James Weldon Johnson College Preparatory Middle School

"I'm going to be honest with you, this school is quite rigorous but the people here can manage. I am around some of Jacksonville's smartest kids here and they're in one of the worst neighborhoods. We need a better place to learn and grow. Some kids are actually under qualified here and need pre-school testing to get in."

"Lots of fights, violence, racism, and bullying. I went here for less than a year and had to leave because teachers failed to grade work that was turned in, I was bullied constantly and beat up constantly. They did nothing about it. One of the times I was being beat up, I watched a teacher look over, wait for the group of students to stop beating me up, then came to help. I got punished worse than they did because I defended myself in a 6 on 1 fight. I was sexually assaulted, told teachers, and nothing was done. Had to deal with it for 2 months of the teacher laughing thinking it was a joke, and playing on his phone. The teachers fail to do their jobs correctly. The discipline system is horrible and punishes the victims. Yes the school has some good points, but is mostly a bad school that I do not recommend parents enroll their children into, for their safety, and education would be at risk."

"Unfortunately the magnet school model is a scheme to allow school districts to keep inner city properties rather than lose them due to poor performance. New schools should be built in expanding communities not funneling resources to these failing schools just to make high performing students commute, for hours a day, to rotting facilities. The JWJ campus is dated, filled with mostly 3rd hand furnishings and materials. We put our smell test aside to watch our kid experience a "top rated Duval school." After a year of observing administration, teachers, attending meetings, and getting feedback from students. We were dumbfounded with the amount of disorganization and unnecessary strife. This isn't the first time these people have run a school.... Why does it feel that way? We concluded that this is the end product of the Duval magnet scheme. Why punish families by scaring them into spending many hours working the system so they can get their kid "awarded a magnet school seat" so they can escape their "mediocre community school" (that wouldn't be mediocre if they didn't ship out their highest performing students to magnets) Just so their kid spends an average of 40hrs/mo just getting to and from school, usually across dangerous roads during rush hour. Sell the properties, or demolish and take the loss. Duval is unnecessarily wearing out it's best students. Build new schools in growing communities, develop community pride. Bus kids from blighted areas into the new schools. Why ship 50 buses of kids to JWJ and other magnets usually in blighted areas to save an outdated facility? How much fuel, pollution, risk, sleep, etc resources are wasted? Its like driving 20 mins in the opposite direction to save 10cents a gallon. Tell the Super/Sboard to quit scheming & band with other supers/boards to fight the local/state/fed for the money promised when they used education investment as an incentive to allow gambling, which is really just a tax on the poor. Instead of augmenting the ed budget was reduced and replaced w/ gambling $. The schools should be made of Gold! So while admin & some teachers are making high incomes they insist that there are no funds for supplies, enrichment or activities, yet they ask PARENTS, who often make much less and work much harder, to fund these school/community pride/enrichment activities that used to/should be funded w/tax+gambling."

"I have been watching the growth and development of JWJ for the past 5 years and I have to say from the students to the staff the principle has really brought a "spirit of excellence" to that campus. They are not only a school but a village and that's what it takes it take to raise a child."

"My son goes to JWJ! He is in 6th grade and he LOVES it! His teachers really care about him. The work load is rigorous, but manageable. The culture is celebratory and the students actually have some fun... amazing for a smart school! JWJ is so fortunate to have a principal who cares so much for each student's success as a whole person. Middle school years are tough years. I'm grateful my son is at JWJ!"