School Board hears update on ICE guidance, argues about “Way of Work” meeting

BY JENNIFER CABRERA

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – At the February 3 School Board of Alachua County meeting, the board heard an update on ICE guidance, argued about whether to hold a meeting to address how the board works together, renewed the charters for three charter schools, and requested financial statements from the Superintendent.

Update on ICE/law enforcement guidance

Superintendent Kamela Patton gave an update and clarification regarding guidance for law enforcement interactions. She said that school district administrators and district legal counsel recently met with Sheriff Chad Scott and his Command Staff to ensure protocols were in place to balance a secure environment for students with the need to cooperate with local law enforcement partners; these discussions “re-emphasized the cooperative approach with common sense safeguards, including the school district collaboratively confirming the identity of the law enforcement officer and the legal basis for any action. Any law enforcement actions will be undertaken in the least disruptive possible manner, with careful consideration for the student involved and the overall safety and learning environment of the school.”

Patton said the updated guidance will be available on Thursday morning, February 5.

Click here for our article on the updated guidance.

Sheriff Chad Scott said, “I would never waver in my commitment to public safety, and protecting our children has always been my top priority.” He said that the previous night, the Sheriff’s Office Juvenile Relations Bureau Chief had received a notification that a student had made concerning statements about a potential violent event at a local school. He said his team worked through the early morning hours to ensure that any potential incident was prevented.

Patton said the presence of law enforcement officers on school campuses “strengthens both safety and connections across our schools,” and she thanked a number of law enforcement leaders who were at the meeting. 

“Way of Work”

The only discussion item on the meeting agenda was titled, “Way of Work,” and Chair Thomas Vu said he added the item to the agenda because “I do feel like we, as a board, have, from the public and from the state, received a lot of legitimate concerns about the way we work and address each other.” 

Vu said the board agreed in February 2025 to participate in Master Board Training with the Florida School Board Association (FSBA), and he wanted to limit the discussion to “just finding a date where we can all participate.” 

Member Leanetta McNealy said she had been through Master Board Training “over and over and over again” and would not be able to participate on either of the dates Vu had offered. She added, “I feel that our two newest board members maybe might want to consider that.” 

Chair Vu: “I think it is legitimate criticism when we hear from the state and the public that we should do a better job of working together and addressing each other.”

Vu responded that the FSBA could “just kind of give us some feedback and advice,… and I think it is legitimate criticism when we hear from the state and the public that we should do a better job of working together and addressing each other.”

McNealy said, “I think we can do a better job, but you need to look inward at yourselves in order to do that. A workshop is not going to improve that… I’m not going to participate.”  

Vu said, “I do feel it is important for us as a board to come to some type of consensus of how we treat one another, how we discuss items.” 

McNealy said, “That comes with home training. It comes with knowing your responsibility as an elected official. It comes with just simple politeness, bottom line.” 

Vu said, “What I’m hearing is, you are unwilling to participate. Thank you.” 

Member Plavac: “Respect earns respect.”

Member Janine Plavac said that two members of the board have said that she was “just appointed and not elected,… and I feel, after 50 years of being in nursing and teaching, I can work with people, but respect earns respect.”

Plavac continued, “I am not meeting with the Superintendent anymore because she took a private conversation that we had regarding Mr. Reneke and his position as CFO and shared it with [Chair Vu] and Mr. Delaney… So I will not be meeting with Dr. Patton anymore… I know this is not a precedent. I know that Ms. Certain did not meet with [former Superintendent] Mr. Andrews.”

Member Plavac: “I will respect the board. I will do my job, but I am not going to a ‘Way of Work’ for two hours to tell me how I’m supposed to work together when I can work together with anybody, so I will not attend.”

Plavac concluded, “Ms. Certain, you talk to me like I’m a five-year-old. I am 73 almost, and I will not be talked to that way. I will respect the board. I will do my job, but I am not going to a ‘Way of Work’ for two hours to tell me how I’m supposed to work together when I can work together with anybody, so I will not attend. I don’t care what date you pick. You three can go, and we can work together going forward.”

Vu said he knew her views about Reneke because she published an op-ed on the Sunday before the meeting: “You broadcasted [your feelings] publicly to everybody, against the advice of the opinion of the State Attorney General’s office. They say, ‘Do not do that.'”

