The School Board of Alachua County (SBAC) unexpectedly discussed the future of Superintendent Shane Andrew and considered a vote to extend him before the board attorney advised against it.  

The discussion took place at Tuesday night’s regular school board meeting when Board Member Kay Abbitt raised the idea of making the interim Andrew permanent. The board was discussing a contract to have the Florida School Boards Association (FSBA) conduct a search for Andrew’s replacement and Abbitt suggested it might be nearly impossible to find another candidate as qualified and willing to take the position. 

“If I were going to leave somewhere, and hopefully someone we’d hire would be leaving from a job somewhere that had some umph to it, I’d be anxious coming to a district where superintendents change so frequently,” Abbitt said. 

A robust exchange followed, including Abbitt and Board Members Leanetta McNealy and Diyonne McGraw voicing strong support for Andrew. Some public commenters also spoke in favor of ending the superintendent search and retaining Andrew, and one suggested putting off the decision until after the rezoning process, which could be the perfect test of Andrew’s leadership. 

“While I do agree students do deserve the best candidate for such a position, we also need to acknowledge that, at least in our opinion, the opinion of both myself and several of my peers across this district, we have an extremely capable candidate in front of us,” Justice Alexander, the student body president of Eastside High School, told the board. 

Alexander said she has found Andrew to be supportive and approachable during his time as superintendent and as Eastside’s principal her freshman year. She also told the board that there are other issues, such as rezoning, more pressing than replacing another superintendent. 

Another public commenter, Anne Koterba, said a five person board should not make unilateral decisions about the superintendent’s contract without listening to the community. 

Board Member Sarah Rockwell said she promised her constituents when she campaigned for her position on the board that she would not support any such decision-making processes, so she voted in favor of the FSBA contract to search for a superintendent. She was joined by SBAC Chair Tina Certain, but the motion failed, 3-2, ending plans to conduct a search and moving Andrew closer to becoming permanent.

Certain expressed serious doubts about Andrew, saying when she brought his name up in 2022, she only intended for him to serve as an interim. Certain also said she has taken issue with some of Andrew’s actions, saying he has violated policy in hiring processes. 

SBAC attorney David Delaney advised the board to not reevaluate Andrew’s contract at the Tuesday meeting, citing the board’s policy to allow the public notice and time to comment on the matter. McNealy moved to put the renegotiation and possible extension of the superintendent’s contract on the agenda for the board’s Dec. 5 meeting. 

McGraw said Andrew brings a sense of stability to the district after burning through eight superintendents in 10 years. She said Andrew and his staff, many of whom he brought on, have done good work and are continually attacked in board meetings. 

“Change is happening,” McGraw said. “And it’s under the leadership of Mr. Shane Andrew… We don’t need a search right now. We need healing.” 

Andrew is in the midst of his second year on the job—which is the first time since the 2018-19 and 2019-20 school years in which Alachua County Public Schools (ACPS) has had the same superintendent two years in a row.  

Andrew is a product of ACPS schools and has worked for the district since 1990. The school board tapped him as the interim superintendent in March 2022 after firing Carlee Simon, who spent a tumultuous 16 months on the job.  

Simon’s dismissal came after mixed performance reviews, which Andrew also experienced in May. Abbitt, McNealy and McGraw gave Andrew an overall rating of effective, but Certain rated him as “needs improvement” and Rockwell gave him an overall unsatisfactory rating. 

At that May meeting, the board voted 3-2 to delay the start of the search for a permanent superintendent until January 2024 and keep Andrew in the role through June 2024. McNealy pointed out in Tuesday’s meeting that the board room was packed with Andrew’s supporters during the May meeting. She said he is a relationship-builder who has vision, passion and the ability to manage a project. 

At the end of the meeting, Andrew requested that the board try to focus at least half its time on talking about students, instead of adults. 

“I think we’re too focused on adults, and not focused on students,” Andrew said. “And we have to ignore the disruptors and disruptions and focus on our kids, and meeting their needs in our schools.”

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to clarify the board’s vote to not conduct a superintendent search.