School Board votes 3-2 to fire Superintendent Andrew, effective Nov. 15
BY JENNIFER CABRERA
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – During a discussion of board members’ evaluations of Superintendent Shane Andrew at the School Board of Alachua County’s October 15 meeting, Member Kay Abbitt unexpectedly made a motion to terminate Andrew’s contract, effective November 15, and the motion passed, 3-2.
Board member evaluations
Abbitt’s overall rating of Andrew was “Needs Improvement,” and Member Sarah Rockwell gave him the same rating. Member Leanetta McNealy rated Andrew “Effective” (the second-highest rating), and Chair Diyonne McGraw agreed with that rating. Member Tina Certain rated Andrew “Unsatisfactory.” The evaluations can be found here.
During the board discussion on a previous motion by Certain to accept the evaluations, Rockwell said, “Typically the superintendent’s evaluation includes a self-evaluation, and that was not included unless I missed the attachment.” McGraw responded, “Your policy does not require him to do a self-assessment.”
Abbitt’s motion
At that point, Abbitt said, “I think evaluation time is always a time to be reflective, and as much as it pains me to say this, I move that we terminate Superintendent Andrew’s contract effective November 15th, with a special board meeting held next week to find an interim Superintendent to get us through until we find a permanent Superintendent, doing a national search.” Board Attorney David Delaney said they needed to do one motion at a time.
Discussion of the evaluation instrument
Certain said a self-evaluation would have been “very helpful,” but “what was really troublesome” was that the evaluation instrument and rubric never came back to the board after an initial discussion, as they had asked.
Rockwell said the evaluation form did not include several of the board’s priorities, including rezoning and strategic planning; in her evaluation, Rockwell wrote that she was unable to get data for some of the priority areas. She wrote, “Given that these are targets set by the Superintendent, it is shocking to me that data reports corresponding directly to these goals were not readily available to provide to board members.”
When McGraw said Rockwell was entitled to her opinion, Rockwell said it was a fact that the evaluation form never came back to the board for a vote.
After the board unanimously voted to accept the evaluations, Abbitt repeated her motion.
Abbitt: “It’s obvious from the evaluations that we need new leadership”
Abbitt said, “It’s obvious from the evaluations that we need new leadership, and there’s no reason to delay this. We need to move forward… I’m not the only board member who feels this way, and so it’s very difficult for me to understand why there’s not agreement on it.”
Certain said she would prefer to start a search instead of appointing an interim. She said she agreed with terminating Andrew but didn’t want an interim, so she didn’t second the motion: “I agree we do need new leadership. I think we stay this until we can get a search, and that is if he’s willing to stay.”
McNealy said it was obvious from the evaluations that there were “many, many miscues based on the Superintedent, staff, and other persons involved”; she agreed to second Abbitt’s motion “for the mere fact that I don’t see things moving forward.”
McGraw: “The data doesn’t lie… Things are finally happening.”
McGraw said to McNealy, “I hear you and I feel you… but what is going to be done for the children?… When you are critical and you criticize over and over again… Are we going to get anything done for children? That’s why we can never get anything done for children because of who likes who or because you don’t agree on one issue. And I’m tired of people saying because I speak up, and as an African American female, I’m a bully because I respond… I’m not afraid to have tough conversations… But when somebody – look at the data, folks, if you look for the last eight years, our achievement gap has not moved. And finally – the data doesn’t lie – finally, when you’re getting that gap closed, and we talk about this between African American children and Caucasian children, kids with disabilities, things are finally happening.”
In his analysis of the 2023-24 data, Len Cabrera wrote, “The gaps are essentially unchanged. The slight improvement (reduction in the gap) from 2022-23 to 2023-24 did not come from raising the performance of black students. The ELA gap was 41.5% in 2023-24, down from the 45.0% average gap between 2014-15 and 2018-19. However, black students held steady, right around 28% performing at grade level. The 3.5 percentage point drop in the performance gap resulted from white student performance falling from 73.2% prior to the Equity Plan to 69.6% in 2023-24. The math result is worse because performance for both student groups got worse (2.8 percentage points lower for whites and 1.1 percentage points lower for blacks).”
