- Alachua County Public Schools will mail personalized letters about new school boundaries effective for the 2026-27 school year starting Aug. 10.
- The School Board approved a right-sizing plan in March including school boundary changes, closing three elementary schools, and expanding two middle schools to K-8.
- About 3,200 students, or 13% of ACPS enrollment, will be affected by these boundary changes and planned school restructurings by fall 2028.
Families with students in Alachua County Public Schools (ACPS) should watch for personalized letters being mailed home with important information about new school attendance boundaries that will take effect for the upcoming school year.
According to an ACPS press release, the letters are being mailed to the primary home addresses of all ACPS students living in Alachua County, including those whose zoned schools will remain unchanged for the 2026-27 school year, which begins on Aug. 10.
The letter will be printed in English and Spanish and will include a list of the schools to which the student’s home address will be zoned for the upcoming school year, according to the release. There will also be information on magnet programs, zoning exceptions, exceptional student education (ESE), and other related topics.
Families who have not received a letter by Friday, May 15, can contact ACPS for help by emailing rezoningquestions@alachuaschools.net or calling 352-955-7040.
Parents or guardians can also look up their child’s 2026-27 school zones by viewing the zone maps and using the address lookup system posted at alachuaschools.net/ourschoolsfutureready.
The new school boundaries for all elementary, middle and high schools are part of a right-sizing plan approved by the School Board of Alachua County (SBAC) in March to balance out enrollment across ACPS and reduce overcrowding and under-enrollment at schools.
Right-sizing was an important part of the district’s “Our Schools – Future Ready” planning initiative, which launched in November 2025 to address key issues such as enrollment and school capacity, transportation and educational programs.
In addition to school boundary changes, the approved right-sizing plan by the SBAC included the closing of three elementary schools – Alachua, Foster and Williams – and the expansion of two current middle schools – Lincoln and Oak View into K-8, or Pre-K-8, schools over the course of the next two years.
Under the approved plan, Foster will close at the end of this school year, with Alachua and Williams projected to close by the end of the 2027-28 school year. It was originally proposed that Irby Elementary School in Alachua would close at the same time as Alachua Elementary and Williams, with Mebane Middle School expanding into a Pre-K-8 to accommodate the students from both Alachua and Irby.
The SBAC requested that ACPS staff bring back options for restructuring Irby.
After a community meeting and multiple board discussions, the SBAC voted 3-2 on May 5 to keep Irby as a Pre-K-2 school for all students in the Alachua area, with all students moving to Mebane for third through eighth grades.
According to ACPS’s website, “these changes will take effect once construction of a new elementary building and renovations to existing facilities on the Mebane campus are complete.” Completion of this work is currently projected for fall 2028. This is also when Alachua Elementary will close.
Until construction and renovations are completed at Mebane, Irby will continue to serve Pre-K-2 students, with Alachua serving grades three through five, according to ACPS’s website. Students in grades six through eight will continue to attend Mebane.
According to the release, roughly 3,200 students will be affected by the new school boundaries. This makes up approximately 13% of ACPS’s projected student enrollment for the upcoming school year.
Nick Anschultz is a Report for America corps member and writes about education for Mainstreet Daily News. This position is supported by local donations through the Community Catalyst for Local Journalism Fund at the Community Foundation of North Central Florida.
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While I have no children enrolled in The
ACPSS, I have to comment on the new
Restructuring Plan. I am a product of
ACPS, as well as being a student who was involved in the closing of Lincoln High School in 1970. I also had been a student at Williams Elementary from Second through Sixth grades. Learning recently that Williams is slated to close,
at the age of 71, leaves me just as traumatized as I was when Lincoln was closed. This is the second school in my neighborhood that will be closed, and I am very concerned. To loose two
longtime Educational Institutions,!Neighborhood Institutions for me is very hurtful, and takes me back to those years when our High School closed, and we were bussed across town to a school
that was so overcrowded, that we were attending on “double shifts”. As a sophomore, I attended school from 12pm to 5pm, and arriving home in the Fall and Winter months in the dark. That is not even the “tip of the iceberg “ of what that whole experience included,
however, both of those schools have been a pillar of this neighborhood most of my life. To now know that Williams is closing is very hurtful. Yes, Lincoln so far, will remain open, but for how long, and
I personally, do not agree that Elementary School children should attend along with Middle School age children. Yes, my older brother and I attended “segregated schools”, that was the time. My daughter who lived here in Lincoln Estates, a subdivision only blocks away from both schools, walking distance that only took minutes, never attended either of those schools because she was a product of busing also. She, in kindergarten was bussed to Littlewood Elementary, to Fort Clarke Middle, which was even farther away from our home, then to Buchholz High until graduating from there. Although she never had the opportunity to attend
Neighborhood Schools, I was very happy when that was finally initiated by the School Board, which meant that children in this neighborhood would no longer be attending schools so far away, and ones that had no ties to where they lived. That’s what was so great when I was in school. I was at Williams, and after leaving, I would be right next door at Lincoln, attached to my neighborhood,
walking distance, minutes from my home. While elementary school age children will be attending Lincoln, why not leave them at Williams where they would have that attachment, would be able as I, and a lot of others can say, “that was my school”, I went there, it was part of my neighborhood “. After leaving a job of 38yrs., and being home about five, I decided I needed something to do.
I joined “Alachua County Foster Grandparents Program”, and volunteered at Williams Elementary School”, which managed to be a very
fulfilling, extraordinary experience”. If I was going to volunteer anywhere, it would be at Williams, and I was very happy there. To step back into the school, the halls I had walked, and ironically the Teacher’s who class I had been assigned to, taught in the room that had been my “third grade classroom “. I enjoyed the four years I was there, very much respected, and loved the teacher whose class I was assigned to, and the
students as well. They taught me as I tried, and in some, most instances taught, and loved them. I have to be proud that while there, I was awarded
“Volunteer of the Year”. Eventually, I did leave FGP, and volunteered through the
School Board the remainder of the time I was there. I’m writing this because I don’t want to see that school close, I have history there. I do wish my daughter would have had the experiences that I did, however I do understand that times do change. However, when “Cherished Institutions”
are removed from neighborhoods, I feel
they are “diminished “, and not the same. I’m sure when, if someone reads this, will probably say, “Lincoln is still there”. Yes, it is, but it was diminished,
never to be the same. Is there a plan to re-open, remodel Williams so it will remain a part of the “Neighborhood’s
History”? I sincerely hope so because I only left for 3 1/2 years, came back, and still here.
Go, “Abraham Lincoln High School Terriers”, and “Joseph Williams Wildcats”,
☮️, & much💕❤️.