Just after entering the Southside classroom portable, Mayor Lenny Curry spotted a student deep into a textbook.
“What are you working on?” the mayor asked.
Social studies, the student said. A subject, the student quickly added, he didn’t really like.
“But it is good for you,” Curry said. “I promise.”
In the next room, close to a dozen more eighth- through 10th-graders were drawing, supervised by a social worker.
It wasn’t a normal classroom. These students had made poor choices and were in the Alternative Out-of-School Suspension program, also known as ATOSS.
There are five centers in Duval County, with the students having to attend up to five days, depending on their offense.
“Last time I was suspended was in the eighth grade,” Curry told the students.
Duval County Public Schools Superintendent Nikolai Vitti used that as a launching point to tell the students they were good kids who just made a bad decision.
They were facing a consequence, but could learn — and were better off in the classroom environment than sitting at home.
Most of the students agreed.
“If I was home I’d just be bored,” one girl said.
Another said being in school meant he could do his classwork.
ATOSS is part of the anti-crime Jacksonville Journey initiative. This year, ATOSS received $800,000, but it could end up with more.
Curry spent much of Monday afternoon touring Journey-related programs, saying he wanted to see more than spreadsheets and descriptions of the programs. He wanted to see the people doing the work and learning about their impact.
The mayor also has some decisions to make. His budget included additional Journey funding of about $3 million, bringing the program’s total to $5 million.
The new money has been spent down to about $2.3 million. The spending so far includes a library-related program slated tonight at City Council to receive an additional $266,000.
Curry made no funding decisions Monday, saying he’d do so “very soon.” Instead, it was just a tour.
A little more than an hour after visiting the teenagers, Curry was on to visit children much, much younger.
It was a stop at the Little Wise Kids Early Learning Center in Arlington, but most of the attendees weren’t available. It was naptime for many of the 73 children, the rooms dark with soft piano or gospel music being played in the background.
After carefully making their way through the sleeping children, Curry and the visiting contingent heard about the program and its standards from Katrina Wise, the facility’s owner.
She said she opened Little Wise Kids in 2009 when she wasn’t happy with the type of service she saw being provided to her own children.
There wasn’t enough specialized care for children of different ages.
“I didn’t like what I saw,” she said.
And at those early ages, children “are like sponges” absorbing information and needing special attention, Wise said.
Additional city funding, she suggested, could be used to fill the gaps state vouchers don’t fully cover for parents to place their kids in early learning facilities.
For many who have trouble making ends meet, even as little as $40 a month makes a big difference, she said.
Curry’s final stop of the day was Downtown at the Main Library. There were no children to visit this time, just classrooms and materials the library has invested in to help learning and literacy for all ages.
However, this stop was slightly different — the Library Enhancement Access Program, also known as LEAP, already is slated for part of that extra Journey money. City Council is scheduled to decide on it tonight, but the money would be used to enhance education opportunities in six urban-core ZIP codes.
The program would help parents and caregivers build pre-literacy skills in children up to 5 years old and increase the language and digital literacy of people ages 16-24.
With the money, the library is hiring four additional staff members and buying mobile equipment to go to the various urban libraries.
Curry said he liked the targeted ZIP codes, areas “where we need to be.”
“This is all important,” he said.
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