School Board discusses year-round calendars for two elementary schools, requests flexibility for parents with hardships

ACPS Chief of Teaching and Learning Jacquatte Rolle presents information on year-round calendars for Metcalfe and Rawlings Elementary Schools

BY JENNIFER CABRERA

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – At today’s lengthy School Board of Alachua County Workshop, Chief of Teaching and Learning Jacquatte Rolle presented a year-round calendar for Metcalfe and Rawlings Elementary Schools that eliminated the three Friday holidays in July and August; board members had previously expressed concern that this would make it difficult to establish attendance habits at the beginning of the school year. Rolle said that 68 of 69 parents who responded to a survey said they would keep their children at the year-round schools.

Both schools are holding input sessions for parents at 5:30 p.m. on April 11. 

Rolle said the district has begun discussions with the Boys and Girls Club, which will apply for a grant that would allow them to provide free after-school care and intersession camps for the students at the two year-round schools. 

Certain raises concerns about transportation for families who apply for zoning exemptions

Member Tina Certain asked about the plan for families who are zoned for the year-round schools but don’t want to change to the year-round calendar, and Rolle said they could complete a zoning exemption. Rolle confirmed that these families will need to provide their own transportation if they get a zoning exemption, and Certain said, “So we’ve in essence… reduced the choices [those families] have, and that doesn’t sit well with me. I think we’re making a radical shift in how we educate students in that community and provided less opportunities for them, and they may not have the resources to fulfill the obligations of having a zoning exemption to go to a different school.”

Member Leanetta McNealy said she had “full confidence” that the administration and teachers at the year-round schools would buy into the pilot program. She said, “We as a board must so totally, totally support this effort. We cannot seem as if we are split.” She said she had received calls from parents, asking when the program might expand to other schools. 

Certain clarified that she would “support doing year-round school at one school,” but she said there is a lot of “churn” in the neighborhoods around those two schools, and she thought the district should “consider how this impacts the wider community” as families move in and out of that area. She said she would prefer to have one of the two schools on a traditional schedule so parents in the area could choose the schedule they prefer; she suggested making a school in a different area year-round.

Member Sarah Rockwell said she was a “huge proponent of year-round schools,” but she thought it would be “ideal” if families knew they could be guaranteed a spot at a particular school with transportation if the year-round calendar is a hardship for them; she said the survey highlighted families with custody agreements among those who see the calendar as a hardship. She said the district could identify another school with capacity and provide a bus route from the neighborhood to that school. She also supported allowing families in other parts of the county to apply for zoning exemptions to attend the year-round schools if they prefer that calendar.

Abbitt: District should “remove hurdles” to choosing other schools

Member Kay Abbitt was concerned about students whose parents didn’t fill out the survey and won’t file for a zoning exemption, even though the calendar doesn’t work for them; she said, “I guarantee there’ll be attendance issues” for some of those families. She said she would have preferred that the district hadn’t decided to choose two schools “two miles within each other,” but since it’s probably too late to change that now, the district should “remove hurdles” to choosing other schools. 

Superintendent Andrew promises flexibility

Superintendent Shane Andrew promised that “a lot of things will be tweaked and will be flexible… We will look at our transportation opportunities and options… We’ll work with [families with hardships] to support their children.”

Public comment

During public comment, Alachua County Education Association President Carmen Ward said the board was not offering any bonuses for the teachers in the year-round schools, and she said they were concerned about being on a different schedule than their own children in other schools. She said another problem is that “there are 10-month employees that are 10-month employees in the contract that are being asked to work for 11 months of the year. And that’s a problem… I am not in support of the year-round school.”

A teacher at Rawlings Elementary said that when teachers had expressed concerns, the response from the district had been, “‘Who wants to leave? You want to do it? Leave’… So I’m telling you right now, you’re losing good teachers there.” He said some teachers had already made plans to travel in July because they didn’t get advance notice of the calendar change and that the answer from the district had been that they would hire substitutes, but he didn’t think that was a good way to start the academic year. 

