The school district’s all is well message does not sit well with the citizens of Jacksonville

First let me say I know there are great things going on in our schools. A lot of great kids being taught by dedicated teachers but at the same time I think many of the success we are having are happening in spite of the district not because of them. Then I am also optimistic about the future, the outgoing board members and superintendent were so terrible for the district that the new ones have to be better even if it is just a little. Unfortunately I think even if the next board members and super come in and insisted we do things the right way it will take us years to recover from their predecessors.

The first thing they have to do is junk the “all is well message” that the district constantly tries to shovel down our throats and that the Times Union parrots. We know things aren't all right, we know that despite pockets of success we are underachieving and we are not buying what the district is selling and I know this because recently there have been more housing starts in St. Johns than in Duval, the flat growth of our student population despite the city’s overall growth, the counties that most people move to when they leave Jacksonville are the counties closest to Jacksonville, despite the recession there has been a rise in private school enrollment and finally because I work in our schools and I talk to my colleagues and they feel the same way.

People are voting with their feet.

I don’t have a problem with us celebrating our successes and we have had some but I have a huge