Alachua County Public Schools hosted one of several community events to inform the public about upcoming school zoning changes.
Parents, administrators from the school and Alachua County Public Schools officials gathered at Kanapaha Middle School to hear the different hypotheticals and answer any questions.
The plans involve rezoning certain schools and potentially closing others to consolidate student enrollment and capacity. The schools being considered for closure are Duval Early Learning Academy, Stephen Foster Elementary, Williams Elementary, Alachua Elementary, and Rawlings Elementary.
The potential changes would also include expanding K-8 programs. The goal for Alachua County Public Schools is to balance enrollment and improve facilities and transportation.
While some parents said they are frustrated, as mentioned in a WCJB report, these meetings are meant to inform parents on why these changes are needed.
Kathie Ebaugh, a long-time public administrator and community planner for the local civil engineering firm JBPro, was the first presenter at the meeting on Thursday.
Ebaugh’s presentation emphasized the importance of community’ feedback, and how no final decisions have been made. The biggest takeaways from the presentation are the reasons behind these plans in the first place, and the systems put into place to execute those plans.
As Ebaugh stated in her presentation, there’s been a noticeable decline in enrollment in the school district, leaving 6,600 seats empty across all grade levels. This is one of the main driving forces behind these changes, to merge the student populations from empty schools, and give students more opportunities and more chances to be social.
“They’re calling it rightsizing,” said Sherry Estes, principal of Kanapaha Middle School. “Which I think is a really good term for it.”
The term is all-encompassing of what Alachua County Public Schools plans to do.
Estes explained that the rezoning hasn’t happened in a long time. Every country and state goes through similar processes, and this is something that the schools have needed for several years. In some of the hypotheticals, Kanapaha Middle School would be one of the schools losing students, but as one of the bigger schools, it wouldn’t be much of an issue.
“We’re not eliminating, just balancing,” Estes said. “For schools that want to be able to offer more things, this will give them the opportunity to be able to do that.”
While it may be frustrating for some, Alachua County Public Schools officials and others believe these changes would prove beneficial for students. Ebaugh stated in her presentation that the schools are currently stretched too thin, and money going toward schools that aren’t at capacity could be reinvested into everyday education.
This is also something that is happening across Florida, not just in Gainesville, according to Jackie Johnson, the Director of Communications for Alachua County Public Schools.
“Districts are rightsizing their schools because they have a lot fewer students than they used to have,” Johnson stated. “School districts across the state of Florida and even the country are seeing fewer students and are having to close and consolidate schools as a result.”
Johnson said that is what the district is experiencing locally. With the birth rate plummeting not just nationally, but globally, there are bound to be significantly fewer students in attendance than in the past.
“One of the advantages of fully enrolled schools is now you have the opportunity to offer kids more programs, extracurricular activities, and more of the things that both parents and students want,” Johnson explained.
Johnson also emphasized how important the community’s feedback is for these plans. Their feedback will guide Alachua County Public Schools into its final decisions.
Johnson said the school district has held eight community input sessions, an online survey and pop-up events in December, all with the purpose of getting input from parents about programs, facilities, and transportation.
“We took all of that, added information about enrollment, our facilities, projected enrollment in the future, developers, development plans, where kids would be moved to, combined all of that, and came up with those nine draft maps,” said Johnson. “I can’t stress that word draft enough.”
The district is now bringing those plans back to the community for feedback. Johnson and other Alachua County Public Schools representatives have a clear expectation that the drafts will be changed based on what they hear from people in the community.
The school board is scheduled to finalize one of the plans at a meeting March 12, but there will be many more opportunities prior to the final meeting for the public to share their thoughts.
