus on changes to a district that in the past elected Black Democrat Al Lawson. White Republicans won all North Florida congressional districts in the 2022 elections after the district was revamped.

In the federal court case, groups such as Common Cause Florida and the Florida NAACP argued that the redistricting plan, which Gov. Ron DeSantis pushed through the Legislature, was passed with a discriminatory motive. But in denying the request for a rehearing, the panel reiterated its view that the plaintiffs had not shown racial motivation by the Legislature.

“Our unanimous conclusion was straightforward: Even if we assumed for argument’s sake that the governor acted with impermissible racial animus, the Legislature that enacted the challenged map did not,” the four-page order said. “This doomed plaintiffs’ claims.”

In statements Thursday, leaders of the voting rights groups criticized the court’s conclusion. “The impermissible racial motives outlined in this case are unacceptable, but the court chose not to act,” said Amy Keith, Common Cause Florida executive director.

Unlike typical cases, three-judge federal panels hear redistricting cases. The panel was made up of Adalberto Jordan, a judge on the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and U.S. District Judges M. Casey Rodgers and Allen Winsor.

The Florida Supreme Court case involves issues in the state Constitution. Voting rights groups went to the Supreme Court after the 1st District Court of Appeal upheld the redistricting plan.

The post Redistricting challenge ends in North Florida appeared first on Jacksonville Today.

Q: Florida recently enacted a law prohibiting local governments from requiring heat protections for workers, after Miami-Dade County last year ended a push to protect outdoor workers like agricultural and construction laborers.

“Miami-Dade County is experiencing a significant increase in the number of extreme heat days every year, which is estimated to reach 134 days by the middle of the century,” read the county’s legislation, which was ultimately withdrawn. 

The new Florida law, House Bill 433, says, in part, that cities and counties “may not establish, mandate, or otherwise require an employer … to meet or provide heat exposure requirements not otherwise required under state or federal law.” 

Jacksonville Today reader Barb B. is perplexed by the legislation that Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law in April. 

“I would like to see someone try to explain why DeSantis and our Legislature think this law was humane, “ Barb writes. 

A: The short answer, according to the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Tiffany Esposito, R-Fort Myers, is that a patchwork of local regulations would make it difficult for businesses to navigate if they are operating statewide. 

When Esposito introduced the bill on Feb. 14 to the House State Affairs Committee, she said, “This bill preempts the regulation of terms and conditions of employment to the state. That is the bill.”

As Orlando Weekly reported, business interests including the Florida Chamber of Commerce, Associated Industries of Florida, construction companies and agriculture companies lobbied lawmakers this year to eliminate local rule over heat protections as well as wage rules. Text messages reviewed through a public records request show industry lobbyists applied pressure in the final days of the legislative session to ensure HB 433’s passage.

A few Republicans ultimately joined Democrats in voting against the bill, but it passed by a vote of 74-36 in the House and 24-15 in the Senate. 

Lawmakers heard public comment from opponents, who included an agricultural worker whose father had died of heat exposure on the job, as well as the Sierra Club of Florida. They urged stronger heat protections because workers are dying from heat exposure.

Miami-Dade County’s failed legislation would have required construction and agriculture companies to take steps such as ensuring workers have access to cool drinking water and 10-minute breaks in the shade every two hours when the heat index is at least 95 degrees. 

During debate on the measure, House Democrats asked whether stronger heat protections for workers could be increased at the state level — to avoid the patchwork issue. House State Affairs Committee Chair Lawrence McClure, R-Plant City, cut off that line of questioning. 

Rep. Felicia Simone Robinson, D-Miami Gardens, said she felt like she repeats herself over and over in saying government closest to the people is the government that works best for the people.

“All of this preemption, we just really need to stop it,” Robinson said. 

“It seems that we’re just continuously being hypocritical as a legislature,” she said. “We did the Live Local Act, but then now we’re trying to take away living wages.”

The Live Local Act, or SB 102, aimed to bolster the availability of affordable housing options, allowing more people to live in the communities where they work.

Before voting yes on the heat protection bill, Rep. Rick Roth, R-West Palm Beach, said he had to speak up.

