The School Board of Alachua County (SBAC) voted unanimously to adopt the evaluations of interim Superintendent Kamela Patton during a meeting on Tuesday. 

Before the vote, Board Attorney David Delaney said that Board Policy 1040 requires that there be an annual evaluation of the superintendent. 

“The board has accomplished that by individually filling out an evaluation form on your own,” he said. “So, the purpose of this item on the agenda is to bring that individual work that you did outside of a meeting into the Sunshine [Law] and collectively adopt the individual evaluations as the overall evaluation of this board’s superintendent.” 

Each one of the board members’ evaluations was included in the agenda for the meeting.  

Every board member, minus Janine Plavac, rated Patton’s “progress toward the educational goals of the district (priorities)” as satisfactory. Plavac marked that Patton needs improvement in this area.  

“Dr. Patton has instituted many changes in the ability of the teachers and staff to improve the educational goals of the students of ACPS (Alachua County Public Schools),” Plavac wrote. “When I arrived on the board, the school year was well underway, but I did receive many emails from teachers/staff that ‘too much, too fast’ with not enough training nor the ability to access previous programs that were used in their instructional lessons.” 

Three board members – Sarah Rockwell, Chair Thomas Vu and Vice Chair Leanetta McNealy – said the “board’s own effectiveness in providing direction” to Patton needed improvement.  

“Were Dr. Patton not a highly experienced superintendent with a strong vision and track record of success, I believe we would have struggles as a district due to lack of clear direction from the board as a collective,” Rockwell wrote.  

Vu said the board “must improve” when it comes to their own “working relationship with one another.” 

“We must do better at finding consensus, and when it cannot be found, we must do better at finding compromise,” he wrote. 

McNealy said, “expectations have been communicated,” and that Patton “often proceeds with her own approach.” 

“I take full responsibility for this area needing improvement,” McNealy wrote. “For the future, clear expectations will be addressed to ensure that the Superintendent’s actions reflect the direction provided.” 

All the board members graded Patton’s overall performance as satisfactory. Tina Certain was the only board member who gave Patton a ‘satisfactory’ in all four of the evaluation categories. 

Patton has served as ACPS’ interim superintendent since November 2024. This followed a split vote by the SBAC to fire former Superintendent Shane Andrew in October 2024. 

Patton was originally supposed to serve in an interim capacity until this past June. However, she offered to extend her contract for an additional year in January to give more time to search for a permanent replacement and to allow a transition period between her and the next superintendent.  

The SBAC discussed the search for a permanent superintendent and what the process would look like at a workshop in October. During that meeting, Patton said she would “entertain staying an additional year,” if needed. 

Several of the board members agreed with the idea of having Patton stay an additional year. At that time, Vu said he didn’t believe the district was in a spot where it would draw in the desired candidate for the superintendent role.  

The feeling among some of the board members was to extend Patton’s contract and begin the initial stages of the superintendent search process. In November, the SBAC voted to move forward with the Request Proposals (RFP) process to seek out search firms nationwide to help the district find a permanent leader. 

Also, in November, the board voted to extend Patton’s contract for another year that will see her serve in the interim superintendent position until June 30, 2027.  

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.