The School Board of Alachua County (SBAC) heard from concerned Hawthorne residents regarding the Alachua County Public Schools’ (ACPS) comprehensive, community-wide planning initiative, addressed the district’s current Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) guidelines and approved the calendar for the 2026-27 school year at a meeting on Tuesday. 

Planning initiative concerns 

ACPS launched the comprehensive, community-wide planning initiative – “Our Schools – Future Ready”– in November 2025 to address key issues such as enrollment and school capacity, facilities and educational programming. 

A November 2025 ACPS release said the plan would “outline both short-term strategies for the start of the 2026-27 school year and a long-term roadmap to support strong schools across the district.” 

ACPS is collaborating with Gainesville-based engineering and planning firm JBrown Professional Group, or JBPro, to implement the three-phase plan, which is expected to be finalized and approved by mid-March. Phase one was held throughout November and December and focused on listening to community members across Alachua County. 

Project staff took the input that was gathered during the plan’s first phase to form 12 proposed guiding principles, which were revealed at a Jan. 12 SBAC workshop.  

“(The guiding principles) represent opinions and input from the community; impact the foundation for plans, drafts and boundaries; and align board policy with community input,” according to a presentation at the workshop. 

The results of the community engagement and unveiling of the guiding principles at the workshop marked the end of phase one of the project, as it now moves into phase two. 

At the workshop, Kathie Ebaugh, a planning director for JBPro, who is also serving as the project manager for the Future Ready initiative, said this phase will focus on moving from vision to evaluation. 

“The project team and the district staff will complete a detailed review of data related to enrollment trends, school capacity, facilities, transportation, educational priorities – all guided by the principles established in phase one,” she said. “This work will include a conference analysis of current attendance boundaries and development of up to three draft boundary scenarios.” 

Roughly 10 Hawthorne citizens, including a few city leaders, spoke during public comment at Tuesday’s meeting. Residents noted the importance of community engagement in the plan and the need for safety and reliable transportation.  

Residents also highlighted the Hawthorne Middle/High School’s achievements, particularly in sports, and urged the board not to combine or close the school. 

“Every child in Hawthorne is well-deserved to have a good education [and] good academic opportunities,” resident Donna Crofoot said. “Closing our school or combining our school only diminishes that. And when you diminish that, you diminish all of us.” 

Board members addressed the comments about HMHS closing later in the meeting, saying that no such decision has been made. 

“There has been no decision made or no discussion that we’ve had collectively about closing any schools,” Board Member Tina Certain said. “We have these guiding principles…[of] what we’re told they’re [project staff] going to use and will be used to make decisions going forward, but we have not said as a board, ‘we’re going to close your schools in Hawthorne.’” 

Each one of the board members thanked the citizens for attending the meeting and acknowledged the concerns that they shared. 

Vice Chair Leanetta McNealy, whose district encompasses Hawthorne, said she will “fight” for the community to be whole. 

“And when I say whole, I mean all of us coming together, all of us agreeing on the possibilities [and] all of us taking a look at the guiding principles,” she said. 

HMHS will once again host one of the community engagement sessions in phase two of the Future Ready initiative. That session is planned for 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 4.  

A full schedule of the community input sessions can be found here (www.alachuaschools.net/o/acps/page/ourschoolsfutureready).   

ICE guidelines  

During Tuesday’s meeting, the board also addressed concerns surrounding the district’s current ICE guidelines.  

In February 2025, ACPS issued a memo to school administrators that offered direction on how to interact with law enforcement officers on campus, including ICE. This came on the heels of two directives provided by acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary Bejamine Huffman, which changed policies related to ICE and Customs and Border Protection. 

The memo issued by ACPS says that ICE agents – under federal law – have “broad authority to enforce federal immigration law” and can interview or remove students with or without a warrant.  

This has sparked concerns among the public, with community members calling for a clearer policy for teachers and students. 

These concerns were reiterated at Tuesday’s meeting by members of the public and the board. Rockwell particularly raised concern about the lack of identification for ICE officers. 

“If we were to allow anyone not wearing an ICE vest past our sally port entry without appropriate identification, we would be in serious, serious trouble,” she said. 

Rockwell said she recently had a one-on-one meeting with interim Superintendent Kamela Patton, and that Patton informed her that the district’s legal team was meeting this week to work on modifications to the current ICE guidelines. 

“I also want to make it clear that is not policy,” Rockwell said. “This is a procedural document. It’s guidance. It was not something the board helped draft or vote on.” 

2026-27 school calendar  

Also, during the meeting, the board approved the calendar for the 2026-27 school year. The calendar includes a total of nine holidays for teachers and students – Labor Day (Sept. 7), UF Homecoming (Oct. 9, tentative), Veterans Day (Nov. 11), Thanksgiving break (Nov. 23-27), winter break (Dec. 22-Jan. 1, 2027), Martin Luther King Jr. Day (Jan. 18, 2027), President’s Day (Feb. 22, 2027) and Memorial Day (May 31, 2027). 

Additionally, the following days are designated as teacher workdays, meaning students are also off on these days as well.  

• Oct. 16 

• Jan. 15, 2027 

• March 29, 2027 

Deborah Terry, ACPS’s assistant superintendent for human resources, noted that the calendar does include a few slight changes from this year. One of the adjustments was going from three flex days to two.  

“We had some discussion on that – both with the [teachers’] union and with our staff – and we felt that the reason we went with two [flex days] is so that students could have their last day prior to Memorial Day,” she said.  

The last day of classes for students next school year will be Friday, May 28, 2027. The last day for teachers, meanwhile, will be Wednesday, June 2, 2027.  

Additionally, Dec. 18 and Jan. 4, 2027, will be utilized as flex days for the 2026-27 school year. 

Terry said the teachers’ union also wanted to have 45 days in each quarter for the next school year.  

“So, we made sure that we had 45 days in each quarter,” she said.  

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.