- The Alachua County School Board approved zoning changes to begin school closures and consolidations starting this fall.
- Stephen Foster and Joseph Williams Elementary Schools will close, and Lincoln Middle School will become a K-8 by August 2028.
- Oak View Middle School will consolidate to a Pre-K-8 incorporating students from Newberry Elementary, which is converting to a charter school.
- The board postponed the Irby and Alachua Elementary consolidation decision, scheduling further review and community input before May 5.
After a nearly five-hour special meeting on Thursday night, the School Board of Alachua County (SBAC), in a split vote, approved rezoning maps for elementary, middle and high schools that will see school closures and consolidations begin as early as this fall.
The approved rezoning maps follow months of community and board input through a series of meetings and workshops, as well as several revisions. These meetings were part of Alachua County Public Schools’ (ACPS) “Our Schools – Future Ready” comprehensive planning initiative, which launched in November 2025 to address key issues such as enrollment and school capacity, transportation and educational programs.
As part of the three-phase plan, the district has been working with Gainesville-based JBrown Professional Group, or JBPro, over the last few months to develop draft school rezoning maps that would balance out enrollment across ACPS and reduce the overcrowding and under-enrollment at schools within the district – a process referred to as “right-sizing.”
“As we work to right-size schools, we’re better able to align school enrollment with building capacity, respond to demographic and community changes, avoid both overcrowded and underused schools, support safe, high-quality learning environments, use our facilities and resources more efficiently, focus on long-term stability and not simply short-term fixes,” Kim Neal, ACPS’s director of full-time enrollment (FTE), said while presenting to the board at the meeting.
For elementary schools, most of the board favored revised Map D, which will see Stephen Foster Elementary School close at the end of this school year, and Williams and Alachua Elementary Schools close at the conclusion of the 2027-28 school year. Based on this scenario, Lincoln Middle School, currently serving sixth through eighth grades, “will undergo major renovations and the construction of a new elementary building to become a “K-8 school” serving most of the current Williams students,” according to an ACPS release sent on Friday morning.
The Lincoln K-8 is projected to open by August 2028. The release said that “most Williams students will remain on the current campus” until the K-8 building is finished.
Meanwhile, students at Stephen Foster will attend Norton, Metcalfe and Rawlings Elementary Schools, with the board recommending that the STEM magnet programs at Norton move to Metcalfe (the board can recommend where magnet programs should go, but the superintendent and district staff ultimately make the final decision of which school the programs are assigned).
Under elementary revised Map D, Oak View Middle School in Newberry, which currently serves grades 5-8, will become a Pre-K-8 this fall, taking in most of the current Newberry Elementary School zone, the release said.
The release notes that NES is converting to an independently operated charter school, “requiring the district to provide a traditional public-school option for families in the area.”
Modular buildings that used to house students during prior facilities projects will be moved to the Oak View campus this fall, the release said, “and plans will be developed for a new elementary school building at the site.”
The board’s approval of revised Map D came with the exception of the Irby and Alachua Elementary Schools’ Pre-K-8 consolidation with Mebane Middle School. The board has requested that staff bring back updated data and recommendations to keep Irby open. Potential options that were mentioned include keeping the school as a Pre-K-2 or turning it into a Pre-K-5.
Different scenarios for Irby will be presented to the board at a workshop on Wednesday, April 29. The workshop will begin at 10 a.m.
According to the release, “the board is expected to make a final decision on Irby and Mebane in May.”
Most of the board also favored revised high school Map D, which restores portions of Haile and Newberry Road to Buchholz High School and shifts some complexes, like Mill Pond condominiums, from Gainesville High School to Buchholz.
This scenario would also drop Buchholz’s capacity from 115% to 101% and decrease Newberry High School’s capacity from 111% to 97%. Meanwhile, Eastside High School’s capacity would increase from 68% to 86%.
