Notably absent from the Super 20 applications submitted to the Duval County Public Schools was Scott Schneider, the current Chief of Schools for the district. He had been interviewing for superintendent positions elsewhere and had submitted an application last October but then the School Board halted its process.

Why? Why was he no longer interested in being Superintendent is the question I asked myself when looking at the applications candidates had submitted this Spring.

We now have three very good reasons, three challenges that will constrict what a new superintendent will be able to do and that point to a larger challenge overall for public school districts in Florida in which further employment with public schools seems more like being an enemy agent in a hostile land than a noble endeavor to educate future generations of citizens.

During this month of April, we have learned:

• Cost overruns on construction has left the district $1.9 billion short of what they need to complete the original plan to rebuild aging and obsolete school buildings that voters funded by adopting a half-penny sales tax in 2020. Among the questions people are asking is what happened to the Citizens Oversight Board that was going to oversee the endeavor and review the spending? Why haven’t they raised the alarm before now? Is it only in 2024, given the history of inflation since we emerged from the pandemic, that people are realizing that construction costs have increased drastically?
• The scandal at the dedicated magnet high school for the arts, Douglas Anderson, is not over. A math teacher was arrested at Walt Disney World for indecent exposure, although the arrest report reveals he was standing in a window doing something with himself–it was no inadvertent forgetting to close the curtains while getting dressed, the district chose to wait two months after learning about the arrest before removing him from the classroom, only when the news broke to the public did they act. As if to underscore the lapse, the ex-teacher whose transgressions were first reported last year pled guilty to charges of lewd and lascivious conduct with a student.
• The school district is seriously short of funds and is contemplating drastic action. The story began breaking on social media after Chris Guerrieri, writer of the blog Education Matters, reported that he was receiving reports of massive personnel cuts about to happen. His report was amplified by Angie Nixon, who represents District 13 in the Florida House of Representatives. Finally, in a classic late Friday afternoon news dump move, the Acting Superintendent, Dana Kriznar, sent an email to all employees that was later shared on the district’s website. A confluence of factors involving Florida’s hellbent drive toward privatization through universal vouchers, the end of ESSER (Covid relief) funding from the federal government, and declining enrollment that is projected at 10% or so that will reduce state funding for the district has resulted in a projected elimination of 700 jobs for the new school year.

In the midst of this turmoil, the School Board is conducting a Superintendent search. The need is dire; someone needs to be hired and in place by July 1. At this point in the process, we are waiting for the six semi-finalists to submit their answers, written and video, to seven ‘deal-breaking’ questions that the Board generated (one from each member. It would take too long of a tangent to explain why Florida’s Sunshine laws did not allow them to consult about the question each would pose.)

If you want to see the questions that were emailed to the six semi-finalists, go here. Only one of them addresses one of three issues above, which brings up the question: What do School Board members know and when did district staff inform them?

One of the memorable quotes I remember a professor saying during my college days, even though it’s decades later, is wondering who’s abandoning the ship: the crew or the rats? The Acting Superintendent was supposed to leave December 31, but was talked into remaining through the remainder of the school year because the board wanted to restart their search in 2024. I wonder if she’s now regretting that decision.

Nevertheless, the overall feeling is that of a rudderless ship. No one to steer, no wind in the sails, marooned in the Sargasso Sea and for the literate among us, a thirst to reread The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.

The district will follow its Spring budgeting practice: principals will meet with staff, the district will identify affected personnel, and people will roll into the summer break wondering where they will end up, if they wash up on any shore (school) at all.

No one seems to have any idea of how they will meet and beat the challenge. It’s man-the-lifeboats time. I wonder what the superintendent candidates will submit. Will they simply withdraw, put forth a bold plan and assert they can right the ship, or ignore the existential challenges? Or are they not monitoring district news at all? Talk about a deal-breaker.

What will the School Board do? Someone needs to take command. Or will we be left singing, along with the immortal Satchmo, this song: