by Bradley Parsons
Staff Writer
Budget cuts aimed at Duval County’s truancy centers have prompted discussions between the mayor’s office and the Duval County School Board over who should pick up the tab run up by school skippers.
The mayor’s office is planning to cut $227,000 in the upcoming budget that last year provided funding to staff four truancy centers spread across Jacksonville. The plan at City Hall is to shift the cost to the school district, but representatives there say their budget is also stretched thin.
Unless money can be found by September — that’s when the money from last year’s budget runs out — the school district may have to cut services at the centers. A mayor’s office spokesperson said some of the centers could close their doors.
Duval County School Board chairwoman Nancy Broner said the shortfall attracted interest from the mayor’s office, Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office and State Attorney’s Office. All are engaged with the school board, searching for a solution. Broner said truancy impacts the community outside of the school house doors.
“What’s happening is the mayor is trying to figure out why they’re in the truancy business, and I understand why he would ask that question,” said Broner. “But truancy is not the sole responsibility of the school district. It’s a community-wide problem, and it’s not appropriate to think the school district can solve this problem alone.”
In the past, the centers received money from state and federal grants as well as City funds. But the grant money has been whittled away in recent years.
“The other funding sources went away,” said Broner. “Now all that’s left is the funding from the City. Now if that’s on the chopping block, we’re all trying to figure out what’s going to happen.”
The truancy centers are regional dropoffs for children caught skipping school. JSO patrols pick up truants and leave them at the centers stationed on Jacksonville’s north, south and west sides and in Jacksonville Beach. The JSO will continue to pick up truants.
Ideally, the centers function as more than just a holding pen for class cutters. The Jacksonville Beach center, with its emphasis on counseling chronic truants, has become a model for the district’s Truancy Interdiction Program, said Donna Cobb, the Duval Public Schools coordinator for social work and attendance services.
By counseling students and their parents, the Jacksonville Beach center’s programs treat the underlying causes of truancy, she said. Students who avoided school because of poor performance received tutoring while those with problems at home were directed toward family
counseling.
The approach appeared to be sending greater numbers of truants back to class, said Cobb. But dwindling funding had already forced cuts in the programs. The current budget cuts threaten to cut them entirely, she said.
Mayor’s office spokesperson Kristin Key said the City was looking for solutions. She said high school and middle school buildings will likely have to be used as substitute dropoffs if the truancy centers are closed or if their capacity is reduced by staff cuts.
“We understand that this is a community-wide problem, that there’s a trickle-down effect with crime and other community issues,” said Key. “But, a lot of power lies in their (the school district’s) resources. And they are willing to work with us to try to get creative and find a way to reprogram some funds.”