“Thank you for this great bill,” said Roth, who owns Roth Farms. “I’m infuriated that any local government thinks that they can do a better job of management — managing my employees. I’ve farmed in South Florida for 45 years. People that work outside — contractors, agriculture — we cannot farm or work without good employees. And I guarantee you, we do everything to do the best for our employees, and this insinuation that we need more help from local government regulating heat exposure problems, it’s insulting.”

What protections exist

The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration does not have a specific rule in place for heat safety. But the agency can take action against businesses through what is known as a “general duty clause” of a workplace-safety law.

OSHA recently announced it had cited Guerrero Ag LLC, an Arcadia-based labor contractor, after a 41-year-old worker collapsed in December 2023 while harvesting oranges. The worker, who died after being hospitalized, had symptoms consistent with a heat stroke, the agency said in a news release.

The company, according to the U.S. Department of Labor, faces $30,651 in proposed penalties for the death.

The federal government, in the meantime, is working to toughen worker heat protections at the national level. Last week, OSHA released a proposed rule similar to what Miami-Dade County had considered, which would require employers to provide such protections as water and shade breaks when temperatures top certain thresholds.

“Workers all over the country are passing out, suffering heat stroke and dying from heat exposure from just doing their jobs, and something must be done to protect them,” Douglas L. Parker, assistant secretary for occupational safety and health, says in a statement emailed to Jacksonville Today. “Today’s proposal is an important next step in the process to receive public input to craft a ‘win-win’ final rule that protects workers while being practical and workable for employers.”

That process is expected to take several years.

The post #AskJAXTDY l Why prevent stronger local heat protections for workers? appeared first on Jacksonville Today.

Clay County public school students will see some new faces, plus their badges, when classes resume Aug. 13.

That is when the Clay County Sheriff’s Office will replace the school district’s police department, which has handled school security since 2019 with full-time school resource officers.

The move back into the Sheriff’s Office will be beneficial when a school resource officer, now a deputy, needs help at an assigned school, Sheriff Michelle Cook said.

“The benefits are continuity of training, continuity of supervision, continuity of communications. All of that rolls into what I believe are best practices,” Cook said. “As soon as that (school resource officer) keys the mic and says ‘We have something bad happening here,’ every deputy who is on duty working that day is going to hear that call for help and will be able to respond without any delay whatsoever.”

The Clay County School Board began forming its own police department in early 2019. The plan was to hire full-time officers to work at its 42 public schools. The district joined 15 other school districts statewide, including Duval County, that had their own police departments.

But there were concerns about having a separate school police department, especially if an emergency ever happened at a school, Cook said.

“If a school resource officer … in Clay County were to get on the radio and ask for help, that call was going to the Green Cove Springs police dispatch center, which then had to call the Clay County Sheriff’s Office, then we had to dispatch deputies,” Cook said.

Late last year, just four years after the police department was started, the School Board voted to reverse the decision and return school security to the Sheriff’s Office.

“A couple of School Board members campaigned on returning law enforcement duties back to the Sheriff’s Office,” Cook said. “In November, the School Board voted 4 to 1 to return the law enforcement duties back.”

It cost about $1 million to transition the school police officers to the Sheriff’s Office, which the school district paid for, Cook said. The School Board has $6.7 million allocated for the Sheriff’s Office for first-year expenses, funded by a half-cent sales tax approved by voters to raise revenue for public schools, she said.

The Sheriff’s Office will reuse school police cruisers instead of buying new ones. A vinyl wrap will be used to convert them to the Sheriff’s Office color scheme.

School district police officers had the ability to move to the Sheriff’s Office. Cook said she was “very excited” that 33 of them had transferred as of last month.

The Sheriff’s Office will hire new officers to fill the school resource officer slots, while a handful of former school district police will transfer into Sheriff’s Office patrol duty, she said.

The post Clay County Sheriff’s Office takes over school police appeared first on Jacksonville Today.

Representatives with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development presented the Jacksonville Housing Authority with a check Wednesday for $2.3 million.

The money will go toward helping 330 local families in the workforce through the Jobs Plus Initiative Program, which helps support local families in many ways, News4Jax reported.

For example, the program helps families with other expenses and needs so they can focus on workforce training and education.

