Belated farewell bash needed to honor Diana Greene, her legacy with Duval schools

My family and I have lived in Jacksonville for 50 years. We have had capable superintendents for Duval County Public Schools, but Diana Greene stood out.

From the time that Greene began her tenure in 2018 as the county's first Black superintendent, she worked to improve education for both students and teachers. Recognizing that Duval had some of the oldest schools in Florida (some more than 100 years old), she put together a half-cent sales tax referendum.

This was to help fund the repair or replacement of dilapidated schools, most of which were in the inner city. The sales tax referendum passed, the first such education referendum since consolidation in 1968.

Greene also recognized that Duval teachers were underpaid. She was having a hard time recruiting new teachers, as well as keeping experienced ones. Greene proposed a 1-mill tax hike for schools focusing on teacher salaries, as well as to support the arts and other programs. It passed both the School Board and City Council.

No other school superintendent in Duval has ever achieved these financial goals.

However, Greene did not limit herself to school financial needs. She also achieved educational results, reducing the number of D-rated schools and eliminating all of the F schools. Student scores went up (before the pandemic) and the gap between white and Black student achievement narrowed.

The pandemic was another challenge. Greene provided laptops for youngsters stuck at home without them. She hired tutors to help with math and reading remediation. Times were difficult, but Duval schools survived.

Next, amid the furor over changing the names of public schools named after Confederate generals, Greene deftly succeeded in doing so locally with a minimum of opposition.

Greene's achievements were such that she was awarded Florida School Superintendent of the Year in 2021. A year later the School Board offered her a 10% pay raise in a three-year contract.

A year after that she was forced to retire.

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The facts on how this happened are murky. Some say she was given the opportunity to retire or be fired, but there were no direct accusations or hearings. There was vague talk about inappropriate behavior on the part of a teacher at Douglas Anderson School of the Arts. There were apparently two board members affiliated with Moms for Liberty who were unhappy with her performance.

There was also talk about the governor wanting to introduce partisan elections for school boards which would increase the politicization of the system.

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Clearly Greene did not support politicizing public education. Thus, without hearings or due deliberations, she was encouraged to resign or be fired. She chose to retire early, and Duval County lost someone who I believe was the system's best superintendent of the past five decades.

Sadly, many education groups in town, whether nonprofit foundations, teacher unions, programs affiliated with local universities or others, failed to give Greene the rousing sendoff she deserved.

As a new year begins, is it too late to do so?

Jim Crooks, professor of history emeritus, University of North Florida, Jacksonville

This guest column is the opinion of the author and does not necessarily represent the views of the Times-Union. We welcome a diversity of opinions.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Greene still deserves a celebration of her tenure with Duval Schools