McGraw closed the agenda item by noting that the board will vote on the year-round calendar at their April 16 Regular Meeting.

  • The teachers and support staff need to be compensated fairly! They should not be expected to do more work, for the same pay. As usual, the district comes up with these half-baked plans that are never fully thought through. Funds should have been set aside to cover the costs associated with operating a school year round. These are both high need schools, and I’m concerned about teacher burnout, especially if the needed support staff aren’t in place. If they cannot figure things out logistically and the money isn’t there, this needs to be shelved until the 25-26 school year.

    • The year round school has the same number of days as the old calendar. They are not being asked to work extra days.

      • Many teachers usually take summer jobs to supplement income. That would not be possible any more for the teachers at these schools.

        • To give an idea how academia is so ossified and resistent to change unless its suits them politically- schools were 9 months in the early days due to lack of AC, in the south, and kids were needed on the farms in the summer to work, yet here we still are in 2024…

  • This sounds like it’s going to be a fail. Leanetta McDummy continues to spew her anti white sentiment and word salad.

  • Will summertime classes still be distinct from, or a continuation of the same 3/4 year ordinary class types? To make it more attractive at other schools they might consider summer curriculum being more distinct.

  • Are they just trying to justify to somehow maintain the bloated staff and positions created since Covid and all there other BS agendas? Taxpayers should not pay for babysitters. A real complete family would want the summers off to bond on vacations or with the 36% Bideninflation a staycation.

    • Wow Shad, you must have come up with that inflation number the way Trump comes up with his net worth.

      • Take a gander at your grocery bill, insurance premium, auto prices, construction costs, fertilizer, hotel prices, metals, phone prices, etc etc etc.
        Now compare with 2019, for instance, and you’ll see real inflation is absolutely insane…36% is probably a good guess. Also- inflation is cumulative…so you cannot just glance at the inflation numbers each quarter and assume it is holding steady at 5% or whatever number the govt & FedRes provides.

        Prices or costs don’t ALL skyrocket unless the currency is being undercut…so this isn’t due to a lack of supply…it’s due to an increasingly weak dollar. With that being said, the current and previous administration should both be barred from office for several reasons, including the irresponsible corp & state bailouts and helicopter money that started in early 2020 and has directly led to the current inflation mess

        • I’ll just add, fwiw, when it’s reported inflation is down or reported lower- that simply means the rate of the price increase has been reduced by a bit, not that prices are lower. Just a general fyi for folks….

      • Joe, you need to get out more. Whether it’s your Tunnel Vision, Denial, or limited understanding, since Let’s Go Brandon unleashed his attack on energy inflation has been calculated to 36.1% . Check with whomever does your grocery shopping, housing and home improvement purchases. Inflation and interest rates cannot by reduced with current regimes agenda. It’s Jimmy Carter times 2 . That is established history.

    • Real families want summers off to bond on vacation? Do you even live in FL? It’s 100 degrees and miserable. If I were a teacher I would love year round school. I can use those fall breaks to take the fam camping. Extended Spring break to garden and hang outside in our gorgeous weather. You’ve got a lot wrong with your comments, but that was just funny how you tried to make that leap and fell flat on your face.

      • Enjoy your misery in your bizarre world of lala land. Are you in Gainesville paying their massive taxes increase ?

  • When will they do the maintenance on the buildings if students are going year round. It would be very distracting to be teaching over the sounds of hammers and saws.

  • So, if you don’t want your child to go year-round, you have to provide your own transportation to a school that is NOT near your neighborhood. That sounds convenient.

  • I’ve thought year round schools would be best at promoting learning and retention, and certainly now with the great losses generated by Covid and all this DEI business. Its a shift requiring adjustments by many but will be best for students and that is the primary objective here.

    • I agree with you 100%. But we’ll see real soon if the primary goal is educating students or pleasing the union.

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