A.G. Gancarski
Former Jacksonville City Councilman Warren Jones, who served 28 years on the council, will run for the Duval County School Board in Group 5, he told FloridaPolitics.com Wednesday.
“I finally came to the conclusion yesterday,” Jones said, “after I found out [the incumbent] Connie Hall would not run.”
Jones, who hasn’t been on a ballot since his last council run in 2007, is working on the paperwork now.
Jones, one of Lenny Curry‘s appointees to the JEA board last year, is interestingly positioned to run for school board, as he has a deep understanding of the entire community.
“You have the chamber and the business community who want to see the school system improve,” especially given that St. Johns County has A-rated schools to the south of Jacksonville, Jones said.
Meanwhile, Jones added, “the black community is concerned also, as the best way out of poverty is a [quality] education.”
“What shape does change take? Both [parties] want the same thing,” said Jones.
Regarding Superintendent Nikolai Vitti, with whom Hall has clashed on the school board, Jones is “neutral at this point. I want to be objective. I’m not necessarily saying that we need a new superintendent.”
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During his decades on council, one issue of import to Jones was Eureka Garden, the HUD apartment complex on the westside of Jacksonville that his successor, Garrett Dennis, along with Mayor Curry and Sen. Marco Rubio, have put a spotlight on.
Jones was responsible for, among other things, a June 2015 city council resolution asking HUD to defund Eureka Garden for the ownership’s failure to properly secure the complex.
Jones, uniquely positioned to speak on Eureka, lauded the incumbents for “doing the right thing,” noting that the tenants’ association merits credit for publicizing the issues inside the complex.
Dennis, Curry, and Rubio have, said Jones, “brought the full weight of their offices to make Eureka Garden a better place to live.”
During his time on council, related Jones, “no one brought to our attention [the fact that] the insides were in that bad of shape.”
There were worries by tenants of potential evictions, Jones related, and “calls and emails centered on the murder rate,” which peaked at seven murders in a single year.
Jones had introduced a bill before the sale of the property to Global Ministries Foundation asking for HUD not to certify the property, but pulled back in hopes GMF and Rev. Richard Hamlet would improve the property.
That didn’t happen. And eventually, Hamlet’s scorn turned toward Jones, who charged that Jones’ interest in the conditions were a matter of “playing politics.”
That wasn’t the case, Jones said, adding that the issues go beyond Eureka Garden, as Washington Heights is just as bad if not worse.
“It goes back to the rating system,” Jones said.
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Jones will be tough to beat in a race for the school board. He knows the system, and power brokers throughout Jacksonville respect him.
