Duval County Public Schools resumes search for new superintendent

DUVAL COUNTY, Fla. – Duval County Public Schools has officially started re-advertising for a new superintendent.

The search was suspended in 2023 after the first attempt to find a replacement for Doctor Diana Greene did not succeed in providing enough qualified candidates.

“I think the superintendent should have local information about what’s going on in the communities around the public schools,” Daniel Bass, whose children attended school in Duval County, said. “We don’t have anything for our kids to do with their families.”

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Debbie Epps agreed with Bass. She raised all of her children in the Duval County Public Schools system.

“What’s going on in the community affects the kids that’s going to the schools and it affects them at home and they bring it to school,” Epps said.

Epps said she hopes the new superintendent will help bridge that gap.

“I hope we get a good one,” she said.

Parents at Fletcher High School listed the most critical needs or challenges they think the next superintendent will need to understand and address, including:

• Retaining teachers and recruiting new ones

• The distraction from academics because of lifestyle or politics

• On-going improvements in security

People who attended a community meeting at Raines High School listed the following factors as the most critical challenges in the school district:

• An unevenness of resources and infrastructure

• A focus on evolving AI, the technical landscape

• Arts programs not in the school

Greene retired early from the school district at the end of the last school year following a series of investigations including claims of abuse and a toxic work and learning environment at Douglas Anderson School of the Arts.

MORE | ‘It was my choice’: Former DCPS superintendent says she wasn’t forced to retire amid school investigations

A long-time vocal director at the high school was arrested last March. Jeffrey Clayton faces charges involving inappropriate contact with at least one student.

Dr. Dana Kriznar has been serving as interim superintendent. Her contract has been extended through June.

The application process for a new superintendent ends on April 15.

The district hopes to interview finalists for the position in mid-May with a decision made during a special board meeting on May 23.