It’s okay, we meet twice a month! But, if you weren’t there, you missed a great opportunity to meet some new people and learn a little about the good stuff happening in your Duval County Schools.

Wayne Hogan, of Terrell Hogan, started us off with a startling statement:

Distracted driving kills more people, every year, than Polio did, in its worst year.

He pointed out that companies need to do what they can, first and foremost, to protect their employees, but of course, also their bottom line. He invoked the Eagles, quoting “Hotel California” and asking everyone to avoid being a prisoner of our own device(s).

Dr. Diana Greene was up, next, and led a great discussion about the significant strides that have been made at the Duval County Public School system.

Some facts:

• 30+ years in education
• Came from Manatee County’ school system
• UNF alumn
• $1.7B budget in Duval County
• 200 Schools in district
• Increased Duval’s overall grade from ‘C’ to ‘B’
• Increased graduation rates, across the board (highest ever in 2018!)
• $122M in scholarships awarded last year

She went on to talk about the Duval County workforce development programs in place already, as well as some of the programs planned or in progress.

Dr. Greene highlighted business partner programs, too, such as the one with VyStar that has students running VyStar branches located inside the schools.

Pretty cool stuff.

She went on to talk about the Career and Technical Education Pathways & programs, where the School system asks the Jacksonville Chamber, “What do you need, what kind of skills do your people need?” and then responds.

How does it respond? The school system responds with programs and Academies to address those needs, providing (for example) technology and engineering training at one school, and teacher training at another.

She ended by imploring us to get involved: to get off the bench and be the cheerleader for the district, to join a Career and Technical Education advisory board. Regardless of how you get involved, just do it!

“Get involved! As a team, we can win.”

The JAX Chamber Downtown Council meets the 1st and 3rd Friday of the month, bright and early at 7:30am. We’d love to have you visit us next time (March 1st is our next meeting), so put it on your calendar!

More info can be found here, at the Downtown Council page.

About me: my name is Brian Tuttle, and I am a technology consultant, salesperson and enthusiast. I represent Saxon Business Systems and Xerox, and would be honored to speak with you about your copiers and other office technology. I can be reached at 904-345-0359 or brian@briantuttle.org