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Changes in Newberry: The first day at the new Oak View School

(Flickr Creative Commons/Marty4650).
(Flickr Creative Commons/Marty4650).

In Newberry, school for some may look a little different.

That's after Newberry Elementary was converted into a charter school. That conversion prompted Alachua County schools to look for a new spot for public school students in Newberry.

The district chose Oak View Middle School. They changed it from just grades 5 to 8, and expanded it into a K through 8 School -- which added hundreds more students.

Oak View principal Katherine Munn says the transition has not been easy.

"This is my 20th year as a principal, and this is the hardest thing I've ever done. But it was really rewarding on Monday watching the kids walk in," Munn said.

The changes in Newberry took months, and have been met with pushback, but Munn says she's focused solely on running the new Oak View.

" I don't feel like I'm in competition with the charter school. I'm just coming out here, and I'm going to make this my own, how I've done with every school I've ever been at, but I wanna make it a positive, as positive as I can for everybody," she said.

Principal Munn says that new routines are hard, but says she's seen teachers and students settling in.

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