Q: Last month, we discussed a school arrival/dismissal safety meeting you were attending with various stakeholders following the traffic visits you made to Mandarin schools. Do you have any updates from that meeting?
A: The meeting was very successful and productive. Almost all of our principals were able to attend, in addition to Councilman Michael Boylan and representatives from the Public Works department and the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office (JSO).
Q: Were any agreements reached?
A: The JSO officer in attendance was shocked when we presented our findings from our traffic visits as to people driving across the grass and sidewalks as well as making illegal u-turns. He agreed to step up patrols around our Mandarin schools. The head of traffic engineering for the City of Jacksonville also agreed to certain safety measures, including changing out some of the pedestrian walk signals to an audible countdown. He also agreed to paint crosswalks in some areas, including one across the Mandarin High School entrance on school property.
Q: Are there still some outstanding safety enhancements you would like to see?
A: One thing I requested had to do with the fact that right now our middle schools and high schools have basically no safety support. There are no school zones or crossing guards at middle or high schools and I’ve requested both for them. We have 25 traditional middle schools and 15 traditional high schools in Duval County out of a total of 157 traditional schools, so it’s not really a huge increase in number.
We learned that apparently the reasoning years ago when the decision was made to exclude middle and high schools was that these students don’t obey rules anyway. We stuck up for our older kids and disagreed. In fact, sometimes they follow the rules better than adults!
So our request for school zones and crossing guards at all schools is being reviewed. I would say that overall, some good came from the meeting and I am hopeful that more good will come.
Q: Do you have anything else to share with District 7?
A: We are at the end of the school year; the last day of school will be May 30. Our students are focused on testing and celebration.
Q: How can our readers contact you?
A: They can email me at BolducM@duvalschools.org or call me at (904) 390-2375.