City leaders said that with Jacksonville growing so much, workforce development needs to stay a priority, News4Jax reported. This is another way to help people while also meeting that goal, they said.

A young woman who participated in the Jobs Plus program shared her story Wednesday, saying she is now a certified nursing assistant and is working toward transitioning out of public housing.

“It feels good,” Lineshia Bryant said. “Being that I got to CNA motivated me to go into the other program for school to just provide a better life for my kids, so it’s very satisfying.”

A representative with the Jobs Plus Program said recruiters will be actively working to connect with people who can use the money.

This story was produced by News4Jax, a Jacksonville Today news partner.

The post Housing Authority awarded $2.3 million for workforce aid appeared first on Jacksonville Today.

Two years into Florida’s new form of standardized student testing, two Northeast Florida school districts once again have the leading scores in the state, marking student progress at the end of the year.

The Florida Assessment of Student Thinking, or FAST, is administered to students three times during the school year: at the beginning, at the midpoint and near the end. This month, the Florida Department of Education released scores for schools and districts for grades 3 through 10 for English Language Arts and for grades 3 through 8 for math.

On the English Language Arts assessments, 53% of students across grades 3-10 scored at Level 3 or above, meaning they were at or above their grade level. According to the state, that was an increase of four percentage points from the previous year, the first year of the FAST testing.

Of Florida’s 67 school districts, St. Johns County had the highest percentage of students performing at or above grade level in English Language Arts, at 72%. Nassau County was next, at 66%. Two other Northeast Florida counties, Clay and Flagler, also performed above the statewide score.

On the math side of the FAST, 56% of students statewide in grades 3-8 performed at or above grade level, with a similar increase compared to last year as was seen on the English Language Arts testing.

St. Johns and Nassau tied for the best score among all school districts on the math assessments, with 77% of students in each county scoring at or above grade level. In addition to the two high-scoring districts, three other area districts performed above the statewide score in math: Clay, Union and Flagler.

Duval was one of two Northeast Florida districts this year to have its overall scores in both areas fall below 50%. For English Language Arts, 46% of Duval students across grades 3-10 performed at or above grade level, and 48% were at or above grade level in math. Putnam County scored at 41% on English Languard Arts and 44% for math.

Last year, in the first year of the FAST testing, St. Johns and Nassau also ranked among the state’s top districts.

For additional results, see the Florida Department of Education’s FAST website.

This story was produced by News4Jax, a Jacksonville Today news partner.

The post St. Johns and Nassau lead state in student testing appeared first on Jacksonville Today.

A live music venue will replace the just-closed Sun-Ray Cinema in historic Five Points, according to a Nashville-based company that will manage it.

The announcement came just two days after Sun-Ray showed its last movies at the Park Street site where it has operated for 13 years.

Marathon Live announced that the new venue will simply be called “FIVE” and will be what it calls a “newly renovated entertainment space” at the theater at 1028 Park St. A grand opening is planned for January.

Marathon Live’s brief news release said the new venue will “honor the rich, cultural history of the neighborhood.” Jacksonville Today asked what will be done to the facility, but a company spokesperson responded only that “additional information will be shared soon.”

The Sun-Ray shut down after the building’s new owners, an Atlanta developer called Union South Partners, chose not to renew the theater’s lease. Union South Partners said it planned $2 million in renovations to the four-story building that will “honor the building’s historical uses around entertainment.”

, founding partner Jay Weaver stating in a May 21 news release

Architect Roy Benjamin designed the four-story building in 1927. Part of its 35,000 square feet was the Riverside Theatre, the first in Jacksonville to screen movies with sound. The building also hosted live stage performances.

The facility changed format and design a few times, and the theater closed a few times during the 1930s and 1940s. The site was remodeled in 1949 as the Five Points Theater, closing again. It closed again in the 1970s before being converted again into a live theater operated by the River City Playhouse.

In 1991, the building became the Club5 nightclub. Then Sun-Ray Cinema opened there in 2011, with streetfront retail and three floors of office space above. Jack Shad acquired the building in 2004, investing $5 million in renovations to restore its original facade and secure a city landmark designation.

Marathon Live operates five facilities in cities like Nashville, Kansas City and St. Louis, helping “venue owners make running their business easy so they can create unique live experiences for their communities,” the company’s website says. Marathon Live is developing the Dennis + Ives office space and music venue on Dennis Street in the city’s Rail Yard District, according to its website.

