District chief floats plan for new school despite unanswered rezoning, financial concerns

Alachua County’s school district administration subtly floated the creation of a new east Gainesville magnet school without board authorization that could pull existing resources from already struggling schools.

The mention comes at a time when the district doesn't know its fund balance, can't answer rezoning questions, has failed to meet the state’s deadline for teacher union salary negotiations, is facing a teacher shortage and is preparing to implement a series of major changes to two failing eastside schools.

At Wednesday’s School Board workshop meeting, elected leaders were given a document from Superintendent Shane Andrew’s administration that would allow families to submit applications in January for students to attend a newly created international baccalaureate (IB) Prairie View Elementary Academy, despite not yet being approved by the needed International Baccalaureate Organization’s Primary Years Program (PYP). The slides also show an overhaul of existing magnet/CTE school programs, including accepting students with lower GPAs and having over-capacity schools select 50% of its population from outside its school zone.

Some board members expressed immediate concern about the plan, with one calling it “irresponsible” and suggesting the Florida Department of Education could take the district over if its financial situation isn’t mended.

“My question, or concern, is how are we going to pay for it?” Board member Tina Certain asked about the new school.

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Alachua County Public Schools' finance staff previously informed the board in 2021 that it wouldn't have enough funds to open another school site. The district opted to close a school and move its staff and students to what is now known as the new Terwilliger campus.

Despite financial questions still looming, the district’s chief of finance, Keith Birkett, had not been consulted on Prairie View’s plans before them being announced last week.

In 2019, Prairie View was first floated as a “swing school” while Idylwild Elementary underwent renovations. Idylwild reopened in 2022 but is now at risk of being operated by an external operator for back-to-back “D” grades. Except for being used as a swing school, Prairie View, which can hold about 700 students, has remained vacant since 2008.

The PYP timeline indicates the proper time to open an IB elementary school can take close to two years. When asked, Andrew couldn’t provide a timeline of his progress or a cost estimate for his plans.

The school appears to be a pet project of the superintendent who briefly mentioned the idea during a rezoning workshop on Aug. 16. He mentioned using the eastside location as an IB program but no one on the board expressed interest in the idea and moved on. Almost three months later, he appears committed to making it happen by the 2024-25 school year.

More: District's proposed rezoning plan increases overcrowded schools around Alachua County

Other school issues

The school district has struggled for nine months running to explain its county-wide rezoning plans, something that hasn’t been done in 40 years and would affect thousands of families. Its latest data shows officials somehow made schools more overcrowded by shifting students around instead of decreasing capacity concerns.

On Tuesday, the School Board also approved a plan to hire external operators for Idylwild and Lake Forest elementary schools for its poor performance. It also approved Andrew asking the state to allow Metcalfe and Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings to be year-round schools, without long summer breaks. The superintendent signaled that he sent the requests to the state before receiving the required board approval.

School board members expressed frustration that the administration hasn't put additional needed resources into the schools, including shifting highly effective teachers around to struggling schools.

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Andrew brought up some of those concerns while explaining his Prairie View plans, including floating the idea of closing struggling schools despite the approved vote to have external operators. He said he has been criticized for slow-walking certain projects and wanted to act quickly and that it is a fair criticism to say the administration should be focused on helping the district’s seven low-performing schools.

“It is aggressive,” he said. “It’s always on in the details − and there are a mountain of details. Funding is a concern … I’m passionate about opening the door of opportunity for all the children.”

Andrew also brought up the district still not having a strategic plan, something he was tasked with implementing when he was chosen as interim last year.

“We do things strategically without a plan,” he said.

He said he wasn’t actively looking to close Lake Forest at this time and that a “C” grade would alleviate its issues.

When looking at how the school will be factored into the district's ongoing rezoning problems, chairwoman Diyonne McGraw suggested that officials may have to “pivot” from its current plans.

Currently, east side schools have the lowest enrollment across the district, with Howard Bishop Middle, Lake Forest and Eastside High having just over half of its enrollment capacity being utilized. It's unclear exactly how Andrew's plans would affect those schools in enrollment and funding.

Board member Sarah Rockwell said she was surprised to see the new school talks weren't planned for another year out due to the superintendent still being in preliminary discussions.

“I’m asking questions because we’re talking about opening magnet applications in two months for 400 students and we don’t have the basic answers of how we’re funding this school, do we even have approval from International Baccalaureate to start it,” Rockwell said. “We’re saying we’re opening applications for it in two months, that sounds pretty final … It just feels like these were things that were already ironed out.”

Certain posted on Facebook Thursday about the issue and said that although Andrew is moving forward with the plans without the board ever weighing in on the subject, it’s still unclear what he is offering to parents.

“Fair access to high-quality programs and improving support for students are important,” she wrote. “But rushing into decisions without knowing the full impact on our financial stability or the limited resources we have for existing schools and programs … that approach deserves more scrutiny."

This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Alachua superintendent proposes new school despite financial concerns