A year of contentious tug-of-war between Alachua County Public Schools (ACPS) and a community group came to a head in a quiet conference room at Valencia College on Wednesday at a meeting of the Florida Charter School Review Commission (CSRC). 

After hearing from the applicants who want to convert Newberry Elementary School into a charter school to be called Newberry Community School (NCS), and from ACPS representatives, the commission voted unanimously to approve the application. 

“It feels wonderful,” Derek Danne, chairman of the NCS board, told Mainstreet after the decision. “We’re really excited and really happy about all of the supporters that came down with us, and just excited about all the future work that we have to work towards now at this point.” 

Danne said the group was nervous but optimistic on the way into the meeting, with a recommendation for approval from the Florida Charter Institute (FCI) at Miami-Dade College, which fulfills the role of staff review for CSRC. 

The NCS application was the first to be approved by the CSRC since its creation in 2022 and its first informational meeting a year ago. 

A representative from FCI said though the institute has received over 20 applications in the past year, the two at Wednesday’s meeting were the first to be brought as action items. The only other application on the agenda this week, presented after NCS, was denied based on FCI’s recommendation. 

FCI gave NCS an overwhelmingly positive review, focusing on the strong, research-based academic program plan, the variety of professional backgrounds on the governing board, plans to work with the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office for security, and early-stage plans to expand the school’s capacity. 

Some parts of the curriculum and plans for future capacity expansion still need further detail and development, but an FCI representative said that is a normal situation for an applicant before approval. 

The FCI review team took most interest in the governance of the school and the employment situation of its employees, ensuring that the city of Newberry is a separate entity in partnership with the school. The clearest definition provided was that though teachers and staff would be employed by the city, they would be managed by school leadership. 

NCS Board Member Chuck Clemons told the commission that the conversion would help preserve Newberry’s community values, empower teachers and students through its STEAM focus, and enhance local control to make responses to problems quicker. 

“If you do [approve the application], you’re not just allowing the school to transition,” Clemons told the commission. “You’re actually empowering the community to take an active role in shaping the future of our children.” 

Attorney Amy Envall and School Board Member Tina Certain spoke on the district’s behalf, summarizing 14 pages of objections with points about the application’s validity. 

Certain said though the school board would work with NCS as its sponsor if the application was approved, as a citizen of Alachua County she does not support the conversion. 

The district’s main argument was that the partnership between NCS and the city of Newberry constituted a municipal charter conversion, which state law does not allow. 

Certain also criticized NCS’s lack of implementation plan for adding capacity, and for transporting students who live further than a mile from the school, but within the eight-mile radius of acceptance. She said she doubts the district will be able to partner with NCS to help transport the students because it will already be stretching to transport Newberry’s non-charter students to the next-nearest elementary school. 

She said Alachua County citizens already do an excellent job financing schools, especially those on the western side of the county, and the school board has plans to accommodate the overcrowding at Newberry Elementary School. 

“I’m disappointed that some critical facts were overlooked,” Certain told Mainstreet after the decision. 

An attorney for the commission also provided a recommendation to settle the validity of the application in the first place, as ACPS and other opponents to the conversion have called into question the teacher vote on the topic. 

NES teachers and parents voted on the conversion last April, but while state law required only 50% of each vote to proceed with an application, Florida Board of Education rules required a majority. After only 50% of NES teachers voted in favor, highlighting the discrepancy, the board changed its rule to match statute, but Newberry’s case still preceded the change. 

“There is no debate here, the statute trumps the rule,” Shawn Arnold, NCS’s attorney, said. 

James Richmond, Deputy General Counsel for the FDOE, agreed, recommending the commission view the application as valid on the basis that statute supersedes rules when the two are in conflict. 

Based on Richmond’s recommendation, Commission Member Sara Clements made a motion to consider the application, seconded by Commission Member Frank Mingo and approved unanimously. 

After hearing both sides’ presentations, the commission took some time to deliberate and ask for further clarification on whether there is enough space on the property for portables to expand capacity, and how it will include all area students. 

“I feel like that’s a wonderful thing, that partnership between the city and an applicant… I feel like that’s a real benefit and I think it’s great,” Clements said. 

Clements made the motion to approve NCS’s application, seconded by Commission Member Jim Murdaugh and approved unanimously by the commission. 

NCS leadership will now focus on enacting the conversion, according to Danne, as the school is set to begin in August 2026, with an estimated 700 students. 

Danne said one of the most immediate and crucial priorities will be to find a consultant/principal to lead the conversion, develop vendor contracts, finalize the curriculum and more in the year ahead.