by Richard Prior
Staff Writer
With the ink barely dry on its most recent in-depth report, the Jacksonville Community Council Inc. is already looking for volunteers to help with its next project.
“Public Education Reform: Eliminating the Achievement Gap” will be released Thursday at JCCI’s annual meeting at The Schultz Center.
The study, part two of JCCI’s education reform project, concludes months of work by the Public Education Reform Study Committee and its chair, Bill Mason.
Part one, subtitled “Assessing Progress,” was released last year.
The annual meeting, from 8-9:15 a.m., will also honor JCCI’s new officers and the board of directors for 2004-05. The officers are Jerry Weedon, president; Mary Ellen Smith, president-elect; and Helen Jackson, secretary/treasurer.
Vice presidents for this year are Ron Autrey, Bill Bishop, Allan T. Geiger, Eric J. Holshouser and Glenda Washington.
The St. Johns River will be the focus of the 2004-05 study, titled “River Dance: Putting the River in River City.” The project will look at the environment of the river as well as management, transportation, resources, public access and a development plan.
A study committee will meet weekly for six months, beginning in October. Results will be published next year.
“Anybody who’s interested in getting on the committee for the river is certainly welcome to call JCCI and get involved,” said Weedon.
To participate, call Jennifer Parsons 396-3052.
Weedon has been a member of JCCI since 1985, joining right after completing a stint with Leadership Jacksonville. He has been a member of the board of directors for the past five years.
With input from the community, JCCI each year selects two significant local problems to be the targets of in-depth studies. One project leans toward human services; the other to a public issue. Study committees meet from six to nine months to reach a consensus on key points and recommend solutions.
“We’re the model for these kinds of programs around the country,” said Weedon. “We bring the civic side to the human services side and join them together.
“Most cities have one or the other or both that don’t interrelate. We actually are involved through the Human Services Council that came out of a JCCI study. That is the link we have that a lot of people are using as a model.”
Suzanne Morse, executive director of The Pew Partnership for Civic Change in Charlottesville, Va., highlighted the JCCI process in her recent book, “Smart Communities: How Citizens and Local Leaders Can Use Strategic Thinking To Build a Brighter Future.”
The Partnership included the way JCCI confronts issues in a select group of 19 nationwide Solutions for America, which were recommended as models for solving local problems.
“Our website (www.jcci.org) is full of all kinds of information about how you do quality of life indicators,” said Weedon. “We’ve gotten an enormous number of hits on the site from people trying to figure out how to do that.
“We also send some of our people out to do workshops for other communities that want to learn how to start something like JCCI. I think those are two things where we’re really making an impact.”
Other recent JCCI projects include “Neighborhoods at the Tipping Point,” “Making Jacksonville a Clean City,” “Services for Ex-Offenders” and “Growth Management.”
In June, JCCI released a study entitled “Town and Gown: Building Successful University-Community Collaborations.” It focuses on preparing Jacksonville for the challenges and opportunities of the new knowledge-based society.
“It looks at how we can provide better education for our citizens, how we can integrate more students with the higher education institutes we have in town,” said Weedon.
A race relations study released in 2002 will probably earn the city additional national exposure with development of the Race Relations Report Card, he said.
“One of the recommendations of the study is that we not just build the study and put it on the shelf, but that we actually come back and . . . try to figure out where problems exist, where they’re getting better and where we can do better,” said Weedon. “That report card is something that JCCI is going to do, along with Edwards Waters College, UNF and JU.
“Hopefully, we’re going to do it every year, so the mayor and City Council have some kind of document to look at to see how we’re doing.”
Weedon graduated with honors from Washington & Lee University in Lexington, Va., and received his law degree, also with honors, from the University of Florida.
Since 1976, he has been at Marks Gray, where he concentrates on commercial and civil litigation and works in estates and trusts.
He is admitted to the U.S. Court of Appeals, 5th and 11th Circuit; the U.S. District Court, Northern and Middle districts of Florida; and all other Florida courts.
He is a member of the Ronald McDonald House board of directors, the City’s Community Relations Commission, the City’s Human Rights Commission, St. Vincent’s Hospital Foundation Ambassador Board, the Assumption School Board and is a Legal Aid volunteer attorney.