As Duval County Public Schools grapples with budget cuts, declining enrollment and the specter of impending school closures, three candidates are competing for the District 5 School Board seat, representing some of the oldest schools in the district.

Reginald Blount, Nahshon Nicks and Hank Rogers are campaigning to replace term-limited Warren Jones. If no candidate receives more than 50% of the vote in the Aug. 20 election, there will be a runoff with the leading two candidates in November. The election comes at a critical juncture for the district, which faces tough decisions on school consolidation and budget cuts while fending off challenges from charter and private school options.

All three candidates have previously sought office unsuccessfully.

Reginald Blount, a military veteran, has been endorsed by parents advocacy group Moms For Liberty and the Republican Party of Duval County. He has also been endorsed by GOP Florida state Rep. Wyman Duggan and City Council member Mike Gay. He’s part of a slate of conservative candidates running in each of Duval’s four school board contests this year. He previously ran for Jacksonville City Council as a Republican in 2019 and 2023.

Nahshon Nicks, who runs a martial arts training facility, has criticized the current School Board and emphasized his business background, saying he could help bring the budget under control to prevent school closures. Nicks also ran unsuccessfully for Jacksonville City Council, but as a Democrat, in 2019, 2022, and 2023.

Nicks does not reside in District 5, according to campaign documents, but is required by state law to move before taking office if he wins.

Hank Rogers, the chief operating officer of the I Am A Star Foundation, has touted his experience as a legislative aide in Tallahassee and his involvement in local education, including serving as the chairman of the district’s half-cent sales tax oversight committee. He has secured endorsements from the teachers union and most of the area’s Democratic elected officials, including state Rep. Angie Nixon, Sen. Tracie Davis and City Councilman Jimmy Peluso.

Rogers ran for this School Board seat in 2016, losing to Warren Jones, who has also endorsed Rogers as his successor.

School Closures

The district faces significant operational challenges. Enrollment has declined as more families opt for charter or private schools, straining the budget and forcing discussions about potential school closures and job cuts.

The district has faced unexpected restrictions in managing a voter-approved half-cent sales tax for school construction and maintenance. New state rules, passed after the tax was approved in 2020, have forced the district to share a larger portion of the revenue with charter schools.

Bobbie Brewer, a parent who has been involved with parent-teacher associations for almost 10 years, said the district’s issues “all stem from money.” And money is tied to enrollment, she added.

Candidates need to be talking about how to prevent more families from leaving the public school system, Brewer said, “and finding out why the families are leaving to begin with.”

Rogers said the key to enrollment lies in marketing, something he has noticed charter and private schools do better than the district. 

Rogers acknowledges the enrollment challenges but emphasizes the need for better marketing of public schools to compete with charter and private options. “We have to do a better job of telling what’s in the building,” Rogers said. “People just don’t know what’s inside.”

But it’s not enough to market Duval County Public Schools, he said. Neighborhood schools need programs that parents want.

“Are we really listening to hear from the families what it is that they want in their schools? What program — are we offering the correct program?” he said.

Rogers also suggested cutting down on district-wide programs, as he has seen schools that don’t implement them. For example, the district pays for a car-rider app at every school, even though not every school uses the app, he said.

“I think we need to take a look at how we look at different, different programs, different services as it relates to the budget shortfall,” Rogers said. That, he said, would allow the district to spend more in the classroom and less on procurement.

Blount thinks the district is lacking in results, and he advocated an independent audit.

“The charter school industry is not going anywhere, so the public school has to find out, figure out a way to maintain their levels in public schools,” Blount said. “And that, for me, that means increasing better teachers, better pay, better standards, better pay for teachers.”

Nicks didn’t respond to requests for comment, but at a forum hosted by the Jacksonville Public Education Fund, The Tributary and other nonprofits, he characterized the district’s handling of the sales surtax and potential school closures as a “bait and switch.”

“I don’t feel like they were open, honest and transparent when they made the pitch,” Nicks said about the School Board that pushed for the tax increase.

Nicks said voters approved increased taxes to improve public schools, not close them. He promised to “go line by line with the budget” to eliminate duplicated services and wasteful spending, redirecting those funds to fulfill commitments made to constituents.

Rogers disputed Nicks’ characterization of a “bait and switch” coming from the district, arguing the district implemented what was promised to voters. Instead, he pointed to changes made by the state legislature in Tallahassee as the real “bait and switch,” referring to laws requiring districts to share a larger share of tax revenue with charter schools.

Blount didn’t participate in the forum, but at a forum hosted by the local Libertarian Party, he said the School Board needs to find where in the budget it can make cuts.

