by Karen Brune Mathis
Managing Editor
“Basilisk.”
“How do you pronounce that word?” asked the third-grader at Lake Forest Elementary School, pointing to the word in his textbook.
As a “Principal for a Day” and no recollection of ever having spoken the word, I gave it a shot and one of my attempts was correct.
The boy was one of the almost 500 students at Lake Forest, a turnaround school in Northwest Jacksonville that has Principal Renda Ajluni at the helm.
An educator since the 1970s, except for a stint at a California computer company, Ajluni is in her first year as principal at Lake Forest. She also taught in California before returning to Jacksonville.
She sees her former students around town. “Miss Rukab!” she heard at the Landing one day, reconnecting with a student from her earliest days teaching elementary school at Central Riverside.
Her Lake Forest students greet her in the halls, the cafeteria and the classrooms. Some stop by after class every day to share their progress.
“I got an A!” exclaimed a little girl on Monday, earning a treat from the goody basket.
Lake Forest is a K-5 magnet school for the visual and performing arts and as a turnaround school qualifies for extra support and assistance. .
Ajluni spends up to 12 hours a day at the school, with more time at home as needed. One of her beliefs is that really good teachers are those who are “teaching from the gut.”
Her days are filled with classroom visits, meetings, calls, time with students and parents, required paperwork and reports and whatever needs to be done.
The “Principal for a Day Program” is designed to show community members the challenges and realities of the Duval public schools. About 60 people took part on Monday in schools throughout the county.
Asked what the business community could provide Lake Forest, Ajluni said some are very supportive already with donations and help, but she can always use nonfiction books, volunteer readers and mentors.
Mentoring, she said, was important to the children.
About 40 of the volunteer principals met late Monday afternoon at The Schultz Center for Teaching and Leadership to share their experiences.
“As far as we can go in K-12 education, that’s how far the city will go,” said Superintendent Ed Pratt-Dannals. “A lot of this is about you learning, and the principals learning from you.”
Participants included investors, nonprofit leaders, City executives, business owners, corporate executives, marketing professionals and others.
Here’s a summary of what they said:
• Principals are always on the move. “We had two minutes between meetings.”
• Volunteers to read to students and to help students read are always needed.
• Schools need better technology. “Businesses know this is the cost of doing business.”
Two areas of discussion included mentors and parents.
“We’ve got great principals and teachers,” said County Judge Gary Flower. But, he said, schools need mentors and parental involvement.
“How do you get more parents involved?” he asked the group, eliciting both nods of agreement and questioning shrugs.
Principals and teachers might have the students in classrooms for six hours a day and after-school activities and care might engage them a few more hours. The remaining time and weekends belong to families.
School Board Chair W.C. Gentry wrapped up the debriefing. “We must do it with or without the parents,” he told participants.
He also said the community needs to be engaged.
“We need these community leaders,” he said, to experience the schools.
A basilisk, by the way, is a creature described as a serpent, lizard, or dragon, or any of several tropical American iguana lizards of the genus Basiliscus.
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