Jane Condon

Jane Condon served eleven years as principal of Duval County Public Schools before being assigned to take over magnet school Douglas Anderson School of the Arts after its floundering first year. Under Condon's vision and leadership, Douglas Anderson quickly became one of the top-ranked Arts schools in the nation. After 10 years of success at DA, Condon was asked to design a middle school of the arts to provide students with the background to meet the challenges of DA. Condon worked with top...See more

Jane Condon served eleven years as principal of Duval County Public Schools before being assigned to take over magnet school Douglas Anderson School of the Arts after its floundering first year. Under Condon's vision and leadership, Douglas Anderson quickly became one of the top-ranked Arts schools in the nation. After 10 years of success at DA, Condon was asked to design a middle school of the arts to provide students with the background to meet the challenges of DA. Condon worked with top-ranked local architects and construction firms to design and build LaVilla School of the Arts from the ground up. Both these schools remain the cultural life-blood of Northeast Florida Arts education, sending talented young adults into professional level performance or into the best colleges and universities in the world: The Juilliard School, Carnegie-Mellon, Hofstra, Parsons School of Design, Pratt, and Berklee, to name a few. In shepherding these schools to excellence, Condon became a master at negotiating with political adversaries, finding funding, managing faculty, gaining parents' trust, and challenging students to ever-higher achievement. Condon is fondly remembered by and still in touch with thousands of alumni from these schools, as well as many of their parents. Douglas Anderson and LaVilla are true success stories in Northeast Florida and continue to be highly regarded in arts education circles all over the world.Now retired, Condon offers invaluable advice for any challenge schools may face. She is a master at de-escalating conflict, preventive discipline with students and employees, and crafting a public image for an organization that will gain public trust. Condon earned a B.A. in English and Education from the University of North Carolina, master's degree in education from the University of Florida, and a specialists' degree in educational administration from Florida State University. See less