Sun-Ray’s owners have not spoken publicly about the theater closure. But just over a week ago, the theater indicated it is seeking another home. In a post on its Facebook page, Sun-Ray said, “We are definitely in need of a bigger theater.”

“We’d love to have a five screen Downtown,” the posting said. “It’s just what Downtown Jax needs — a shiny new five-screen Sun-Ray. Phew … would be lovely.”

The post Live music venue set for shuttered Sun-Ray Cinema appeared first on Jacksonville Today.

Patrick Mason waved one of hundreds of signs lining the dock at Naval Station Mayport on Tuesday, waiting in the hot sun as the U.S.S. Mason pulled into port after a 9-month deployment.

But “thrilled” as he is that his brother, Seaman Brendan Mason, and 350 others on board the U.S.S. Mason are home safe, Patrick said he knows that the cruise through the Red Sea was no simple deployment.

The ship was targeted by Yemen’s Houthi rebels and Iranian missiles while on patrol with a carrier task force. It also stopped Houthi-launched cruise and anti-ship ballistic missiles coming its way, as well as destroying 22 Houthi targets in Yemen during defensive strikes,the Navy said.

“A lot of stuff happened over there from what I hear, so it is a blessing and an honor to see him come in,” said Patrick Mason, who said his brother gets kidded for having the same last name as his ship. “That’s a long time, especially being on the water and all you see is ocean for months at a time, then pull into a port or three or four days, then back open again. I am sure he’s happy to be back.”

Commander Justin Smith said that he led the crew of the 9,700-ton ship through defense of those attacks, plus safely escorting 26 merchant ships, capturing five pirates and freeing 26 of their prisoners, and destroying 46 drones He and members of the Dwight D. Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group saw some of the most intense maritime fighting the U.S. Navy has been involved in for 70 years, and he called their mission “unprecedented.”

“It’s been absolutely amazing watching this warm homecoming take place this morning, and to be able to see those sailors rejoin friends, family and loved ones, and a lot to share with them,” said Smith after his wife, Van Ngyen Smith, greeted him as he came off the destroyer.

“There’s a select few of us that have that distinct privilege and honor to say that we are truly battle tested and battle proven,” Smith added. “My crew has sustained, and been extremely resilient through the entire eight and a half-plus months of deployment, operating inside a weapons engagement zone and able to maintain that unprecedented combat condition unseen since World War II.”

The Arleigh Burke-class destroyer officially began service exactly 33 years ago – July 4, 1991. Powered by four gas turbines punching out a combined 100,000 shaft horsepower, the destroyer can do more than 30 knots, the Navy said. It carries Tomahawk, Penguin/Hellfire and Sparrow missiles;, MK-46 torpedoes and a Phalanx gun system to destroy incoming missiles and drones. Its aft hangar carries two helicopters, also armed with missiles and torpedoes.

The ship was operating in the U.S. 5th and 6th Fleet areas of operations as Houthi rebels began attacking and boarding cargo ships to pressure Israel to end its war against Hamas in Gaza, according to the Associated Press. As of last month, the rebels have targeted more than 60 vessels with missiles and drones, killing four sailors and disrupting commerce through the Suez Canal. And since January, the U.S.-led campaign has targeted the Houthis in response, the AP said.

In mid-May, Houthi rebels claimed they had targeted the U.S.S. Mason with missiles, and launched an attack on a commercial ship, the Navy Times said. At the same time, the Navy confirmed that the Mason “destroyed one inbound anti-ship ballistic missile launched by (the) Iranian-backed Houthis from Yemen over the Red Sea,” the AP reported. Smith confirmed his crew stopped five missiles and five more drones during their cruise,

Hundreds of crew family members waited on the dock on Tuesday morning for their son, daughter, father or mother to return home. Many waved U.S. flags of signs welcoming someone home, one woman wearing a “Navy Grandma” t-shirt as someone else waited in an inflatable unicorn costume. And as they waited, members of Navy Band Southeast played music, including a salsa version of God Bless America.”

