School Board narrowly favors making Irby PreK-4 and Mebane 5th-8th; decision will be next Tuesday

BY JENNIFER CABRERA

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – At the April 29 School Board of Alachua County workshop, the board narrowly favored making Irby Elementary a PreK-4 school for all Alachua students, with Mebane taking students in the fifth through eighth grades; the board will formally vote on the proposal next Tuesday.

Director of FTE and State Reporting Kim Neal reminded the board that at their March 12 meeting, they had voted to close Alachua Elementary School and had set boundary zones in the Alachua area and across the school district. At the same meeting, the board asked staff to bring back options for Irby Elementary School. 

Neal said there are currently 768 unoccupied seats in Alachua schools, with Alachua Elementary at 61% capacity, Irby Elementary at 70% capacity, and Mebane Middle School at 49% capacity. The schools are also aging: Alachua Elementary is 80 years old, Mebane is 70 years old, and Irby is 34 years old. 

Neal said that Irby’s current facility could accommodate a PreK-5 school, but only for the proposed Irby zone; the school is not able to accommodate a PreK-5 school for the entire Alachua area. 

Neal presented four options:

• Option 1: Students living in the Turkey Creek area and north of U.S. Hwy 441 would be zoned to a K-8 at Mebane, and students living south of 441 would be zoned to Irby.
• Option 2: Same as Option 1, but students living north of 441 and west of I-75 would be zoned to Irby.
• Option 3: Some students north of 441 would be zoned to Irby; this option would require more busing because of the increase in hazardous walkzones.
• Option 4: All students in the Alachua zone would attend a PreK-8 school at Mebane.

The new boundary lines take effect this fall, but Alachua Elementary will remain open until the 2028-29 school year, which is when the changes for Mebane and Irby (if it remains open) will take effect. In 2028-29, if Irby is open, current second-graders will transition back to Irby for fifth grade, and current first-graders will transition back to Irby for fourth and fifth grades. Students who would prefer to attend the Mebane K-8 could apply for a zoning exception.

Member Sarah Rockwell: “Is there a reason that we couldn’t fit fourth grade at Irby for the entire area, with an addition added to the building?”

Member Sarah Rockwell said that when she visited Irby Elementary, the staff gave her a presentation on how they could currently fit third- and fourth-graders at Irby. She asked, “Is there a reason that we couldn’t fit fourth grade at Irby for the entire area, with an addition added to the building?” Neal responded that the current facility could potentially accommodate all of the area’s fourth-graders, but not the fifth-graders.

Rockwell said, “I know that the state would prefer us to have up through fifth grade, but we currently have a K-4 school that has been an A school for many, many years.” 

Superintendent Kamela Patton: “By keeping Irby at K-4, now you’re creating two buildings that you’re having to build, when you don’t need to have a second building.”

Superintendent Kamela Patton said the current plan is to add a building to Mebane to accommodate the younger elementary students. “By keeping Irby at K-4,” she said, “now you’re creating two buildings that you’re having to build, when you don’t need to have a second building… I just want to be sure the general public understands that: what you will be doing is incurring an entire extra building cost for no reason.”

Leaving Mebane with excess capacity opens up the possibility of a charter school moving in

Rockwell suggested that Mebane might not need an additional building if the school only absorbs fifth-graders, and Patton responded, “Then you’re going to have an under-enrolled Mebane,” opening up the possibility that charter schools could move into the unused space. Neal said that adding fifth-graders would only take Mebane up to about 57% capacity, and there would only be about 60 empty seats at Irby if it were a PreK-4, which would not leave room for students from new construction.

John Gilreath from JBPro said that if Irby were a K-4 for the entire area, that would be about 200 seats over the current capacity. He said, “That would be immediately a need for additional classrooms at Irby.”

Member Tina Certain said Rockwell’s scenario “would create a situation where Irby would be over-enrolled to try to handle all of that, and Mebane would still be under capacity. And then you’re saying to build a building at Irby, which, in my view, is not a good use of capital dollars because we have seats at Mebane, [and we have] an option where we can efficiently use the capacity we already have.”

