Progress made toward improving JCS athletic facilities

Laura Young
ECB Publishing, Inc.

The meeting room of the Jefferson County School Board was filling up on Monday, June 26, as the Workshop Board Meeting got underway at 5 p.m. Many residents had come out to follow the process underway to address improvements to and expansion of the district's physical education and athletic facilities, both the old ones at Tiger Lane and the newer ones at David Road.
The workshop began with a presentation by Violet Brown, a senior educational program director with the Florida Department of Education (DOE) Office of Educational Facilities, who joined the meeting via Zoom.
“The order of our business is about the physical education, football, soccer and baseball fields at the … newer facility,” said Brown. “We have created what is called the educational plant survey, which gives the district the authority to spend state dollars on this project. We have been talking about this for some time. And then also we've included in the survey some of the information at Jefferson County, the old high school. Some of those buildings associated with the athletic facility are unsatisfactory, and therefore we're not recommending putting a whole lot of funds into that facility.”
Brown referenced two documents, both attached to the agenda posted at the BoardDocs link from jeffersonschools.net. One is a 48-page Florida Inventory of School Houses (FISH) report for
Facility F-1: Jefferson Senior High (Old), with a DOE validation date of Nov. 22, 2019. The other is a Five Year Survey Recommendation Report, which includes a recommended $350,000 site improvement project at the David Road site to develop and construct football/soccer, baseball and physical education fields.
“In that document, we included the amount for the football, soccer and baseball field, to build those things at the current facility, and of course when more property is available via the lease expiration, we will look at additional sports and or physical education fields.”
Brown explained that the survey is required by law every five years but can be updated sooner with a “spot” survey if a need arises. The survey being examined, she said, was a spot survey. Because Jefferson County Schools (JCS) is in a consortium, she added, her office is available to do these services free of charge.
In response to a question from District 4 Board Member Bill Brumfield, Brown explained that the report gives the district authority to spend certain state allocated funds that it has in its coffers for the project on David Road. Brumfield followed up for confirmation that these funds, then, could not be used for improvements of athletic facilities at the old high school.
“That is correct,” she replied. “Any time you have an unsatisfactory building or facility that is unsatisfactory in our system, in order to bring it back to satisfactory standard you would have to bring everything back up to current code. So a lot of times it would cost so much more to do that than it does to build a new site or physical education and sports field. The other issue I think the department looks at is that the kids don't have that currently at their school, so they're having to travel to the football site or the other fields to make use of that, and we would like to have that all on one property.”
Regarding the stadium, Brown could not officially say without further inspection if the old bleachers themselves were satisfactory or not. However, things that support the stands, she said, such as concessions stands and public restrooms may not be up to par.
When Brumfield brought up the history of the stadium and its central location in the community, Brown responded, “We are not talking about necessarily abandoning the football field, but I do see that we need to have those kinds of spaces available for the students at the location that they are schooled in. So we may be talking about two projects.”
District 5 Board Member Magdalen "Mags" Flynt then said, “I know you said there are little to no funds available to restore the ancillary facilities at the old high school, such as the concession stands, the weight room, the locker rooms, things of that nature. Do you have any recommendations in the short term that you can provide to us?”
In reply, Brown acknowledged the important traditions of the Jefferson Tigers but added, “When we talk about the football field, we're talking about a specific set of students that have either been tried out or made a particular team. So that's why the department looks at this as athletic facilities, a little different than we would physical education and football/soccer fields... If we build fields at the current middle/high school, it's for everyone who attends the school, not just the athletes of the school.”
The board continued its workshop meeting with two other presentations on different topics and took a short break before beginning a Special Board Meeting, when votes on some of the items discussed in the workshop could take place.
By that time, around 6:15 p.m., it was standing room only, even with extra chairs brought in. Time for public comment on agenda topics is part of the Opening of a board meeting, and nine people took a three-minute turn at the podium.
One of those speaking on the topic of athletic fields was JCS Quarterbacks Coach Montrey Johnson, who echoed the feelings expressed earlier about the significance of continuing to use the stadium at Tiger Lane.
