Alachua County Commission votes to save South Pointe live oaks, supports providing up to $500k to PEAK Literacy
BY JENNIFER CABRERA
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – At a special meeting on April 7, the Alachua County Commission voted to remove a multi-use path to save the South Pointe live oaks, expressed support for granting up to $500,000 to PEAK Literacy, and voted to review County processes to make sure heritage trees are protected in future County projects.
South Pointe live oaks
Public Works Director Ramon Gavarrete began by saying, “As of today, we still don’t know if GRU is actually going to provide us the easements that we will need in order to realign the roadway.” He said that if GRU agrees to provide the County with an additional 17-foot permanent transportation easement, plus a 20-foot temporary construction easement, then the current plan is to keep the multi-use path on the east side of the road, with the road and the multi-use path curving to the left, around the west side of the trees.
Gavarrete said Watson, the contractor, has other work to do for the County, so they have not yet mentioned a claim for delay, but “I don’t know how long we’re going to be able to keep holding this project.”
Chair Ken Cornell said he’d had a nice conversation with GRU CEO Ed Bielarski, and he really appreciated how quickly Bielarski had sent a written response to the County.
Motion
Commissioner Mary Alford made a motion to approve the removal of a portion of the multi-use path for the NW 122nd Street (Parker Road) extension to preserve several large oak trees, and Commissioner Charles Chestnut seconded the motion.
Gavarrete said it would be “perfect” to get a response from GRU by next Tuesday (the next regular County Commission meeting), but he didn’t know whether the contractor would wait another two weeks after that.
Cornell said he would call Bielarski that evening.
During public comment on the motion, a woman who lives in South Pointe thanked the Commission for listening to constituents. She said the road is really needed, and she thanked them for listening to the neighbors who are concerned that the County is taking down trees in their back yards.
Discussion about a buffer between the homes and the road
Commissioner Anna Prizzia asked Gavarrete if there is any plan to provide fencing or another barrier as a buffer for the people whose back yards are along the new road. Cornell added that the Commission’s previous motion had been to ask staff to check whether the developer had constructed any buffers that were in the original site plan.
Gavarrete said that if the County can get authorization from the owner of the 15-foot buffer along the roadway, they will plant trees in that area; he said, however, that there are conflicting reports about whether the developer or the homeowners’ association currently owns that property. He cautioned that the trees will be small at first.
Growth Management Director Jeff Hays said that phase of South Pointe was approved in 2006, and although the County would now require a buffer of trees and shrubs, the landscape plan does not show any trees or shrubs.
The motion passed unanimously.
Funds for PEAK Literacy
During Commission Comment, Prizzia said she supported giving PEAK Literacy “a little bit of additional support” for summer programs, and she was “in full support” of giving the organization the $500,000 that they said they needed to expand to serve 600 students (see our article here about the joint City/County Literacy Action Plan) in the FY2027 budget year.
Cornell said the Children’s Trust “made a moonshot, $500,000-plus for three years… I was blown away by the results I saw at the joint meeting. And it’s that kind of outcome-driven results that I like to fund… I hope our staff is putting that into this budget… This is one of my top priorities.” He said the board recently increased the amount that the County Manager can grant without board approval, and “so if there’s small amounts to get us through the summer, you know, $25,000 or $50,000,… if she hears from this board that this is a priority, she can make that decision without even coming to us. But I would certainly support it, if PEAK came to the County and said that. I think we have to lead, too… I would like to signal that we are committed to that, early in this budget cycle, without actually making a motion to approve anything until we have the budget.”
Cornell continued, “The generational impact of a child learning how to read, that could not read last year — it’s not just the child; it’s the entire family. It’s the brothers and sisters. If we’re really serious, it is where we have to invest, and we will receive multiple benefits down the road by making those commitments.”
