Clay County Superintendent holds annual State of Schools Address

Jacksonville, FL — Highlighting the district's achievements and looking ahead at the work to be done-- Clay County Schools Superintendent Addison Davis held the annual State of Schools Address Tuesday evening.

Davis says his hope is to make the district the number one school district in the state of Florida, beating out St. Johns County schools.

He says they've been making progress on that goal. When he took on the role of superintendent, he says the Clay County school district was ranked 18th in the state. It's now ranked 8th.

Davis also addressed 5 goals the district has been working on:

Goal #1: Developing Quality and Aligned Instructional Practice 

-Davis says over the last 12 months, they made it their mission to re-align their curriculum guides to ensure that students have quality tasks in front of them.

Goal #2: Improve Management of District Wide Operations and Facilities 

-Davis says they have doubled-down on security, in the wake of the Parkland mass shooting in 2018. He says they have increased school hardening, increased surveillance, added SROs, and established single points of entries for all of their schools. Her further says they've increased their security funding by 220%.

-Davis says they've also increased technology by 160%. In 2015, they had 13,000 devices in the county; they now have over 30,000.

Goal #3: Establish a respectful climate and culture that provides equity and access to all 

-Davis says under this goal, they have made mental health awareness a priority and that students have access to needed resources.

Goal #4 Create Effective data system and train staff to leverage information to improve teaching and learning 

-Davis says they have developed an early warning mechanism system that better tracks students who have attendance, academic, and behavioral problems to address issues earlier.

Goal #5 Develop and Support great educators, support personnel and leaders 

Davis discussed some of the district’s next steps, with the below list just a few of the goals on the table:

-Launch and implement parent academy

-Create better support for parents/caregivers and students at home to assist with learning

- Expand choice offerings

• Visual and Performing arts
• pre-Cambridge and pre-AICE
• Dual language
• STEAM

-Highlight teachers and publicly acknowledge hard work

-Launch business partner 'principal for a day' initiative

-Implement Superintendent-Teacher Advisory Council

-Expand Pre-K programs

For a more complete overview of where the district stands on certain goals and the goals for the future, watch the full State of Schools below: