The new charter school in Newberry has cleared another hurdle.
In an email reply to Mainstreet Thursday afternoon, Jackie Johnson, a spokesperson for Alachua County Public Schools (ACPS), confirmed the School Board of Alachua County’s (SBAC) appeal for the Newberry charter school conversion was denied during a Charter School Appeal Commission (CSAC) hearing.
According to a social media post by Newberry Mayor Tim Marden, the hearing took place on Monday in Tallahassee, with the school board having brought 10 appeals before the CSAC.
“The basis of the SBAC’s appeals were to contest the February Charter [School] Review Commission’s unanimous vote in favor of the Newberry charter conversion,” Marden posted.
Marden wrote that all 10 appeals were denied by the CSAC.
Johnson said the hearing lasted roughly four hours, with commission members hearing arguments from both parties and asking their own questions.
Ultimately, Johnson said the commission voted to recommend that the State Board of Education approve the conversion charter school application.
The state board will consider the CSAC’s suggestion at its next meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 24, in Fort Walton Beach, Johnson said. That meeting is slated for 9 a.m. at Northwest Florida State College (1170 Martin Luther King Jr Blvd., Bldg. 8).
The school board’s appeal process of the Newberry charter conversion goes back to its March 12 meeting, when it authorized its legal counsel and superintendent to file an appeal with the Florida Board of Education concerning the charter conversion.
This was a little less than a month after the CSRC approved an application submitted by Newberry Community School Inc. to convert Newberry Elementary School into a charter school to be called Newberry Community School.
Two weeks following the board’s March 12 meeting, attorneys from the Tallahassee-based firm Sniffen & Spellman, P.A. sent a letter on behalf of the school board to the State Board of Education on March 26, appealing the CSRC’s decision to approve NCS’ charter application.
In the eight-page letter, attorneys outlined three arguments for why the State Board of Education should overrule the CSRC’s decision, citing the failure of the conversion charter school vote, substantive reasons for denial of the conversion charter school application and jurisdictional issues, specifically arguing for the district’s right to appeal the CSRC’s choice.
While the SBAC’s appeal process has been ongoing, it has had to press on with the charter conversion due to mandatory timelines from the state. This includes approving the contract for Newberry Community School in June.
The contract is set to take effect July 1, 2026, through June 30, 2031, with the school opening in August 2026.
Meanwhile, plans for the charter school continue to move forward, with an official school Facebook created earlier this month, along with the hiring of a new consultant, Lacy Roberts.
“We are very excited for the future!” Roberts wrote in an Aug. 13 post on the NCS Facebook page.
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.
I don’t have skin in the game, but ever since this kerfuffle started I asked a simple question.
“WHY do the Newberry schools need to become Charter Schools? What was wrong with them, before?”
And nobody ever could or would respond.
Charter schools can remove students that misbehave or are not meeting academic standards. Public schools must take all students.
And some school systems enable misconduct by taking a blind eye to the problem
Why do you think Newberry would make such a Hail Mary, determined effort?
?“WHY do the Newberry schools need to become Charter Schools? What was wrong with them, before?”
Not a thing wrong with them. This was part of that Gainesville-is-evil-because-it-votes-Democrat-so-let’s-separate-from-it-by-turning-the-western-part-of-the-county-into-Springs-County mentality. After all, Jordan Marlowe, city manager and former mayor, who started all that charter school nonsense, was a paid lobbyist for the John Birch Society and chair of the local Republican Party.
Anyone who pays attention to the Alachua County School System will see in glowing neon why Newberry might prefer a charter school
Why am I not surprised? All those state agencies–School Appeal Commission, State Board of Education. Florida Board of Governors, all the rest–are filled with appointees who will do whatever the governor wants, whatever the party line is. And the governor is so concerned with proving that he can be just as mean and vindictive as POTUS, that blue-voting Gainesville’s elected school board didn’t have a chance . . . even though they were morally and legally in the right
Why did they have a four hour hearing if it was fake? Do you hear yourself? Aren’t you concerned with what you’re willing to believe?
Just as children can be starved of nutritious food, they can also be starved of a useful education. Things have gotten to the sad state in a once successful, respectable school district, their parents are willing to put their children in new private and charter schools, which are in the early stages of earning accreditation and developing curricula.
If we thought our kids could get a decent education in Alachua County public schools, we wouldn’t deal with all the challenges of putting our kids in brand new pocket schools that cannot possibly match the social and elective infrastructure of a big school system.
Please don’t make this about wild eyed political mania. This is about parents who have kids who are not being educated well from elementary to middle to high school. It’s no fun. And it’s costly too even ifpart of it is paid for by state vouchers. The private school is solely funded by parents once the vouchers have been used for several pay periods. But our kids are worth it if in return, they can choose what careers to pursue, not based on a lack of education that may make them afraid to choose science because they don’t have enough math, but on where their strengths and preferences guide them.