Parents react to Vitti's open enrollment proposal

Many Duval County parents tell WOKV News they like the superintendent’s proposal to allow them to choice their child’s school.

A father of two living on the southside says he and his wife researched and decided they want their kids to attend Greenfield Elementary.

"We chose a higher housing cost because we wanted to be near that school," he says.  "There were other places that would've been much more affordable for us to live if we had the opportunity to drive our kid to the school of our choice."

Under Superintendent Dr. Nikolai Vitti’s proposal, the school district would not fund additional bus transportation.  Students would have to find an existing bus line to take or be driven by their parents.

The southside father says if it takes an extra fifteen or twenty minutes in the car to get the kids to the preferred school, any parent would make that choice.

Corine Hooks is a local mother of two boys.  She says she’s excited about the idea.

“This program is gonna help me out a lot because it makes me able to do what I need to do as far as getting them established in school…I just got a new apartment, so we’re kinda out of the zone where they’re going to school at now.  So anywhere closer to me would be a whole lot better.”

The School Board votes on Dr. Vitti’s idea at their meeting on April 1.