“And I continue to hit on budgets because that’s where the money comes from,” Blount said. “Again, it’s not to find fault but to find out how we can cut. Where is the money going and can we move it and fund it properly because the schools are falling apart.”

Nicks blamed “a budgeting issue and a management issue” for teacher pay lagging where it should be. He said the board should “eliminate waste”, which could result in increased compensation for teachers.

He said he would be “honest, open and transparent” with constituents. Regarding enrollment, Nicks cited his experience as a business owner and working with college admissions. He said that he would bring in more testimonials from parents as “a simple way to get the message out.”

Teacher Retention

Teacher retention has become a major issue in Jacksonville, as state funds have increased the benchmark for entry-role wages, without compensating equitably for experienced roles. To compensate for this shortfall, Duval County voters approved a property tax for teacher salaries last year.

Rogers said he would work with the teachers union and the superintendent to “understand what can be done with negotiations.”

Blount on the other hand said he would work with Tallahassee to push the legislature “as a citizen” to increase teachers’ base pay “across the board.”

Nicks said the school district should focus on bringing in more federal grant dollars to support advanced education for teachers as a way of increasing retention.

Doug Henning, a math teacher at Edward White High School, said class sizes are the most pressing issue, especially combined with a lack of supplementary programs for students.

At the forum, Rogers said he would work with the board to ensure that the board does not increase class size. Blount said he did not want to see teachers with more than 20 students in a classroom without having an assistant.

“Regardless of class size, it goes back to classroom management,” Nicks said at the forum, adding that teachers and the school district need to set expectations so children “know they’re coming here to learn.”

Repeatedly, when pressed for details, Nicks answered at the forum and in other interviews, “It’s not magic. It’s management.”

Rogers’ involvement in schools has appealed to some parents, teachers and voters. This has led Ricky Anderson, a community advocate, to commit to voting for Rogers. “All the other candidates might … bring something unique to the table, [but] he’s the only one that I see right now that’s actually working, you know, within the school,” Anderson said.

Henning, the math teacher, recounted that Rogers met with him and his wife, who teaches at Lake Shore Middle School, at an event to talk about their schools.

“He knew our schools. He knew the admin of the schools. He worked in our schools, and it was really encouraging,” he said. He added that he hadn’t seen that level of engagement from other candidates.

In contrast, Henning said he saw Blount at a campaign event “go off on tangents about various right-wing talking points.”

Book Bans

This election also unfolds against a backdrop of intensifying culture wars in education. Conservative groups like Moms for Liberty have gained influence statewide, pushing for restrictions on how schools address issues of race, gender, and sexuality. In Duval County, these efforts have manifested in heated debates over book bans and curriculum changes.

“We have to teach true and accurate history,” Rogers said in an interview with WJCT. “We have to. That’s fair to our students. … That’s a non-negotiable for me.”

Nicks similarly said he didn’t support book bans, though he didn’t expound on the subject.

Blount has aligned himself with groups advocating for stricter control over school content, arguing that there is inappropriate content currently in schools. His campaign website says children must “never become subjects in social engineering experiments.”

Blount also referenced in an interview with WJCT a widely debunked conspiracy theory about schools providing litter boxes for students who identify as cats. This false claim, which has circulated in conservative circles nationwide, has been repeatedly disproven by school officials and fact-checkers.

Blount refused to provide proof for his claims, despite initially saying he would do so.

Blount’s position aligns closely with conservative groups like Moms for Liberty, which have advocated for tighter restrictions on educational materials and curricula.

Politics has gotten so deep into the school system, Blount said, “You have so many social and outside groups that have such an influence that you wonder where the teaching is now. Is the social order taking over basic education?”

Emi Kimbrough, a substitute teacher who heard the radio interview, said it left her “very concerned” about Blount. 

While Blount said in the interview that queer students “deserve respect” because “they’re human beings, just like us,” Kimbrough said she worried Blount would institute “homophobic policies.”

Blount told the Tributary that he has heard parents are “tired” of teachers “convincing” children “to be a certain way, a certain gender, a certain group.” He said he is not strictly opposed to discussing gender and sexuality, suggesting that sexual education could be appropriate for older students if parents consent. Those topics, he said, should first come up for a vote by the parents.

Rogers expressed concern that the political environment has caused teachers to become afraid of what they can and can’t teach.

Regardless of the outcome, the next school board will face immediate challenges in addressing budget shortfalls, potential school closures, and ongoing debates about curriculum and book bans. The District 5 School Board member will play a crucial role in shaping how Duval County navigates these contentious education issues in the coming years.