For Calvin Edwards, cheering as he waved a “Senior Chief Boyardee is Home!!!!” sign, it was great to have his brother-in-law back. The Chicago man said he knows how busy Senior Chief Jimmy McMullen – his real name – was as the ship’s crew fought and repelled rebels.

“I am blessed to have him come home, and for all those who are coming home safe, I am blessed for them to be back safe,” Edwards said. “… We are proud of them.”

Crewmembers lined the rails as the Mason docked, some wearing hard hats shaped like cowboy hats as the destroyer’s huge battle flag – crossed swords flanked by mythical griffins – flew overhead. When the gangway was hooked up, they began to climb down, some carrying flowers to present to spouses or significant others. And happily greeting family in the gangway’s shadow was Culinary Specialist Harriett Pokuaa, originally from Ghana in West Africa and happy to be home after a very active cruise.

“I don’t know how I feel. I am just excited to be home and see my family,” she said. “Yes, I am really proud and I feel good that w are all here safe.”

While no one on board was injured in the deployments or attacks, the ship did suffer a tragedy.

A sailor was reported missing at sea on March 20 while conducting operations in the Red Sea., and was not found despite search and recovery operations, Smith said.

“It was difficult on the crew to lose one of our own,” he said. “. But I think we turned to each other fo that support, and it showed that connectiveness for each other, and I think we came out stronger, tougher and even better prepared for whatever is thrown in our direction.”

The strike group included the U.S.S. Dwight D. Eisenhower and its carrier air wing, as well as a guided missile cruiser and five destroyers.

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A state task force voted Friday to submit a report to the governor and the Legislature that outlines suggestions on how to build, market, operate and eventually make self-sufficient a Black history museum proposed for St. Johns County.

“We’re just simply turning the report over to the Florida Legislature to take the next steps of action,” said Tony Lee, a member of the Florida Museum of Black History Task Force and the state university system’s interim assistant vice chancellor of public affairs.

The task force voted 6-1 to move forward with the report, with Chairwoman Geraldine Thompson, an Orange County Democrat who chairs the panel, dissenting. Lawmakers set up the task force in 2023, and the museum does not have funding.

The report calls for a study of the St. Johns County site. But Thompson unsuccessfully sought to get the Department of State to conduct a broader feasibility study that also would have looked at potential sites in Eatonville and Opa-locka.

“It’s something that, you know, I’ve been advocating for since the task force was convened and we began our work,” Thompson said. “Without a feasibility study, we’re really operating in the dark. We’re just kind of supposing and hoping that this is going to be successful without any concrete data.”

But other members of the task force contended the idea was an attempt to negate a vote last month to put the museum in St. Johns County. A proposal from Eatonville in Central Florida ranked second, followed by Opa-locka in Miami-Dade County.

Backers of placing the museum in Central Florida haven’t given up on reversing the site decision.

Rep. Bruce Antone, an Orlando Democrat who was a sponsor of the 2023 museum legislation, urged against approving a task force report and letting the legislative process start over in 2025.

“The task force did not do what it was supposed to do as required by the legislation,” Antone told the panel Friday.

Antone said Thursday that a new task force needs to be put in place that does not include political appointees and can provide insight into history that needs to be displayed.

Antone also criticized the site selection process, which ended up pitting the St. Augustine area against a Black community in Central Florida.

The community that houses the museum is expected to provide matching funds for the construction and operations.

In brief comments to the task force, St. Johns County Administrator Joy Andrews disputed wetlands and environmental concerns that critics have raised about the proposed 17.5-acre site, which is owned by the Florida Memorial University Foundation. Andrews also said a recent change in leadership at the foundation isn’t expected to affect its commitment to the St. Johns site.

Questions were raised last month about rankings given by Rep. Kiyan Michael, a Jacksonville Republican and task force member. Michael gave the St. Augustine-area location a perfect score and Eatonville its lowest marks. Michael said she did not “act deliberately” to affect the scoring.

The proposed site is expected to handle a 100,000-square-foot facility or larger. At $1,000 a square foot, such a facility would require at least $100 million to build and maintain, according to an estimate.

The museum complex would include such things as meeting rooms, banquet facilities and a performing arts theater available for private events.

