The process of losing and finding superintendents is something with which the Alachua County School Board is all too familiar. The school district’s top position has been a revolving door for over a decade.
Interim, resigned, and fired has been the fates of the past half-dozen Alachua County superintendents, each of whom have had relatively short tenures. This has left promises unfulfilled, money spent on rising superintendent salaries and severance pay, and more time spent on politics than things like curriculum.
Kamela Patton wrapped up her first partial academic year as superintendent of the district, and the school board has seen Gov. Ron DeSantis appoint a new board member in Janine Plavac earlier this year. Those leadership transitions are a reality for a district that hasn’t had a superintendent serve more than three years since 2013 — with the most recent firing preceding Patton’s appointment in November. It also experiences periodical school board turnover, all of which can mean a lack of stability within a district that hears concerns in its biweekly meetings about teacher salary, rezoning, and its annual budget.
The cycle begins anew
On a Monday evening in early November, the school board convened to appoint a new interim superintendent. Three weeks before, the same school board fired its superintendent, Shane Andrew in a 3-2 vote. In 2022, that year’s school board fired superintendent Carlee Simon after superintendent Karen Clarke resigned in 2020.
At that special school board meeting on Nov. 4, the five school board members unanimously recommended Patton as interim superintendent. This agreement seemed a welcome change of pace in light of the previous years of disagreement in leadership.
After the firing of Andrew, finding an interim superintendent proved a challenge. Board Member Leanetta McNealy said during the subsequent meeting that she asked people from inside and outside the district to take the role but said she was turned down by everyone she asked. McNealy said she was unable to persuade the candidates that the school board could get its act together.
The board was finally able to find a candidate through the Florida School Board Association and, on Nov. 4, unanimously voted to hire Patton. She previously served as Superintendent of Collier County Public Schools, one of Florida's largest school districts, for 12 years, according to the Alachua County School Board website.
As the new interim superintendent, Patton is the sixth person to serve in the superintendent position in the past 10 years.
Division as a pattern and challenge
According to former Alachua County Superintendent Carlee Simon, a divided school board was one of her biggest struggles during her term, making it difficult to complete goals. Simon was brought into office on a 3-2 vote and held the position from December 2020 to March 2022. She was eventually fired without cause on a 3-2 vote, which was the same split as Andrew.
“I believe many times there were votes made in order to upset another board member, not because this was meant to be good for the district,” Simon said.
She also said the school board needs to stop micromanaging the superintendents it hires.
“What would be nice is if elected school board members recognize that rotating through superintendents will hurt you in the long run,” Simon said. “If you’re going to hire this person and bring them here to do the work, your job as an elected official is to try and facilitate that superintendent to be successful.”
Karen Clarke, who resigned as superintendent in November 2020 after over three years at the helm, also said division within the board made change more difficult.
“If board member A is very supportive of a particular project, but board member B absolutely does not want to do that project, you feel like you're Solomon in the middle of that, trying to navigate those political waters between the board members,” Clarke said referring to the biblical story of the “Judgement of Solomon.”
Clarke did not cite specific reasons why she left the job in her letter of resignation, but the choice did follow a pair of unsatisfactory evaluations from Tina Certain and McNealy.
“For an appointed superintendent, your contract is really only as good as your next board meeting,” Clarke said. “So, whether that's every two weeks or once a month, that's really kind of how it lies because that could happen at any time during a superintendent's tenure.”
School Board Member and Chair Sarah Rockwell said she has been frustrated by the relationships between the superintendent and board members.
“Mr. Andrew was never meant to be permanent, and four of the five current board members campaigned on the promise of a search,” Rockwell said. “Instead, three board members chose to forgo a search and instead extend Mr. Andrew’s contract.”
What it means for the district
The problem is compounded by the district’s financial trouble. The school board in the fall was overspending its budget by $14 million. This meant the board general fund reserve, the county’s primary operating fund, was expected to fall below the required 5% board standard, according to Rockwell. It did so in early April. If the reserves fall below the state-required three percent minimum, the state could take over the district.
