Latest news with #NortheastFlorida
Yahoo
08-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Gov. DeSantis on hand to celebrate Duval County Public Schools' first A grade in district history
In a visit to Jacksonville on Monday, Governor Ron DeSantis announced that Duval County Public Schools is celebrating a Grade A rating for the first time in history. The governor shared the news at Oceanway Elementary School. 'Duval's gone from B to A! Congratulations!' DeSantis said. While Duval celebrates a major win, districts across the state made growth during the 2024-2025 school year, too. Twenty-eight school districts received an A grade, with 31 districts at a B grade, and only eight districts receiving a C grade. No districts received a D or F grade. Here's how other Northeast Florida districts performed: Baker: B Bradford: B Clay: A Columbia: B Nassau: A Putnam: C St. Johns: A Union: B Click here to see how your child's school performed DeSantis credits the advancement to the state's new approach to end-of-year testing. This school year marked the third year since the state has adopted its Progress Monitoring Testing concept. With the new model, students are evaluated at the beginning, middle, and end of the school year. With year-round, real-time data, teachers and parents can get help for students before the end of the school year. RELATED: Duval County Public Schools achieves an A grade for the first time ever 'We decided that we would institute reforms and embrace this concept known as progress monitoring. So, with progress monitoring, teachers, students, and parents are provided real-time time continuous, actionable assessments at the beginning, middle, and end of the school year,' DeSantis said. This past school year, grades 3 through 10 grew 21 percentage points in language arts, and grades 3 through 8 grew by 44 percentage points in math. The district also shared these stats to show how some individual schools made strides in growth: Ten schools jumped two letter grades: 1. Andrew Jackson High (C to A) 2. Annie R. Morgan Elementary (F to C) 3. Holiday Hill Elementary (C to A) 4. Jean Ribault High (C to A) 5. Landmark Middle (C to A) 6. Long Branch Elementary (D to B) 7. Northwestern Legends Elementary (D to B) 8. Oceanway Elementary (C to A) 9. Pickett Elementary (C to A) 10. Rufus E. Payne Elementary (C to A) Both Andrew Jackson High and John E. Ford earned their first A-rating. Ed White High School earned its first B-rating. [DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks] In the press conference, the governor announced a new, incentivized program for teachers. With a new civics certification curriculum for teachers, state educators can take a course designed to strengthen the way teachers deliver lessons in Civics and History. The Civic Seal of Excellence Program comes with a $3,000 bonus, too. To better teacher pay, the governor shared that the state has increased its allocation to teacher pay. [SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter] 'This year's budget for teacher pay is $1.36 billion, so that's an increase over last year of $102 million. So that goes to folks that are in the classroom, and we've made a lot of strides,' DeSantis said. DCPS released this statement in response to the district's historic grading: 'To ensure the momentum continues, Duval County Public Schools is launching a year-long communications effort titled 'Duval Delivers.' The campaign will spotlight school success stories, amplify instructional best practices, and maintain a consistent message of progress throughout the 2025–2026 school year." Click here to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here to stream Action News Jax live.
