At Mandarin Middle School, the average class has 36 or 37 students. The crowding isn't limited to the usual areas - Mandarin, Arlington and the Southside. At Seabreeze Elementary in Jacksonville Beach, a kindergarten class is meeting in the school library until a portable classroom can be found. At Jefferson Davis Middle School on the Westside, all sixth-graders attend classes in portables. Among the top unfunded construction needs is a second high school, Van Fleet said.
Space is available in some schools, many in the core city.
School Board Chairwoman Gwen Gibson has long argued the school system isn't overcrowded, just that the available seats aren't where some families want to be. Plenty of needs At Holiday Hill Elementary in April 1996, PTA President Lynn Poole took Superintendent Larry Zenke on a tour of the school. She showed him the rat feces in the kindergarten classroom, the mildew caused by a frequently leaking roof, the stain and stench of urine in children's bathrooms that haven't been replaced in 35 years. The way it's affecting us is our families are leaving these schools. School officials describe it as the backlog of years of maintenance needs they haven't been able to meet.