Q: Can you share any insight on the joint meeting of the St. Johns County School Board and the St. Johns County Board of County Commissioners held on Oct. 26?
A: I thought it was a good meeting and allowed all of us to express our thoughts. We heard presentations from both the school district and the county regarding growth. The county commissioners made the point that this board has not approved everything that comes in front of them and that much of the present growth, such as in Silverleaf and Beachwalk, was approved back in 2008 – 2009. The school board members made the point that everything the county commission does affects us and we have to react.Â
Q: Does the school district have a say in the approval of new developments?
A: There is a mechanism for approval known as Proportionate Share Mitigation for schools, which is a formula prescribed by the state. Similar to roads and other infrastructure, developers have to meet this requirement. If the school district determines that we don’t have room for the expected number of students, the developer must either pay money and/or donate land for a school site. The school district’s planning department works with every proposed development, whether it is one house or many, on this. If the developer meets the formula by doing one of these things, we have to sign off that they did indeed meet the formula. That then goes to the Board of County Commissioners as part of the approval process.
Q: Do you have an update on the new schools under construction?
A: Land has just started being cleared for the RiverTown school, K-8 PP. This will be a transitional K-8 school and so will have the smaller footprint because it will convert to a middle school when we can build an elementary school in RiverTown. (There are actually two elementary school sites in RiverTown.) The Shearwater school is slightly ahead of the Beacon Lakes school at this point, since it started construction earlier, but both are on schedule to be completed by August 2024. Finally, we are beginning to put together the bid materials for the two schools slated to open in 2026 in Nocatee and Silverleaf.
Q: Do you have any legislative updates?
A: The Florida Senate has filed three deregulation bills as a result of input over the summer by the Department of Education. The senate is now asking all the school boards for their input. We’re hopeful that redundant and burdensome regulations can be streamlined as a result of these bills, which will be considered during session next year.
Q: Do you have anything else to share with District 1?
A: In mid-November, we had our reorganizational meeting of the school board. I was elected chair for this year and Tony Coleman, who represents District 2, was elected co-chair.
Q: How can our readers contact you?
A: They can email me at beverly.slough@stjohns.k12.fl.us or call me at (904) 547-7510.
