Community members filed into Day Springs Missionary Baptist Church on Monday night for a town hall meeting concerning the draft school boundary maps that were recently released by Alachua County Public Schools (ACPS). 

The meeting was hosted by the Alachua County National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and The Visionaries Inc., a local civic and social club that was created to address the educational and cultural needs of the community’s African American population, with discussion specifically centering around several East Gainesville schools that are being proposed for closure in the new draft boundary scenarios.  

ACPS released nine draft school boundary maps – three each for elementary, middle and high schools – on Feb. 2 as part of phase two of its comprehensive planning initiative titled “Our Schools – Future Ready.”  The district is working with Gainesville-based engineering and planning firm JBrown Professional Group, or JBPro, to implement the three-phase school strategy plan, which was launched in November 2025 to address key issues such as enrollment and school capacity, transportation and educational programs. 

Project leaders have previously stated that the draft boundary scenarios are based on feedback from community members and their vision, which includes a focus on students. With the draft scenarios, project leaders have also said that they’re optimizing school capacity and taking into consideration the age and condition of the buildings, while also looking at the total capacity needs of the area to ensure that a school is well utilized.  

In each one of the elementary draft scenarios, a total of five schools are being proposed for closure: Alachua Elementary School, Duval Early Learning Academy, Rawlings Elementary School, Stephen Foster Elementary School and Joseph Williams Elementary School.  

During the meeting, much of the discussion focused on the schools located in East Gainesville, with attendees receiving a brief history on two of the more historical institutions in this area, Duval and Williams. It was noted in the meeting that both schools were built in the 1930s. 

Tina Days has a daughter who attends Duval. She described the school as a “jewel” in the community, noting the great leadership and teachers at the institution.  

“The teachers there don’t know what they’re going to do,” she said while addressing the audience. “This is unbelievable.”  

Days said she was annoyed because she was personally told that schools on the east side of Gainesville were “not on the chopping block.”  

“They kept saying that,” she added. 

Days said she didn’t understand why Duval was on the chopping block, noting that it, along with Rawlings, is important.  

Several elected officials were also present at the meeting, including those representing the city of Gainesville, the School Board of Alachua County (SBAC) and the Alachua County Commission. 

City leaders previously expressed concerns over the potential school closures at a General Policy Committee meeting on Thursday, Feb. 12. Some of these concerns were repeated at Monday’s meeting.  

“I need this to work. I need whatever we do to work for children in Alachua County,” Mayor Harvey Ward said while giving remarks, noting that he has two children in the ACPS system. 

Ward said he wasn’t at the meeting to criticize the school board, but rather, “to try to find some solutions.”  

He noted that Florida has put the district in the position of potentially having to make closures, adding that the state has made it more difficult for school boards to invest in schools. However, he believes that better decisions can be made than closing schools. 

“We’re opening to thinking creatively about all this, but we can’t be creative and supportive of the people who live in our community if schools sit empty, if we have acres and acres of former school buildings that go unused because the state made it difficult for the school board to invest in those schools,” he said. “There’s a better way. We’re committed to helping find that better way.” 

Alachua County Commission Chair Ken Cornell also spoke at the meeting. He encouraged the school board to postpone its March 12 meeting, which is when a final version of the school strategy plan is scheduled to be presented to the board for consideration and a vote. 

“We have formally asked the school board to present to the County Commission the actual [draft boundary] alternatives and the plans at a public meeting so that we can ask specific questions,” he said.  

Cornell discussed numerous ongoing projects on the east side of Gainesville. He also noted the need for different inputs, specifically regarding countywide literacy focus and other types of public investment that are occurring for economic development in East Gainesville.  

In addition to speakers, Monday’s meeting also featured a panel, where community members answered questions that audience members had jotted down on a piece of paper. There were some questions that the panelists were able to answer, and others that required an answer from the school board. 

After a suggestion from an audience member, it was decided that organizers would type up the questions and submit them to the SBAC for review. 

Organizers also encouraged those in attendance to have a presence at the school board’s upcoming meetings. The next one scheduled is a JBPro Sunshine meeting starting at 9 a.m. on Monday, Feb. 23, in the ACPS District Office boardroom (620 E. University Ave., Gainesville).  

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.