Member Rockwell: “[Under-enrollment at Mebane is] an issue. And perhaps there’s other things we could utilize empty space for,  but what I’m saying is, we’re going to have to build a new building, one way or the other.”

Rockwell admitted, “That’s an issue. And perhaps there’s other things we could utilize empty space for,  but what I’m saying is, we’re going to have to build a new building, one way or the other.”

Neal said the original plan with the Mebane PreK-8 would be to renovate the existing wings for the fourth- and fifth-graders and construct buildings for PreK-3 to accommodate state requirements for restrooms and build separation between the elementary and middle schools. 

Superintendent Patton: “No matter how great the principal is, it’s not a natural fit, the fifth-graders in with eighth-graders,… so they sit isolated, like a separate little school within a school… It’s a very challenging thing.”

Patton said Rockwell’s assertion that Newberry Elementary has always been an A school was not accurate: “I want to read to you what their grades have been: A, B, A, C, B, C, C, B, and A.” She said it’s difficult to have fifth-graders in a middle school: “No matter how great the principal is, it’s not a natural fit, the fifth-graders in with eighth-graders,… so they sit isolated, like a separate little school within a school… It’s a very challenging thing.  When you look around the state, nobody has K-4, so it is certainly your choice, but I will always make sure that you have accurate information when you’re talking.”

Patton said staff would bring a chart to next week’s school board meeting with capacities and projected numbers of students, “because then I think it’s easier for you to make that decision.”

Chair Thomas Vu said he was “personally not in favor of turning Irby into just K-4 for the entire area and then doing fifth at Mebane. It doesn’t really solve any of the issues we’re trying to solve, in my opinion.” He said he favored Option 1, although he could accept Option 3.

Member Janine Plavac: “I absolutely support [Rockwell’s] plan. I will not vote for any other option.”  

Member Janine Plavac said she’d gotten a lot of feedback from parents and staff, and she believes there is a lot of community support for a single K-4 school at Irby and a 5-8 school at Mebane: “I absolutely support this plan. I will not vote for any other option.”    

Vu said that Member Leanetta McNealy would be “kind of the decider here… It seems to be split, 2-2.”

McNealy said, “I have said all along my thoughts about K-8: I am not in favor of that… The community has spoken… Why do we attend all of these meetings to listen, and then we go in opposite directions?…  I love Irby, and I do not want it endangered in any manner… If we stick with the K-4 and move 5th to 8th to Mebane, we will be in good shape. I know that, as a former principal in this district for all of those years, it can be done, we can have the best of the best.”  

Vu said, “So it sounds like there is a majority board consensus to move forward with an option that makes Irby a K-4 and moves fifth grade to Mebane… as an option to be presented to us.”

Rockwell said, “I just think it’s really important to see all the options, especially since we’ve heard over and over from the community that this is the one they want.”

Vu said, “It sounds like community cohesion is still the desire of everybody… So I could be on board with it, even if I’m personally not in favor of it.”

Decision will be made on May 5

Certain suggested bringing back just Option 1 and Rockwell’s idea for next week’s School Board meeting, which is where the decision will be made (votes are not taken at workshops). Patton said staff would try to quickly get estimates for a new building at Irby and a renovation at Mebane. 

Certain again made the point that if they leave open space in Mebane, “you have a charter up the road from Mebane on 235 that could come and plop down in that school… for zero dollars… That is why I was leaning toward Option 1… It helps us to fill up both spaces in a way where we don’t have to worry about another organization coming in.”

During a discussion about whether the Mebane renovations would create a separate wing for fifth-graders, Rockwell said she thought it would be fine to have fifth- and sixth-graders in the same wing: “Remember, when a lot of us were kids, sixth grade was part of elementary school. So I don’t think putting fifth and sixth grade together is a problem.”