“We have ashes buried in that field, right?” he asked. “That means a lot to us students that went here.”
Johnson went on to point out how many people in the community walk to football games at the stadium, and if the games were eventually moved down to the campus on David Road, there might be less public support for Tiger sports. He shared how the football team has had more time to practice this summer and have been working hard to get in shape for the upcoming season, underscoring how a team's success is impacted by having a place and sufficient time to practice.
Maurice Hayes also came to the podium to speak to this issue, saying, “Y'all don't seem to understand how important sports are in this town, especially football. We love all sports, but this is a football town... We are living in a different time, right? So let's try a different approach!”
Hayes wondered if the type of funding continually being secured for the historic A Building might be obtained for other aging school structures. He also compared Jefferson to other schools that are sending their teams to summer camps as a unit, while it's hard for the Tigers to even have practice.
“We're trying to 'Restore the Roar,' so we can 'Believe We Can Win'!” he concluded. “We are the Jefferson County fighting Tigers. Let's get back to it!”
Last to speak during this phase of public comment was JCS Varsity Football Head Coach Lenorris Footman.
“Football has carried me from here to Spain and all around the world,” he said, “and as I coach these young men, I try to instill into them every single day, as long as you put in the right work, you hold yourself accountable and you do everything that needs to be done, football can be a tool that can take you all around the world.”
He expressed the hope that everyone could “just come together and understand that it's not about us. It's not about how we feel. It's not about what we think. It's strictly about what the kids need – nothing more, nothing less.”
Every day, Footman said, his players ask him about getting the things they need to play football, and he has to tell them to wait, that it is a process.
“Today I invited them to come see, so you guys can look at their faces,” Footman continued, gesturing to a section of the audience behind him filled with football team members, “because, again, the emphasis is not about Coach Footman. The equipment we need is not going to benefit me or my coaches. It's going to benefit the kids. We have tons of kids who are great academically. They have a 4.0 in the classroom, they are helping in the community, and their only dream is to go play college football. And since we are here to be of service to them, we have to dedicate ourselves and do whatever we can to put them in the best possible position to achieve their dream.”
Then the board began to consider the Action Items on their agenda, which included a proposal for creating new physical education fields at the Jefferson County K-12 campus on David Road. Superintendent of Schools Eydie Tricquet reiterated the importance of categorizing the fields as PE areas, for funding purposes, and explained how the proposed PE project would also meet needs of extracurricular teams.
“We are creating a football-sized field that can be used for football practice, for soccer practice,” said Tricquet. “We are also creating a baseball diamond/softball diamond so that we can practice at the school. Part of the issue that several of the speakers talked about is that the football team, or the softball team, or whoever, has to wait to be transported to the [old fields] to practice... So, if we have these fields at the [current] school they can practice there, and the football team can actually use the weight room that was created so beautifully for them. There is a nice weight room out there [at the current school]. And if we can practice in between the time that after school is running, then there is transportation to help people get home.”
Board members examined a topographical survey of the David Road location (dated Feb. 8, 2023) and the $303,482.91 project proposal (dated April 3, 2023) from Clemons, Rutherford & Associates, Inc. It was clarified that the proposal was the result of a bid process, and with little further discussion they voted unanimously to approve the new fields project and moved on to other agenda items.
During the Final Comments phase of the meeting, all board members thanked those in the audience for coming out to participate.
Flynt concluded, saying, “I hope you are encouraged by the vote that we passed to put more funds into PE facilities at the school... I know we still have work to do as far as entertaining what could possibly happen for restoration of the old school and whether there's any possibility of restoring those fields there. Keep coming. Keep talking to us. Let's keep talking about ideas and ways that we, as a board, can assist you in getting the things that you need. If you come with specifics, you know, 'we need $10,000 for this,' maybe there's other ways that we – outside of the budgetary funds that we are so restricted on – can get the job done.”
Video recordings of the June 26 Workshop Board Meeting and the Special Board Meeting are available in their entirety on the Facebook page for Jefferson County Schools K-12.