School Board of Alachua County terminates Constellation Charter School’s charter, effective today

BY JENNIFER CABRERA

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – In an emergency meeting today, the School Board of Alachua County voted to terminate the charter for Constellation Charter School due to “an immediate danger” to the students at the school. The charter was terminated at the end of the school day on May 1, and students will have to immediately transfer to their zoned school or make other educational arrangements.

Board Attorney David Delaney said the Board Chair and Superintendent called for an emergency meeting on April 29 “due to an immediate danger to the public health, safety, and welfare concerning the students at Constellation Charter School of Gainesville, and that situation required immediate action by the board.”

Delaney said the “particular facts and circumstances that exist to demonstrate this immediate and serious danger… to the students” would not be discussed in detail to protect confidential and exempt information under state and federal law. School Board Members were given more detailed information, Delaney said, “but we want to be sensitive to protecting confidential student information, to the extent that we can.”

Delaney said the recommendation was for the board to make a finding “by clear and convincing evidence of four things: that Constellation Charter has committed material violations of the law; that there’s an immediate and serious danger to the health, safety, and welfare of the charter school students that exists; that this danger is likely to continue; and that an immediate termination of the charter is necessary.”

“A pattern of serious safety and leadership failures”

Chief of Security & School Safety Douglas Pelton read a prepared statement to avoid unintentional references to confidential and protected information: “Constellation Charter School has experienced a pattern of serious safety and leadership failures that have compromised the well-being of students and staff. Required threat management procedures were neglected, critical incidents were mishandled or reported late, and staff who followed legal protocols were unjustly disciplined. Parents were not properly informed of safety concerns involving their child, which is a violation of law. In addition, staff and citizens have reported a number of concerning occurrences on campus that reflect the potential for gross negligence and failure to maintain a safe professional learning environment. The trained threat management team members resigned or took a leave of absence due to administrative interference and unsafe work conditions, leaving the school without a functioning threat management team, which is an essential legal requirement in Florida law. These failures demonstrate that Constellation Charter School can no longer provide a safe or compliant educational environment for students or staff. The totality of circumstances surrounding the systemic safety concerns at the school are significant enough to warrant decisive and immediate action.”

Motion

Member Thomas Vu made a motion to adopt the four findings described above by Delaney by clear and convincing evidence and to adopt the Superintendent’s recommendation to terminate the School Board’s contract with the charter school, effective at the close of school on May 1, 2025. The motion was seconded by Member Leanetta McNealy. 

Nobody spoke during public comment, and the motion passed unanimously, with Members Tina Certain and Janine Plavac voting via Zoom. 

Students must transfer to another school immediately

A press release this afternoon from Alachua County Public Schools stated, “The district had previously sent a notice of potential closure to Constellation Charter School based on financial concerns and other issues. However, the vote by the School Board today to immediately close the school was unrelated to financial issues.”

The district is notifying the families of all students via email, phone, text, and hard-copy letters that they will need to transfer to another school immediately or make other educational arrangements. The process to transfer to another traditional Alachua County Public School has been streamlined to ease the transition process for students from Constellation.

Eighty-nine students have been attending Constellation Charter School this school year. Only nine previously attended a traditional Alachua County Public School. Eighty previously attended another charter school, a private school, were home-schooled, or came from outside Alachua County.