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The two-story home where James Weldon Johnson and his brother, J. Rosamond Johnson, were born in Jacksonville’s historic LaVilla community is long gone.

But 11 years after the site was designated in the Johnsons’ honor, community leaders on Thursday unveiled a park remembering the men who wrote and composed Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing, first performed in 1900 at the Stanton School in Jacksonville.

The title of that song — known popularly as the Black national anthem — rises high to border one corner of the park. A bronze statue of the brothers, named Calling It Done, stands nearby, not far from a restored shotgun home similar to those on many LaVilla streets in the early 1900s.

Melanie’ Edwards, the great-niece of J. Rosamund Johnson, joined hundreds of people to celebrate the park’s opening. Edwards said she understands the effect the two men and her family have had.

“The fact that many people still remember the Johnsons, or remember their music, is humbling,” Edwards said. “As with many African American neighborhoods, the physicality was not honored and maintained. But the fact that the other families besides the Johnsons that achieved because they had grown up in LaVilla, Jacksonville, is as good a legacy. And I hope that people come as much to learn about those families as they do to make use of the facilities that Jacksonville has built for them.”

The park’s opening also marks the next part of the city’s planned 30-mile Emerald Trail, which eventually will connect 14 historic urban neighborhoods to Downtown, the St. Johns River, McCoys Creek and Hogans Creek. The first part of the trail opened almost two month’s ago on what is designated the LaVilla Link.

The park thrills Kay Ehas, CEO of Groundwork Jacksonville, which is creating the Emerald Trail.

“The LaVilla Link has its crowning piece, absolutely. It is an incredible park design” Ehas said. “I love the fact, No. 1, that it is honoring the history of this neighborhood and of the Johnson brothers. And I love how many people are showing up. It’s truly an awesome celebration.”

LaVilla was once its own community that grew to be nicknamed the Harlem of the South, with homes, restaurants and jazz clubs. But in recent decades, much of the community was cleared out, leaving empty lots between the Prime Osborn Convention Center to the south and medical offices and the LaVilla School of the Arts to the north.

City officials and historians knew the Johnsons’ birth site at Lee and Houston streets was in the middle of that area, and the city designated it to honor the brothers, who composed more than 200 popular musical pieces.

James Weldon Johnson, a writer and civil rights activist, wrote the song to commemorate President Abraham Lincoln’s birthday. His brother, a composer, set the lyrics to music.

Jessie Ball duPont Fund President Mari Kuraishi praised the park and the Johnsons as new offices and apartment buildings are being erected on once-empty lots,.

“Their artistic brilliance gave voice, empowerment and pride to the future generations, and they were born right here in LaVilla,” Kuraishi said. “This park ensures that the Johnson brothers’ incredible legacy will be elevated beyond today. This park honors the past, but it is a vessel for the future and for the neighborhood that is coming into being.”

Architect Walter Hood thanked those who helped bring the park to fruition. He lobbied people to visit what he helped design.

“If you don’t use it, it will go away. So to the community, let’s start something here, a revival, of bringing our past back,” Hood said. “The ghosts of our past are here. And so that is what we need to reshape our future, to bring our past along with us and stop tearing it up, and cherish whether it is meager or big.”

The Rev. Rudolph W. McKissick Jr., the 97-year-old senior pastor of the Bethel Church, gave the opening prayer at the ribbon-cutting. He said the park is “so meaningful” to him.

“I did walk these streets as a boy, never knowing that that house was the house,” McKissick said. “And as I stand at this age, having a connection from my mother, who was a student of John Rosamond Johnson. He taught her to play the piano, and God has spared me to stand here and help in this celebration.”

A concert is planned at the park Sept. 14, but no details were revealed Thursday. Mayor Donna Deegan said it will be a “beautiful cultural celebration” to welcome LaVilla residents and the city with live music and activities.

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Fore Score Golf Tavern plans to open in The Palms at Gate Parkway in South Jacksonville in December.

It will be the second location for sports-themed restaurant and entertainment concept.

The first golf tavern opened in August 2022 at 1407 Atlantic Blvd. in San Marco Square.

Read the rest of this story at the Jacksonville Daily Record, a Jacksonville Today news partner.

