School Board postpones approval of contract for Newberry charter school
BY JENNIFER CABRERA
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – At its June 3 meeting, the School Board of Alachua County tabled a charter school contract for the Newberry Community School.
Member Thomas Vu said he’d just received the contract and wasn’t comfortable voting on it without reading it. He asked whether there was a deadline, and General Counsel Will Spillias said there was no deadline, but “if it’s not voted on today, there could be some recourse that the charter school has.” Superintendent Kamela Patton disagreed, saying she thought the district had done its job by sending drafts back and forth over the past six weeks: “Every time it came back to us, we turned it right around.”
Board Attorney David Delaney said the language in the contract was standard language established by the Florida Department of Education, but “I would never want board members to be in a position where they felt like they didn’t have an adequate opportunity to review something.” He suggested taking the contract up at a future meeting and said a special meeting could be scheduled with 48 hours’ notice if the board’s next meeting at the end of July is too late.
Chair Sarah Rockwell said she was also uncomfortable because the contract had been handed to board members during the meeting, “and it’s not just about me not having read it,… but it’s also – there’s a reason that we post things to the public several days in advance.”
Delaney recommended that the board table the contract and allow staff to speak to the Newberry Community School representatives about how time-sensitive the approval is, “and then we can schedule as we need to, based on that discussion.”
Vu moved to table the contract to a future meeting, either the next scheduled meeting or a special meeting, and the motion was seconded by Member Janine Plavac. The motion passed unanimously.
What is staff thinking? Give something to the board and expect a vote right then. SMH.
This transfer has been going on for at least six months. Anyone want to bet that the delay has bee the result of Alachua County Schools and this board? They are stalling, period. Typical. They refuse to participate when they lose… at anything. Childrens’ minds at work.
I am not a fan of the board, but in this case, I think they did the right thing. Documents were being exchanged between ACPS and Newberry as late as Sunday for sure, and maybe Monday and Tuesday. The superintendent assured the board the changes were minor, but apparently the board did not receive the final documents until during the meeting. They were right not to vote on it without the opportunity to read it. It should have been removed from the agenda to avoid confusion.
Is there non disputable proof of this?
Well, they aren’t trying to delay indefinitely…special meeting set for Monday. Is that proof enough?
If the attorney was spawned by Paula Delaney, I would expect a real clunker with no brainpower to get things done.