Member Sarah Rockwell said she had concerns about how Plavac had treated staff members from the dais on three different occasions, and she added, “As Mr. Vu noted, you telegraphed how you were voting before coming to the meeting, before hearing the discussion with your peers, before hearing any input from the community, which is another thing that is not a best practice. We should never telegraph how we’re voting ahead of the opportunity to discuss that as a board and to hear from our community… These are the kinds of things that I was hoping we would be able to address with a trainer from FSBA, but I’m still happy to meet with that person if they want to come and receive any feedback that they’re willing to give. But I think that the value of that will be limited if not all of the board members attend.”

Member Tina Certain said she was available for both of the dates Vu had offered but said, “If everyone isn’t participating, it’s probably a moot point. It is governance training. It’s not training on policies we will be making here. It is really, truly, governance and how we would work with each other, as well as with our appointed Superintendent.” 

Certain said she had planned to bring up an issue at the training about how Plavac had, “on multiple occasions,… replied all” to emails from citizens that were addressed to the board as a whole. Certain continued, “Initially, I thought it was just a mistake. But our attorney has pointed out to not do that. But it has repeatedly happened.” 

Chair Vu: “It sounds like any further discussion in general would not be productive… I did agree with a lot of things [the state] had to say about the way we run our meetings [and] the way we discuss things up here and treat each other. I still feel like that needs to be addressed.”

Vu said, “It sounds like any further discussion in general would not be productive, so we will look for some time during a regular meeting, perhaps, to have this. I do want to say that if the intention here is to address a lot of legitimate concerns made by the community, and also made by the state — regardless of what you feel about the state in regards to us and our state monitoring, I did agree with a lot of things they had to say about the way we run our meetings [and] the way we discuss things up here and treat each other. I still feel like that needs to be addressed.”

Vu said again that he finds many of the state’s concerns to be legitimate, “especially about how we just run our meetings inefficiently, at least we had in the past. We are making great progress, but we still do things that are not recommended by best practices, by the state and in opinions issued by the state Attorney General’s office, but we will come up with something different. I was hoping to get some type of unanimous consent here for a date, and it sounds like we will not get it. So we’re moving on.”

Superintendent Patton said, “I’m not one to jump in on a lot of conversations that deal with things personally, but in this one, I am. I just want to be sure to correct the record when the record isn’t correct. What we heard tonight is that it was not my place to share Ms. Plavac’s comments with you. I want to be sure that people understand that is not what I did. You had two colleagues up here say that it was telegraphed in a newspaper.”

Patton said she didn’t speak with the board members Plavac accused her of speaking with before the meeting, “So I don’t think it’s exactly right to make an accusation at that point.” She said she did speak to the Board Attorney because “I needed to get advice.”

Attorney Delaney: “Some of this may just sort of be a misunderstanding… Sometimes having an outside facilitator to listen to everyone’s concerns can shed some light on things and provide some new perspectives.”

Attorney David Delaney said, “Just to clarify, and in fairness to Ms. Plavac, since my email of January 24 providing guidance to the board and the reminder about the reply-all issue, I’m not aware of that occurring again. Some of this may just sort of be a misunderstanding… Sometimes having an outside facilitator to listen to everyone’s concerns can shed some light on things and provide some new perspectives. I may be out of my lane, but I would say the board might want to consider going ahead and holding that date, seeing if, over time, that becomes a more viable time to meet.”

Although McNealy gestured that she wanted to speak, Vu said, “We’re moving on to the next item here. Everyone has spoken once. There is no further discussion on this item.” 

Charter school renewals

Next, the board approved five-year renewals of the charters for Resilience Charter School and North Central Florida Public Charter School and a 10-year renewal for Caring and Sharing Charter School. 

Member Certain: “I’ve said [to multiple Superintendents] that children that look like me can learn,… and Mr. Peterson shows us that it can be done… because they use all the same materials and things that we use here in the district schools.”

During the discussion on Caring and Sharing Charter School, Certain said, “I am a true public school advocate, [but] there are a couple charters that I do not have any angst against, and yours is one. I’m just going to be truthful. I do have something against the private charters, the ones that are corporate-owned, because they do extract a lot out of public schools. In Alachua County, we don’t have those here; we have smaller charters that are locally owned, [but] I refer to you all as being the crown jewel of what can be in our district, and I’ve said [to multiple Superintendents] that children that look like me can learn if they are taught and if the expectation is there and folks believe that they can learn, and Mr. Peterson shows us that it can be done… because they use all the same materials and things that we use here in the district schools… So I commend you all, and I vote for this without hesitancy and fully support the work that you do there.”