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Just over a year after they successfully stopped a liquor store from going into their neighborhood, members of the Metro Gardens Neighborhood Association have filed suit against the city to stop a multimillion-dollar medical examiner’s office next door.

They say they want the $62.84 million North Davis Street facility stopped, despite its being under construction for over a year. The 18 residents also seek damages in the suit filed Thursday.

Neighborhood association President Lydia Bell pointed out that the medical examiner’s office is across Davis Street from the KIPP Voice Academy and right behind what was to be a liquor store. She said residents tried to tell city officials how much they opposed it, “but no one hears; no one listened,” she said.

“They are only putting it in the Black community,” she said during a news conference Thursday. “If they did the traffic study, that would have stopped that alone. But all that traffic coming up around children? Plus, it’s morbid. No one wants to live around dead bodies. We are not a cemetery — Brentwood is not a cemetery. There should be no morgue in anybody’s neighborhood.”

City officials did not respond to a request for comment about the suit. Association attorney Neil Henrichsen alleged that the city broke laws in building in Brentwood, a block off Golfair Boulevard.

“Zoning laws were broken. The work commenced while the property was zoned for commercial use, not public use,” Henrichsen said. “Second, the size of the property was over 40,000 square feet and the planning was for 51,000 square feet. That was not approved at the time the work commenced.

“There has been a pattern of disregard by the city with regard to the Neighborhood Bill of Rights. This is a perfect example,” he said. “Not one community in this city would say. ‘Yes, please bring a morgue into my community.'”

City officials broke ground 13 months ago on the new medical examiner’s office, which will replace a facility whose structural bones date to 1968.

The current facility can handle a maximum of 45 bodies but has been at capacity several times in recent months, city documents show. The facility on North Jefferson Street also has dealt with an average of 2,000 autopsies a year and faces increasing numbers of autopsies due to opioid overdoses and the recent COVID-19 pandemic, city officials said at a groundbreaking in May 2023.

The new two-story medical examiner’s office, just over a mile north of the current office, is visible from nearby Interstate 95 as well as Golfair Boulevard, as well as KIPP school students and numerous homes across Davis Street and Castlewood Drive West.

The residents’ lawsuit states that the facility will have room for up to 300 bodies and operate 24 hours a day, and “will directly harm each of the resident plaintiffs.” It also is “hazardous, unsightly and entirely out of character” with the adjacent residential community, and will decrease property values, the suit says.

What really angers Bell is that no one in her community ever knew about the site being chosen until construction had begun. Brentwood was never on the initial list of 38 sites under consideration in 2016 and was selected only in early 2023, she and the attorney said. Then the city never sought a zoning exception for it until after that construction began, Bell said.

“They just started building, just started pulling trees out by people’s homes, across from an elementary school — 32 feet away,” Bell said. “It is the laws that are already on the books that they need to enforce; that’s what would stop it. But they are breaking every law on the book, and that is anarchy.”

The suit comes after Brentwood spent months fighting the proposed package store on adjacent land along Golfair Boulevard.

A developer had bought the former gas station in 2019, and the Planning Commission recommended its use as a liquor store despite vocal protest.

In September, Council Member Ju’Coby Pittman told residents the city would buy the property, which is less than 200 feet from the KIPP Voice Academy. And in late March, Mayor Donna Deegan said the former liquor store will be repurposed as a small-business support center.

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In Duval, a consultant is suggesting that closing more than 30 schools might be the best way of dealing with budget shortfalls brought on by rising construction costs, falling state funding and decreased student enrollment.

Jacksonville is not alone. Many of Florida’s largest, mostly urban districts  — accounting for about half of Florida’s 3 million public school students — are looking at closing schools. 

In Broward County this year, public outcry put a halt to the district’s plan to close more than 40 schools, but the board this week approved a slower, more methodical plan to close at least five for now. 

Miami-Dade also approved closures this week. With protestors outside, that district’s board voted to redraw some school zones and repurpose some schools.

Tampa’s Hillsborough County already closed a handful of schools in recent years and will implement a comprehensive rezoning in August.

“Over the years, some schools have seen a significant change in student population due to shifting demographics and population growth,” Hillsborough district spokesperson Tanya Arja said in an email. “While many areas are still growing, other neighborhoods have fewer families with school-aged children. Some families may also be choosing other educational options for their children.”

