‘Begrudging aye for the Joel Searby charter school’: School Board approves Newberry Community Charter School contract and maintenance agreement

BY JENNIFER CABRERA

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – At a special meeting this morning, the School Board of Alachua County unanimously approved a contract and maintenance agreement for the Newberry Community Charter School, although at least two board members made it clear that they were unhappy they felt forced to vote for the two items.

The recommendation from Superintendent Kamela Patton to approve the five-year contract made it clear that “the recommendation does not constitute a waiver of the board’s rights in any legal proceedings, including the board’s appeal with the Charter School Appeal Commission.”

Motion to approve contract

Member Tina Certain made a motion for “the Superintendent recommendation,” and Member Leanetta McNealy seconded the motion. 

In response to a question from Certain, General Counsel Will Spillias said the contract was “the State-standard contract that every charter school and district enters into.” He said he didn’t believe any language had been modified from the standard contract, and the term of the contract is July 1, 2026, through June 30, 2031. 

Appeal hearing is scheduled for July 16

Spillias also said a hearing on the appeal is scheduled for July 16, but “we had to move forward with the process on the contract because there are statutorily mandated timelines that we had to follow.” He said the State told the district that they could not delay the approval while the appeal is pending: “They’re running on parallel tracks, so to speak.”

Certain said, “I feel like the deck was stacked against us; we’re kind of having to go along and do this.”

Students zoned for Newberry Elementary School will get priority for charter school admission, and if they choose not to attend the charter school, the district will provide them a school under a new zone. According to the charter school application, enrollment will start at 600 and reach 900 after five years. The charter school will provide bus transportation and food service instead of contracting with the district.

Member Thomas Vu said, “Talking about transportation, I think it’s very clear in their own budget that they can’t afford to insure the kids that are on the bus, if they can even find someone to charter buses at the rates they believe will occur in magical fairyland.”

Vu added, “I also want to point out to everybody that their whole capacity and growth hinges on using portables, and portables at Newberry Elementary was one of the very reasons they said this conversion needed to happen. Yet here we are seeing a plan that requires and relies on portables, so kids will still be in portables. It’s actually part of their vision for the school. So let’s just point that out, two more things they said, yet they’re doing otherwise, which is very on-brand for them.”

It was later stated that the district plans to remove the portables owned by the district, and the charter school may take over the leases on the leased portables or lease their own. 

Failure to approve the contract could lead to a “much less favorable” contract

Chair Sarah Rockwell asked Board Attorney David Delaney what would happen if they did not approve the contract, and Delaney said the charter “would have recourse to go to the State to complain that we are not meeting the timelines, and the remedy from the State is probably going to be much less favorable to the district than a negotiated agreement.” He said the State could potentially impose a contract on the district.

Vote on contract

Rockwell called for a vote, and Certain said, “Begrudging aye.” Vu said, “Yes, begrudging aye for the Joel Searby charter school.” The motion passed 4-0 with Member Janine Plavac absent throughout the meeting.

Joel Searby was active in the campaign leading to the initial charter school vote by parents and teachers and was later arrested for possession of child pornography and lewd/lascivious conduct with a minor. Searby was also a basketball coach at Oak View Middle School and had gone through the school district’s volunteer screening process.

Facilities Management Agreement

The second item was the Facilities Management Agreement for the charter school, which Patton previously said had gone through extensive negotiations between the attorneys for the district and the charter school.

Motion

Certain again moved “the Superintendent recommendation,” with McNealy seconding the motion.

When Certain asked whether a definition in the agreement could be changed, Spillias responded that it would have to go back to the charter school’s attorneys for approval: “We spent hours with them negotiating what we thought were terms that were in the best interest of both the school district – and obviously they felt that were in the best interest of the charter… It was a give-and-take, and it generally went smoothly.”

During a discussion about how maintenance work orders will be handled by the district, Vu said, “It says, ‘Shall be paid within 30 days of receipt.’ Let’s say they had an emergency and they contracted somebody who was not following state law, just, you know, considering their association with folks like Joel Searby, that’s quite possible that will continue. Are we obligated to pay an invoice… if it’s done by a contractor who has not… been Level 2 FBI background-checked and, you know, didn’t even meet basic state laws and requirements?”

Rockwell rephrased the question: “If we wanted to challenge the validity of any invoice,… what would be the process for doing that?”

Delaney said the district could deny payment, “and then they would have available to them whatever remedies they thought they had.” He added that regulations for charter schools are sometimes different from the regulations for school districts.

Vu implied several times that the charter school promised to maintain the building and thus broke another promise by negotiating the Maintenance Agreement, which gives the district the responsibility of maintaining the facilities, but Delaney said, “It was a high priority for us to retain that responsibility because we wanted to get back a facility at any date in the future that is not in disrepair, that doesn’t have a bunch of expensive deferred maintenance on it.” Spillias added that the district wanted to “exert some semblance of control” over the facilities. Another administrator gave a specific example about a case in which the charter school might decide not to replace an air conditioning unit in a classroom they weren’t using, leading to mold. 

Vu concluded, “So ultimately they did, then, make a choice and decided that they couldn’t do it better, despite saying they could; it’s so on-brand.”

Certain responded, “It’s like trying to decide between bad and badder, worse and worser.”

Vote

The maintenance agreement was approved 4-0, with Plavac absent.

Allowing students to transfer schools a year early, with district-provided transportation

During board discussion after the votes, Vu said he wanted to make the transition as smooth as possible for students who do not want to attend the charter school by allowing them to move to another elementary school in the 2025-26 school year with district-provided transportation, and Rockwell agreed that the district “should prioritize zoning exemptions for any Newberry students who want to go to Terwilliger, Archer, Idylwild, Alachua, and High Springs Community School this year in preparation for next year.”

Certain agreed with giving the students priority, “but I think we have to narrow that circle. We can’t agree to transfer students that live in the Newberry district to four or five different schools.” She suggested allowing the Superintendent and her staff to look at options.

Patton asked whether the reason for providing transportation outside the attendance boundary could be framed as “hardship,” and Delaney said, “Sure, I think that that could be one of the reasons it could be approved.”

Patton said her staff would draft up a letter for parents, “making sure that they understand that it’s up to a point, like, if everybody happens to choose the one school,… that we would say no, and then you could go to a second option.” She said she would add language stating that if the student gets rezoned to a different school in the future, they could stay at their zoning exemption school, but it would be without district-provided transportation, starting in 2026-27.

Certain emphasized that she didn’t want the district “promising to bus kids all over creation.” Patton said she had the direction she needed from the board; no motion was made.