Rockwell agreed, “You are doing a phenomenal job, and we’re thankful to have you in the district. I share my colleagues’ feelings about protecting public schools and public education, but this is what a charter school public education partnership should be. That’s what the vision of charter schools is. Thank you for being a model for that and for being in our district.”

Vu added, “I don’t know how y’all do it, just thank you for doing it… If I was a UF College of Ed doctoral student, you guys would be the first place I’d go to write my dissertation, so I could just see what’s going on, what’s working for y’all, what you do, so that knowledge can be disseminated across the country. Words cannot… truly express the gratitude I feel, the community feels, my colleagues feel, and so just thank you all for everything you’re doing.”  

All three charter school renewals passed 4-0, with McNealy absent.

Teachers’ union update

During the teachers’ union update, ACEA President Carmen Ward said, “Our bargaining unit has shrunk by 400 employees. That’s why enrollment is not such a big budget issue as sometimes is stated, because when you have 400 less employees, that is super cost-saving to the district, right? We don’t have the student enrollment, so we don’t have the funding, but we have 400 less employees.” She added that the district has lost media aides, which could be paid for with One Mill funding: “I think, in public office, it’s more responsible to spend the money on the children than it is to keep it in the coffers for some sky that may never fall, because I’m concerned about the One Mill not being spent completely and not being used where it needs to be used.”

Ward continued, “Thank you for having an ICE procedures change and meeting, and I look forward to seeing that in writing on Thursday.” Ward also announced that she is stepping down on June 30, and the authority to bargain with the district is being handed over to Dr. Crystal Tessman, ACEA’s service unit director.

Board Member Announcements

During Board Member Announcements, Certain responded to Ward’s comments about the One Mill funding and said that now $2 million of that has to be distributed to charter schools, and “that means there’s fewer dollars to do with in the current year, which you would have done in the past.”

Board Member Requests

During Board Member Requests, Plavac said, “We have a policy… that says the board shall monitor the budget on a monthly basis. At the board meeting on 4/1/25, our CFO presented the financial statement for January 2025. On 5/6/25, the CFO presented the February 2025 financial statement. Since then, the board has not been presented a monthly financial statement, which is needed according to our policy… to monitor the budget. This is particularly concerning and alarming because it is now February 2026; it is a full year of not seeing the financial statements of our district.” 

Plavac said she has asked Patton for information on the General Fund, and “every time I ask for information, she says that she’s working on it and she would get it to me, but I haven’t received it.” Plavac said she was not criticizing new CFO Michael Reneke because he “kind of walked into this,… but how can we monitor [the budget] if we’re not given the monthly financial statements?” She asked staff to bring all the financial statements to the next board meeting.

Plavac also said the latest student enrollment numbers were received from the state on January 23, but board members have not been informed about where the district stands, relative to expectations. She also asked for information about a report that is overdue to the state and asked for the amount of legal fees the district agreed to pay the Newberry Community School: “I know they wanted $90,000; I think we had to pay $81,000 or something, but I would like a definitive amount.” She also asked for an update on the Superintendent search.

Discussion about how Board Members should request information

Certain asked Delaney, “Is it proper for us, as board members, to ask staff directly for things instead of working through the superintendent, per board policy?”

Delaney responded that the board’s policies say that Board Members are entitled to have access to records in order to meet their obligations. He said that typically, the Superintendent will take note of requests from Board Members and then assign the right staff members to get the requested information for the board.

Certain asked whether Board Members can “put in a due date on staff,” and Delaney said, “Ultimately, the Superintendent is responsible for the oversight of staff,… [and] I know that good, conscientious Superintendents try to be responsive as they can to Board Member requests for information.”

Certain said all the Board Members should read the policy and “just make sure that we’re in alignment with that, and our communications with staff should all run through the Superintendent.” She added, “I, too, have asked a number of questions about our financial reporting. Things have been in flux, and I don’t begrudge anyone that information because I have asked for it, but I do think… we would all be best served if our requests would be given to Dr. Patton beforehand, and she can coordinate and try to help get the staff to fulfill the requests.” 

Vu said, “I echo Ms. Plavac and Ms. Certain on the financials here, too. I imagine we’re going to all get that at some point, hopefully at the next board meeting or the one right after that.”

Patton said she was “happy to get all those requests. We’re on the verge of being able to provide a full budget update. We have a Budget Director that I think we’ll be hiring sometime within the next… five days.” She said Plavac was correct that a report was late, but she has been communicating with the state about it.