A changing plan for Duval

Duval is also contending with older-than-average school buildings — on top of the factors common to large, urban districts. 

Established in the mid-1800s as the concept of public school was gaining a foothold across the U.S., the Duval school district has many old buildings scattered across the county — and many of them are located quite close to other schools because zones have been redrawn so many times over the decades. 

In an optimistic pre-Covid set of recommendations called “A Bold Plan for DCPS,” administrators outlined a plan to update many of the crumbling schools. The goal was to bring Duval up to code in terms of safety and security, remove most portable classrooms, and make better use of existing buildings while building new schools where necessary. It came with a price tag of $1.9 billion. 

Supply-chain delays and rising construction costs recently sent the School Board back to the drawing board. The bill for the Bold Plan is $3.9 billion now, and with fewer traditional students enrolled and a new state mandate to share more revenue and resources with charter schools (which are independently operated yet publicly funded), the district is left with less income and more expenses.

And so, they’ve spent the last several months reevaluating the Bold Plan.

“This all started as a response to a delayed construction project at Southside Estates,” interim Superintendent Dana Kriznar said at a community meeting at the district’s Southbank headquarters this month. “That pause gave us an opportunity to look at some of the things that we’re doing and the issues the district is facing.”

The board hired a consultant and asked for a “third-party, objective plan” to help contend with a projected $1.4 billion shortfall. Some of the dozens of schools the consultant is suggesting to close were already in the Bold Plan. 

Others are new to the list: 

• Ed White HS feeder pattern: Hidden Oaks ES and Westside HS
• Englewood HS feeder pattern: Kings Trail ES and Windy Hill ES
• First Coast HS feeder pattern: San Mateo ES
• Fletcher feeder pattern: Anchor ES, Atlantic Beach ES, Mayport ES, and San Pablo ES
• (San Pablo ES recommended to merge into a new Seabreeze ES built on the San Pablo site.)
• Raines HS feeder pattern: Biltmore ES, George W. Carver ES, Pinedale ES, and Thomas Jefferson ES
• Ribault HS feeder pattern: Long Branch ES
• Riverside HS feeder pattern: Bayview ES, Fishweir ES, Hyde Grove ES, John Stockton ES, Ortega ES, and West Riverside ES
• Terry Parker HS feeder pattern: Arlington ES, Brookview ES, Fort Caroline ES, GRASP Academy, Holiday Hill ES, Lake Lucina ES, Lone Star ES, and Parkwood Heights ES
• Dedicated magnet programs/schools:  A. Phillip Randolph – close program; GRASP Academy – consolidate into Don Brewer ES; Joseph Stilwell – close program; R.V. Daniels – consolidate into R.L. Brown; YWLA/YMLA – close program

The board asked the consultant to consider only factors like a school’s maintenance backlog and the potential operations savings (but not the schools’ academic success or student body demographics). 

The district says another goal is “improving boundaries to create stronger school communities and opportunities for educational innovation and improvement within ‘feeder patterns,’”  — meaning, geographically close elementary schools should feed into the same middle schools and neighborhood high school. Currently, students at a single elementary school might be zoned for a few different middle or high schools. 

Funding changes

Duval voters agreed in November 2020 to a half-cent sales tax to pay for the school district’s capital improvements, and the district created an oversight committee to monitor how it spends the money. After the sales tax was passed, though, the state of Florida changed its rules governing how districts must manage revenue from such taxes. 

State law now requires school districts share tax revenue with charter schools according to their proportion of total student enrollment, as the district has seen a big increase in charter enrollment over the last several years. 

Next steps for Duval

Kriznar says the consultant’s plan isn’t the only option on the table. The district is also considering construction design and process changes.

In the meantime, though, Kriznar is asking the community to share the special, unquantifiable details about their neighborhood schools. 

“We need you to fill in the rest of those blanks about what is special about your school,” Kriznar said at the meeting. “We have some hard decisions to make. As we develop a plan to bring to the board, we want to include your voice.”

The last of seven meetings to gather community feedback about the “master facility plan” is Thursday, June 20, at 5:30 p.m. at Terry Parker High School. The district is also accepting feedback online through noon on Friday, June 21.

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