“Now, less than a year later, the same three board members decided to terminate Mr. Andrew without cause, citing his desire to no longer serve in the role of superintendent,” Rockwell said. “So, we are now in a position of having to hire a short-term superintendent while we conduct a search and having to pay over $75k in severance to someone who clearly wanted to resign but was instead given a payout.”
Moreover, the pool of candidates has become smaller. According to Andrea Messina, CEO of the Florida School Board Association, salary could be used to compensate for the job's difficulties.
“The position is now seen more as a career risk than it is a career,” Messina said.
The smaller pool has led to a rise in salary, according to Messina. In Alachua County, Clarke’s annual salary was about $166,000 for the 2019-2020 school year. By the time Shane left his term in 2024, his salary was $182, 500. Interim superintendent Patton’s salary is $19,500 a month. Her contract, however, has been extended for another year, with an annual salary of $234,000.
Change on the scene
After the 2024 election, the school board welcomed its youngest member, Thomas Vu. Meanwhile, Board Member Kay Abbitt resigned due to a conflict of interest.
Vu beat incumbent Diyonne McGraw in district two. Vu spoke with WUFT the morning before he was sworn in and said his number one priority when looking for a permanent superintendent is representing the people.
“Our history has been a lot of almost kind of like, not strictly nepotism, but very nepotistic. And I just want to get away from that,” Vu said. “We need to hire the best people for the job, not the people I like the most.
He said that in the school board and public service in general, people need to compromise and not just serve their own egos.
Abbitt left the position following her temporary unpaid work as interim director of the Boulware Springs Charter School, which she founded with her daughter in 2013 and served as its director until her election to the school board, according to a press release by Alachua County Public Schools. The previous director passed away unexpectedly in November, leading to Abbitt’s sudden departure.
“I believe serving in the capacity of interim director may represent a conflict of interest,” Abbitt wrote. “I appreciate the opportunity that I have had to serve on the School Board of Alachua County.”
Under state law, Florida’s governor appointed school board member Janine Plavac to serve the rest of Abbitt’s term.
Looking to the future
The school board has yet to announce its national search for a permanent superintendent.
“What we are looking for when somebody needs an interim superintendent is a seasoned leader who does not require a learning curve,” Messina said. “Who can help create some stability in the district, and who can help move the district forward in a short period of time.”
Meanwhile, the county still faces problems with rezoning. In a special meeting specifically on school rezoning that was held in January 2024, the school board elected not to make any changes to the current zoning until reevaluated in the 2025-2026 school year.
McNealy believes that rezoning should still be a current goal of the school board and of the superintendent.
“I think that should be our goal, however, the person that will be appointed as the new superintendent may have other ideas,” McNealy said. “So I would not be surprised if that’s pushed back, but I am hoping my colleagues will want to keep that 2025-2026 on the radar.”
On the other hand, Rockwell does not believe that any type of rezoning will be possible in the 2025-2026 school year, in part because of the charter conversion initiative in Newberry. While the initiative failed, Rockwell said that Newberry Elementary School is still undetermined.
“So a lot is up in the air because if Newberry Elementary School converts, as a district, we have to provide district-zoned non-charter schools for all the children in Newberry,” Rockwell said. “Which obviously complicates any sort of rezoning.”
There also needs to be some decisions made about consolidating offices and or schools before rezoning can be tackled, Rockwell said.
“All three of the schools in Alachua are under-enrolled as well as many schools in East Gainesville,” Rockwell said. “There’s a lot that’s going into this, and I definitely don’t think anything can be ready for the ‘25-26 school years in terms of rezoning.”
For now…
Patton remains, and so do other concerns. At a board meeting at the start of the year, many teachers spoke out at the handling of the budget, specifically in regard to the lack of money being directed to teacher salaries, which is an ongoing concern that Patton and the board members will have to navigate. The board and teachers’ union did agree in late April to a 1.3% raise for teachers that is retroactive to July.
Still, with possible rezoning and ongoing immigration enforcement concerns, the stakes remain high inside and out of the classroom. For now, the schools move forward — not with certainty given that Patton’s contract is set to expire in June 2026, but with hope that one day stability could be reality.