Duval County School District wants 2-day media embargo on Superintendent interviews

Florida Politics | By A.G. Gancarski | May 9, 2024

‘We are asking this so the candidates do not have an advantage or insight into how the other candidate responded.’

There will be a gap of time between what candidates for the Duval County School Superintendent job say and when it’s reported to the public.

That’s a message from a District advisory requiring a delay on publicizing the responses from Monday’s full Board interviews of Christopher Bernier and Daniel Smith until Wednesday.

“No livestreaming of the interviews. Also please do not publish any of the interview questions or responses until Wednesday, May 15. We are asking this so the candidates do not have an advantage or insight into how the other candidate responded. The interviews will officially be over on Wednesday (there are one-on-one interviews with individual board members on Tuesday),” said Laureen Ricks on behalf of the District.

The process to replace Diana Greene, the last appointed permanent Superintendent of the district, has taken roughly a year. Interim Superintendent Dana Kriznar has held the position in the meantime.

Bernier was previously the appointed Superintendent of Lee County, which adopted an elected leader model and drove him to resign. Smith comes from Loudoun County, Virginia, where he served for a time as acting Superintendent.

The answers will likely be driven from the news cycle by the time they are publicized, with Mayor Donna Deegan and the Jacksonville Jaguars slated to present a proposal for stadium renovations to the City Council on Tuesday, amounting to the biggest capital spend in local history if approved by the legislative branch.