Yahoo
03-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Florida Rep. Angie Nixon calls immigrant detention centers 'concentration camps' on CNN
State Rep. Angie Nixon said President Donald Trump is using "modern-day concentration camps" to carry out mass deportations. Nixon, D-Jacksonville, leveled that charge when she appeared on CNN during its coverage of Trump's visit to a South Florida detention center in the Everglades that state officials call "Alligator Alcatraz." The state also plans to set up a similar center in Northeast Florida at Camp Blanding in Clay County. The facilities will have capacity to hold several thousand people while they await deportation by the federal government. Nixon said Trump is "returning our country to the worst chapters in our history." "This isn't about safety," she said during an interview July 2 on CNN. "This is about Donald Trump building modern-day concentration camps in an effort to disappear people from their communities. Donald Trump's blueprint for America has now become broken families and barbed wire." The use of "concentration camps" to describe such facilities has been controversial. When Trump was running for election, Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan said last October in response to a question during a radio interview about Trump's pledge to conduct mass deportations that it would amount to creating a "concentration camp type situation" for holding undocumented immigrants. Five Republican members of the Duval County Legislative Delegation issued a joint statement at the time calling on Deegan to retract her comment and apologize for remarks that are "particularly harmful to Jacksonville's Jewish community and Holocaust survivors who understand the horrors of antisemitism firsthand." Deegan subsequently said she regretted using the term "concentration camp" and did not intend to diminish the horror of the Holocaust. She said she did not regret "calling out the inhumanity of treating immigrants, or any person, as less than human." Nixon said she calls the facilities" modern-day concentration camps" because they are inhumane and Trump made jokes about the prospect of alligators hunting anyone who tries to leave the Everglades center. "These are people's lives," she said after her appearance on CNN. During the CNN interview, Nixon was asked about Gov. Ron DeSantis saying "Alligator Alcatraz" will help carry out deportations by causing people to "self deport" back to their home countries rather than risk going to the facility. "So this is a force multiplier for the president's efforts," DeSantis said when he took Trump on a tour of the facility. Nixon said the facility will cost several hundred million dollars to operate. "Instead of ensuring that we don't have cuts to Medicaid, instead of ensuring that we're addressing issues like the rising cost of property insurance, instead of ensuring that we have quality schools for our children to go to, they want to blow racist dog whistles and push xenophobia instead of handling the things that Floridians and Americans care about," she said on CNN. Camp Blanding: Is work on center to detain 2,000 immigrants starting 'right after' July 4? Political alliance: Once rivals, Trump and DeSantis deepen bond with shared targeting of undocumented migrants During Trump's tour of the facility in the Everglades, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem praised the partnership between the Trump and DeSantis administrations. "Florida was unique in what they presented to us, and I would ask every other governor to do the exact same thing," she said. This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Lawmaker compares 'Alligator Alcatraz' to concentration camps
Yahoo
23-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Jaguars searching for artists to create 2025 gameday posters
The Jacksonville Jaguars just opened submissions for the third annual DUUUVAL Designs contest. Read: Bryan Martin coming to Ponte Vedra Concert Hall Local artists can now apply to design a gameday poster for the 2025 season. Submissions are open through July 21 on the DUUUVAL Designs website. Advertisement Artists must live in Northeast Florida or Southeast Georgia to be eligible. All visual styles are welcome, like fine art, graphic design, illustration, street art, and more. AI-generated art will not be accepted. Eight artists will be selected to create original posters for each regular-season home game at EverBank Stadium. Winners get a $350 stipend, six game tickets, and a spot for autographs and exposure at the Flex Field Fan Entertainment Zone. >>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<< They'll also be featured on the Jaguars' social media and website. Selected artists will be notified by August 1. Advertisement The team will also release a separate poster contest for its London game on October 19, open to UK-based artists later this year. [DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks] [SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter] Click here to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here to stream Action News Jax live.
Yahoo
19-06-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Partnered with volunteer patrol, JU starts sea turtle program for students to learn hands-on
Jacksonville University is partnering with a St. Johns County sea turtle patrol to expand its marine science work to include hands-on research documenting some of Florida's signature protected species. JU's new sea turtle program won't be an academic project but is designed to let students build direct experience collecting data and monitoring nests alongside volunteers who walk a 4.6-mile stretch of beach each dawn during turtles' nesting season. 