Chestnut said, “I’m not an educator,… but teachers don’t have control of their class, and they don’t know how to discipline the kids in their class, and they let the kids do whatever they want to do. And that’s the problem, I think, in the educational system: there is no accountability to the teacher to make sure that the kids are really learning… You have teachers who really don’t care, they’re there to just make a paycheck… They’re actually passing kids who can’t read to the next level. And when I came along, if you didn’t get it, you stayed back a year; you didn’t get the opportunity to move forward… It’s just frustrating to me to listen and to hear some teachers say what they’re actually going through every day, and it seems like the parents don’t care, the teachers don’t care, and now teachers are social workers… They’re telling kids about their hygiene, telling them what they need to do, and that never happened when I came along in school.”
Chestnut continued, “It’s just frustrating to hear, especially when we have kids that are in the third grade and not on reading level. This is 2026 — we’re going back 30 years, when people didn’t learn to read… Don’t get me wrong, there are some teachers who really care and really want the kids to learn, but then there are some who are there for a paycheck.”
Cornell said the discussion had moved away from Prizzia’s original proposal to fund PEAK Literacy, and Chestnut said, “Don’t get me wrong: tutoring is great. I think that’s probably the better program for our kids, because they’re not getting it in the school system.”
Cornell said, “The teachers that I’ve interacted with are are dedicated public servants that are dealing with a lot in the classroom. And if we can help wrap around services to help kids read, that’s my goal, and so staff has kind of heard us, and we’ll see as the budget progresses. Thanks for bringing it up.”
Reviewing County processes to protect heritage trees
Alford said she wanted to return to the South Pointe live oaks and whether the County held itself to the same standards as developers.
County Manager Michele Lieberman said the board changed the tree mitigation policy “midway, when we were already through this process, on what [size tree] is protected, versus what is not… I just wanted to remind the board that that occurred right at these final stages of planning, after we had already been working with GRU to plan this.”
Cornell responded, “We hold developers to — you start with the natural environment before you do any design work. And I would like for… all of our departments… to be looking at protection of heritage trees…. And… whoever’s looking at those plans, if they identify those trees, a red light should go up, and we should get the right people involved at the design phase, and if it requires mitigation of heritage trees, it needs to come to this board, in my opinion, because we could have offered to eliminate one of the multi-use paths a year ago and been in a different spot… I would support a motion that asked staff to go back, look at the process, and correct it, or add safeguards so that this doesn’t happen again.”
Prizzia agreed, “I definitely think that we should be involving both our arborist and our environmental protection staff… in projects at the design phase. And if we’re not doing that, then we should be doing that.”
Motion
Alford made a motion to direct staff to review the County’s processes “to protect and preserve heritage trees during any County activity that threatens them, and to involve our arborist and our EPD department in that planning process and bring back a change of policy that will help prevent the same kind of situation that we’re in now.” After a suggestion from Prizzia, she added that the environmental protection staff should be included in the design phases for all County projects, “basically holding ourselves responsible, the same way we hold developers responsible.”
Prizzia seconded the motion, and the motion passed unanimously.
Its a shame that the county commission has to become a de facto second school board to finance and operate programs to perform the basic task of teaching kids to read that the elected school board can’t do.
But at least the county seems to be having some success with it.
Isn’t it the parents’ job to raise, feed, & educate their kids?
I knew my ABC’s and how to count before kindergarten.
It costs $21,500/year to educate each child in Alachua county in the public school system.…why wasn’t this fact brought up before handing out another $500k more in taxpayer money? Lousy debate and conversation from commissioners..
The ACSB is so dysfunctional that a lot of the $21,500 per child we spend on public schools might as well be burned in a trash can.
The problem is nationwide and should not be put only on our local system. Degrading teachers won’t help solve the problem of struggling students.
I imagine Mr. Chestnut had an excellent experience in school given his father’s membership on the ACSB for so many years…born on 3rd base.
Check out this book to understand what some kids face. Unread: A Memoir of Learning (and Loving) to Read on TikTok. Oliver James
Thank you for investing in our children.
“Approximately 64% of 4th-grade students nationwide are not reading proficiently, and the country is still behind its pre-pandemic 2019 scores. Just two states — Louisiana in 4th-grade reading and Alabama in 4th-grade math — have beaten their pre-pandemic scores in any single grade or subject.
