Newberry Community School Inc. (NCS) is requesting that the School Board of Alachua County (SBAC) pay over $90,000 in attorney’s fees and costs stemming from the board’s failed legal efforts to stop Newberry Elementary School from converting into a charter school.  

Court records show that attorneys on behalf of NCS filed a petition with the Florida Division of Administrative Hearings (DOAH) on Friday, Jan. 16, seeking $91,418.26 in legal fees brought on by the SBAC’s failed attempt to appeal the NES charter conversion.  

Mainstreet reached out to Jackie Johnson, spokesperson for Alachua County Public Schools (ACPS), on Thursday morning for comment on the petition, but had not received a response. 

In February 2025, the Florida Charter School Review Commission (CSRC) unanimously approved an application submitted by NCS to convert NES into a charter school. This was after a period of controversy that included a contentious parent/teacher vote and rule changes.  

At a March 12, 2025, meeting – two weeks after the CSRC vote – the SBAC authorized its legal counsel and superintendent to file an appeal with the Florida State Board of Education concerning the charter application.  

Two weeks after the board’s meeting, attorneys from the Tallahassee-based firm Sniffen & Spellman, P.A., sent a letter on behalf of the SBAC to the State Board of Education on March 26, 2025, appealing the CSRC’s decision to approve NCS’s charter application. 

In the eight-page letter, attorneys for Sniffen & Spellman outlined three arguments for why the State Board of Education should overrule the CSRC’s decision, citing the failure of the conversion charter vote, substantive reasons for denial of the conversion charter school application and jurisdictional issues, specifically arguing for the district’s right to appeal the CSRC’s decision.  

After being postponed in July 2025, the SBAC’s appeal was denied during a Charter School Appeal Commission (CSAC) hearing in August 2025.  

In an Aug. 28, 2025, Facebook post, Newberry Mayor Tim Marden said the SBAC had brought 10 appeals before the CSAC, which he noted were to contest the CSRC’s unanimous vote in February 2025.  

“All 10 appeals were denied,” he wrote in the post. 

In an email reply to Mainstreet after the CSAC hearing, Jackie Johnson, spokesperson for Alachua County Public Schools (ACPS), said the hearing lasted roughly four hours, during which CSAC members listened to arguments from both parties and posed their own questions.  

Ultimately, Johnson said the CSAC voted to recommend that the State Board of Education approve the conversion charter school application. The state board voted to dismiss the appeal by the SBAC and grant the application at a meeting on Sept. 24, 2025.  

In the petition, attorneys on behalf of NCS point to Florida statute 1002.33, which states that “[t]he State Board of Education’s decision is a final action” and authorizes the “prevailing party” – in this case NCS – to “file an action with the” DOAH “to recover its reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs incurred through the pendency of an appeal from the non-prevailing party [SBAC].”  

The petition also references a letter the Florida Department of Education (FDOE) sent to the SBAC on April 2, 2025, in which the FDOE told the SBAC it would be allowed to appeal the CSRC’s vote on the charter school application, in compliance with state law. 

The petition said the FDOE’s letter would allow the SBAC “to initiate its appeal expressly provided that such appeal would include an ‘opportunity for the prevailing party to seek reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs.’” 

Court records show that a judge with the DOAH issued an order on Wednesday instructing the SBAC to respond to NCS’s request for attorney’s fees and costs within 20 days. 

Additionally, the agenda for Monday’s NCS Board meeting also lists ratification of filing or attorney’s fees.  

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.