A motion to approve a contract for school rezoning consulting services failed at Tuesday night’s School Board of Alachua County (SBAC) meeting for lack of a second, as board members took issue with the contractor’s timeline, cost and a lack of details on what the product would be. 

The school board officially paused its rezoning process on Jan. 11, after nine months of staff’s rezoning work left board members still unsatisfied, and community members upset with the product. 

Anntwanique Edwards, chief of equity, inclusion and community engagement said after that postponement, district staff communicated with various agencies, reviewed the scope of work that could be done and met with other school districts about support they had received from ACPS’s top contractor choices. 

Edwards said the district team unanimously thought WXY architecture + urban design was the best option for ACPS’s goals, as it provided all the elements the board had requested. 

The option which the superintendent and his staff recommended included a webtool that would allow users to search for their school assignments based on address, or select their school from the map or dropdown. Selecting a school would show data output from a scenario modeling process, and highlight boundary changes. Users would also be able to leave comments on the map about certain scenarios.   

The webtool, without the option of in-person meetings, would cost $236,860. 

School Board Member Tina Certain went over a timeline of the school board’s previous rezoning work, from an order for spot rezoning in February 2023, which became a comprehensive rezoning push, which the board agreed to pause in January. She noted that WXY’s proposal has a 12-month timeline, which Certain said is a long time for the district to wait for a product that she is not sure will be approved. 

“Rezoning needs to get done. I just don’t know if, are we going to spend $240 grand and get a product? I don’t want to get to the end of that and punt again,” Certain said. 

Certain also noted that ACPS has a staff member with rezoning experience and qualifications, and suggested the possibility of purchasing a tool that would allow the process to be done in-house. 

Board Members Kay Abbitt and Sarah Rockwell, and Chair Diyonne McGraw, agreed that rezoning does need to be done, but the price tag for WXY was too high when the teachers union has come to an impasse over salary negotiations, and board members have little confidence that the product would lead to a different outcome than the last attempt, which Abbitt called “a complete fiasco.” 

“The thing with these consultant firms is we cannot blame them when we get a bad product,” Rockwell said. “It’s a collaborative effort between the consultant firm and our staff. And as most of you know, when you hire someone to do a job, they do the job you tell them to do.” 

Rockwell said, to prevent another situation like the board’s displeasure with a consulting firm’s product in strategic planning, the board needs to be extremely clear understanding of what is included in the product, and comparisons with other options. 

School Board Member Leanetta McNealy, who made the motion to approve, said she could not agree with the cost associated for the contractor, and asked that staff would look into other contractors. 

According to Superintendent Shane Andrew, six schools in the district are over capacity, as of yesterday. 

Newberry Elementary School, which has a capacity for 471 students, is filled to 138% with 648 students. Wiles Elementary School, which has a capacity for 725 students, had 746 enrolled, leaving it filled to 103% capacity. Meadowbrook Elementary School is at 104% capacity, with 786 students and a capacity for 758. 

 Littlewood Elementary School, whose campus is being revitalized with major renovations, is technically filled to 120% capacity with 706 students in a school that is meant to hold 588, though the new build will have capacity for 750 students, which would leave it at 94.1% capacity. 

Newberry High School is filled to 118% capacity, with 794 students in a campus made for 671. Buchholz High School, with capacity for 2,006 students and 2,426 enrolled, is at 121% capacity. Andrew noted that 37 students at NES, and 218 at BHS, are dual-enrolled. 

Andrew said none of the district’s middle schools are over capacity, with the closest being Fort Clarke Middle School, with 96% enrollment.