The 2025 Nation’s Report Card found that a staggering 40% of 4th-graders scored below the “Basic” level in reading — the worst scores in thirty years.
Why 3rd Grade Is the Critical Threshold
Kids who aren’t reading at grade level by 3rd grade are four times more likely to drop out of high school than strong readers. A struggling reader at the end of 1st grade has about a 90% chance of still struggling by 4th grade — which is why early intervention makes such a significant difference.
Two out of 10 kids start kindergarten with skills two to three years below grade level, and kids who start behind usually only make about a year’s progress per grade.”
YES! on environmental review of county projects.
Invitado: You’re my reverse barometer and I think you and Jazzhole are one and the same..…always with the commi blame game…it’s not my fault your kid can’t read, it’s your fault. Having a child is a big personal responsibility…
Dr Seusse was a good read…I loved” green eggs and ham “ and “1 fish , 2 fish, red fish, blue fish,”, but that has been deemed racist by you nutters who want books given to 1st graders about sexual orientation and masturbation .
The kids can’t read and have sexual dysphoria….maybe it’s from
Those vaccines Kennedy is talking about causing autism..
It’s baffling they don’t know who owns the land the easement would be on. I guess they’ll hire a relative’s survey biz so the SP HMO won’t have to.
So…the taxpayers are on the hook for 500K because some parents won’t read with their children?
What did Darwin say about natural selection? We’re going backwards..
It’s never about helping the kids, its about money for the NGO …..
DeSantis should take $500k away from the ACSB because the kids can’t read here and the county is giving $500k to peak literacy…why are we giving peak literacy that money? That’s ACSB’s job …we paid ACSB to do that job…someone please forward this to the DOGE in Tallahassee… they already are not happy with the mask 😷 wearing weirdo and that racist on the board on the ACSB..
Koumatatsis (sp?) at the dept of education needs to know about this..
I like trees and they are good so that part sounds good. As far as the $500,000 goes, I would like to know how much is going to Administration. Too many organizations spend more on Administration than they do on programs. Kids certainly need help with reading since the School Board is doing such a POOR job.
About $265,000 goes to the Superintendent. That’s approximately $23k per month. She has little to no interaction with our children and makes almost 6X what a teacher makes.
How’s that for being financially responsible and caring about the real employees in the trenches?
Chestnut brings up some interesting points. Florida has the VPAK program for pre k childern that is free. There is ABC mouse. I know the schools offer free PC for kids to learn at home. So the information and technology is there for parents to teach their kids, all it takes is some effort. Im sick of the same song and dance from jazzman and his cronnies about being born with silver spoons and starting life on 3rd base. Both my parents worked when I was in grade school but they took time to teach me as well as the schools to learn. I dont think it matters how rich or poor you are you still have to put in the same work to know what 2+2 is and how to spell DOG. I agree with Chestnut that there are teachers at all schools that are in it for the money. When I was in school if you disrupted class or acted out you got a slap to the back of your head. Maybe that is where some of the problems lie when teachers have to go through a process of drama and steps to discipline or correct a student. But back to teachers in it for tge money. They get that too from the school board also when you have members abd supervisors making outlandish salaries to do nothing more than vote, to vote, to vote another day.
Trees: Not sure this is money well spent as expert opinion – unchallenged as far as I know – is the live oaks are too damaged to survive long term.
Education: No doubt Bull and Bear walked 3 miles uphill and in the snow to AND from school when kids, but whatever it was, the general idiocy of their comments don’t support their claims to a superior education.
Of course, as Invatado documents in her usual smart post, US social changes and trends are not limited to Alachua County as people like the previously mentioned dos dummies typically pretend when they are bad trends. Whenever they went to school, ubiquitous cell phones and internet access were probably not the rule, and yes that is a large social problem parents and schools have to address (schools are beginning to limit their presence there). Whatever is effective in reaching kids with a long term albatross of illiteracy, is probably worth it in terms of later productivity and fewer other social costs. At $500k, I’ll gladly pay my $6 worth and consider it well spent.