Several citizens lined up to comment at Tuesday night’s regular School Board of Alachua County (SBAC) meeting, asking the board to take a stance on the vote to convert Newberry Elementary School into a charter school.
The vote was part of a campaign by Education First for Newberry to convert Newberry High School, Oak View Middle School and Newberry Elementary School (NES) into charter schools. Parents and teachers voted on all three schools, but the high school and middle school both failed to pass the conversion vote by clear margins.
The elementary school vote passed on the parent side, and Alachua County Public Schools announced that the 22-21 vote in favor of conversion failed because State Board of Education rules require a majority, and 22 “yes” votes out of 44 eligible teachers is only half.
EFN has claimed the teacher vote did pass and has shared an email from the Florida Department of Education, stating that a 50% vote is enough to submit an application.
While the district has maintained its position and has said it will not overturn the election decision without direct word from the state, the school board has remained silent.
NES parent Kelly Hersey said she was disappointed in EFN for continuing to push after the district’s announcement.
“When it does come about, will you all please stand up for the kids,” Hersey said. “That’s what y’all do, that’s y’all’s jobs, that’s what y’all came to do. Stand firm: they lost and that’s what it is. They need to let it go.”
Parent Allison Duarte said the SBAC has done a “great job” of standing up for the schools, and that all children should have access to a quality public education.
“I sincerely hope that you all will continue to do the right thing and fight this legally, if necessary, to keep our county public schools,” Duarte told the board.
After receiving citizen input at Tuesday’s meeting, the board did not comment on the charter vote, except briefly in discussing a separate charter school application for the Reichert House Youth Academy, during which several board members noted that they do support charter schools.
“I have nothing against charters either, as long as they’re not taking our property,” Board Member Leanetta McNealy said.
3 of 5 members have voiced their thoughts on conversion charters in one way or another. I wouldn’t exactly call that being “silent” on the issue.
I also feel it would be very beneficial for these news outlets to report the facts and not what they’re being told by the ones pushing for the conversion. It’s not 2 schools failed to pass the measure. ALL THREE SCHOOLS FAILED, according to the FAC rules pertaining to the balloting process of conversion charter applications. The rules and statutes work in tandem. Neither trumps the other.
EFN and Mayor Marlowe continue to spread factually INCORRECT information and at this point, everyone in our community needs to just say enough is enough, let’s move on and work together to better our schools, leaving this failed initiative behind us. Because that is what this is, A FAILED INITIATIVE.