Board Chair Thomas Vu and Board Members Tina Certain and Sarah Rockwell voted in favor of the rezoning maps, while Vice Chair Leanetta McNealy and Board Member Janine Plavac voted against it.
The vote came after more than an hour of public comment, followed by an even lengthier board discussion.
During public comment, roughly 40 people, including parents, city and county elected officials, and other community members, shared their concerns over the maps. Many of the speakers urged the board not to close the schools and to pause their vote on the rezoning plans to get more input from the public.
The Gainesville City Commission and the Alachua County Board of County Commissioners held a joint meeting on Monday, in which officials requested that the rezoning vote be delayed. Additionally, the Alachua County City Commission sent a letter to the SBAC on Wednesday, also asking for the postponement of the vote.
Many elected officials from these governmental bodies were present at Thursday’s meeting to reiterate their message.
“By pausing tonight, you’re actually making a decision,” Alachua County Commission Chair Ken Cornell said while addressing the SBAC. “You don’t have to do everything tonight. Maybe you do little pieces tonight, but you pause on the affected communities, you involve them, and they will help you.”
During board discussion, McNealy made an original motion to delay the rezoning for a year, which was seconded by Plavac. She later amended her motion for up to six months, which again received a second by Plavac.
“We need to have more discussions within our local governing body, families, students, staff and citizens,” McNealy said. “We’ve not had enough time. The process has been much too rushed…”
Both of McNealy’s motions failed after not receiving a majority of the votes.
Rockwell said when she makes decisions on the school board, she always thinks about whether that decision would be good for children.
“I know a lot of you are going to be angry at me when I say this, and that is OK. I accept that responsibility,” Rockwell said. “But what is good for kids is to rezone, to consolidate schools, and to make sure that our kids in East Gainesville and in the city of Alachua have really amazing K-8 schools, instead of aging facilities that we are barely keeping up with maintenance on. And so, I am against kicking the can. I am against delaying this another year when we’ve already delayed it for decades.”
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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I wish the board would communicate more clearly with the press and parents. Are the closed schools seeing too few students attending? If the overall population of Alachua County is growing as much as it seems to be, does this mean enough parents have decided to pull their kids out of the public schools because of poor education and bad behavior problems? Personally, I think the focus of providing the best education for each student was abandoned around the time the board decided that magnet programs should be populated using a lottery system rather than Merit. How can Florida be fifth in the nation in terms of public school achievement, but the county with a crown jewel in higher education, UF, be near the bottom of the Barrel in our state? I really believe that Rockwell and Tina certain were not elected by voters with kids, but by a hardcore activist group within Alachua County.
All of your questions were answered in the presentation made at about 8 or 10 community meetings and at several school board meetings. Look for the powerpoints at the school board website and the videos from their february meetings.
ok where to begin: first off, y’all are idiots for letting the state steal tax payer money to fund private and religious charter schools. They are trying to destroy public education and y’all just follow along. Second, the money that IS leftover is going to pay ridiculous admin salaries, leaving teachers with the scraps and y’all cant figure out why there is a teaching shortage. Finally, didnt we get taxed to rebuild these schools a few years ago? What happened to THAT money?
Well, Derek, first off, you are correct in using the label “idiots”. Secondly, private and charter schools, religious of otherwise, exist because there are families that want their children to receive an education and not indoctrination. Alachua County public schools are a perversion and as such, some families have gatherd together to educate thier children. You do believe in religious freedom, don’t you?
Secondly, teachers in Alachua County have a pretty good deal. Six weeks paid vacation, many, many day off that create three or four day weekends, working ten months and getting paid for twelve months and great retirement. The salaries are fine. Administrators do the work that makes it possible for teachers to have a job, you should try it sometime. I have.
Lastly, your question is a great one. Where does the money go? Boards and commissions in Alachua County spend money like drunken sailors knowing that the voting public will do nothing but whine. But, every election cycle, voters put the same wortless politicians back into office simply because they have a “D” by their name.
Be stupid, get stupid.