'This is what real scientists do. … You go out and get sweaty, dirty,' collecting first-hand information using carefully designed protocols, said Lucas Meers, who has been lead coordinator for the Mickler's Landing Turtle Patrol since 2021. Move over sharks: Meet Windy, 5-foot leatherback sea turtle who pinged off Florida coast Six students had signed up before the university formally launched the program on June 16, which happened to be World Sea Turtle Day. They'll partner with the volunteer patrol to monitor turtle activity between Sawgrass Beach Club and the northern edge of the Guana Tolomato Matanzas National Estuarine Research Reserve, marking nests and checking for anomalies in the days before hatchlings emerge. The Mickler's Landing patrol logs maybe 100 to 120 nests per year, fewer than the beach at Guana just to the south but more than are common at Jacksonville's Beaches. Northeast Florida counts are dwarfed, however, by the numbers on beaches between Volusia and Broward counties. Statewide, about 110,000 loggerhead turtle nests were reported in 2024, as well as 14,000 for green turtles and 1,800 leatherbacks, who live their lives at sea or in estuaries except during nesting. In the nesting season from April 15 to Oct. 31, patrol members meet on the beach 30 minutes before sunrise each day to check existing turtle nests and look for new ones. The patrol is trained and permitted by Florida's Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to handle turtles when necessary, following state protocols, and to report information that researchers use to track changes in turtle populations and their interactions with people and wildlife on shore. Students working with the patrol can earn course credits for independent study or internships, said Meers, who graduated JU with degrees in biology and marine science in 2011. After jobs there, he found conservation roles at the Jacksonville Zoo and Botanical Gardens and at an organization to conserve the okapi, a small, endangered forest giraffe found in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Meers rejoined JU full-time in January, filling a role funded by an anonymous benefactor paying for the sea turtle program. This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: JU starts sea turtle program for students to get hands-on experience
Associated Press
10-06-2025
- Business
- Associated Press
Florida Coastal Contractors Relaunch Services in St. Augustine and St. Johns County
06/09/2025, St. Augustine, FL // KISS PR Brand Story PressWire // This month marks the beginning of a new chapter in outdoor living for Northeast Florida. Florida Coastal Contractors unveiled the relaunch of its premium paver installation services. Homeowners across St. Augustine and St. Johns County can now have pavers, from sunlit patios to winding walkways, from elegant pool decks to refined sidewalks, which are both sustainable and inspirational. Florida Coastal Contractors has extensive regional experience and a proven record of delivering durable results. It remains a leader among contractors offering paver installation services in Northeast Florida. The company implements site-specific preparation techniques, including subgrade stabilization, proper slope grading, and compaction testing, to ensure each installation meets structural and environmental demands. These techniques form the first line of defense against water intrusion, ground settlement, and premature surface breakdown. This level of efficiency reflects the expert paver installation St. Augustine FL homeowners trust to deliver durable, visually striking results. Its relaunched installation includes paver patios, walkways, sidewalks, and pool decks, embodying Florida Coastal Contractors' start-to-finish approach to outdoor design. Every project begins with a personalized consultation, where the team evaluates the site, discusses the client's goals, and offers expert guidance on selecting paver materials, patterns, and colors that complement the home's architecture. As experienced paver patio contractors, the team takes detailed measurements, assesses elevations, and develops a custom layout that ensures both functionality and visual appeal. This collaborative process sets the standard for paver installation that homeowners trust, ensuring cohesive, durable, and lasting surfaces. What distinguishes Florida Coastal Contractors LLC from typical paver patio installers is its ability to engineer surfaces that endure Florida's punishing climate. Florida is a region where intense sun, torrential rain, and coastal salt air can erode lesser work. Patios should be designed to resist fading, cracking, and drainage failures. With that, paver walkways should also be made with materials and grading techniques that are selected to handle heat and heavy use. For those seeking seamless paver sidewalk installation, meanwhile, the company's attention to drainage and edge stability ensures long-term performance in even the most challenging conditions. This level of climate-specific craftsmanship has not only ensured structural longevity but it has also earned the trust of property owners across the region. Its team's successful installation jobs are backed by a 4.80 average rating from 95 reviews and backed by a BBB+ accreditation. These positive reviews underscore the company's consistent delivery of resilient, high-performing outdoor spaces tailored to Florida's demanding climate. With the relaunch of its premium paver installation services, Florida Coastal Contractors LLC reaffirms its role as a cornerstone of outdoor transformation in St. Augustine and St. Johns County. The team's mastery of design and materials amid Florida's demanding environment makes them artisans of durable, elegant spaces. For homeowners seeking installations that are as resilient as they are refined, Florida Coastal Contractors LLC stands as the clear choice For additional details on services and project inspiration, please visit About Florida Coastal Contractors Florida Coastal Contractors is a trusted name in Northeast Florida's outdoor living industry. It is known for its craftsmanship, reliability, and customer-first approach. The company's streamlined design-to-build process ensures a seamless client experience, while its consistent top-tier ratings and BBB+ accreditation signal a track record of excellence. With each project, Florida Coastal Contractors seeks not only to enhance outdoor spaces but also to craft environments that inspire connection, elevate daily living, and surpass every expectation with enduring beauty and functionality. ### Media Contact Florida Coastal Contractors Address: 3501 North Ponce De Leon Blvd #374, St. Augustine, FL 32084 Phone: (904) 827-3962 Website: newsroom: Source published by Submit Press Release >> Florida Coastal Contractors Relaunch Services in St. Augustine and St. Johns County