McGraw asked, “Would you want your spouse, your husband, your brother… to have to sit in his seat and be scrutinized every day? And sometimes you finally say it ain’t worth it… But your data – I will lay my life on this – your data has moved in Alachua County… Bottom line, if a person doesn’t like you, they just don’t like you, but at the end of the day, you’ve got to have a leader that cares about children, and… Mr. Andrew stood up there, he did well. Things are finally going in the right direction… Everybody has their opinion, and I have to live with that.”
Rockwell said she agreed that the district has serious problems, but she had been in favor of “keeping things stable… and potentially doing a search,” as she had promised in her campaign. Responding to McGraw, she said, “Every criticism that I have ever made has been related to the job. Nothing that I do on this dais is personal… It’s not about who I like or who I don’t like… I am doing this for our children… I don’t believe it’s personal for any of us.”
After a recess, Abbitt amended her motion to say the termination would be “without cause,” and McNealy agreed, as the seconder.
After public comment, the board voted 3-2 to fire Andrew, with Certain and Rockwell voting against the motion to fire him. McGraw was the last to vote and cast the deciding “yes” vote.
The special meeting was tentatively scheduled for 6:00 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 21.
Well here we go. The circus will be looking for a new Ringmaster.
And remember to vote NO on extending the one mill property tax. These clowns don’t need more money.
I will not vote to give this Board a penny more. I think we may need single member districts for school board as well.
You might be hearing concerns about One Mill after last night’s School Board decision to dismiss the Superintendent.
The ballot language requires that One Mill revenues be spent exactly as indicated on the ballot. It also requires the use of an oversight committee to make sure that’s happening. More information about the oversight committee are included in the minutes from past school board meetings.
You can’t be that naive. Tax money is NEVER spent in Gainesville/AC exactly as indicated. It will go into the same slush fund used to buy liberal votes. Take a drive down N.W. 98th st. and see how our gas taxes are abused.
That oversight committee is selected in large part by the superintendent. Thus how truly accountable is it? Much of the data in the reports at present is inaccurate – neither Williams nor Archer are gifted magnets yet are still referred to as if they are. The magnet programs – which are an area where funds are supposed to allocated – are being diluted in rigor and then subjected to lottery admission vs the most qualified applicants being accepted first. This is resulting in families withdrawing from the public school system to exit a system where there is little reward for working hard for positive academic outcomes since your chances for magnet program admissions is the same as students who can eke out a B. The oversight committee needs to provide real data to the public as to what is happening with the tax money raised and whether it’s being used to actually improve the quality of education in the county.
Another one bites the dust…..
I think the SBAC and UF are running a contest to see who can have the most “leaders” still on payroll after they’ve been fired.
Of course they fired the Superintendent. They can’t admit that they are the problem.
AMEN, but please keep the 1 mill for the kids’ sake.
Sorry….I’m voting NO on the one mill extension. The more $$$ you give liberals the more they spend and waste. We pay more than enough through our property taxes for the results they produce (reading at a third grade level in HS?)
You might be hearing concerns about One Mill after last night’s School Board decision to dismiss the Superintendent.
The ballot language requires that One Mill revenues be spent exactly as indicated on the ballot. It also requires the use of an oversight committee to make sure that’s happening. More information about the oversight committee are included in the minutes from past school board meetings.
What’s concerning is people like yourself, who despite the school board’s continued incompetence, continue to support one mil.
Exactly! It seems public school faculty and staff are about the only ones trying to justify more taxes for schools.
IT’S NOT THE MONEY!!!
They currently can’t get it together with a $600,000,000 budget for 29,000 students! But somehow a few million more will fix it? Get the hell outta here
When you keep replacing the superintendent as often as these clowns do, maybe looking in the mirror might be in order.
It might be wise to implement a requirement for a super-majority vote for hiring or dismissing a superintendent in the future. The board doesn’t take these decisions seriously.
Why would any competent administrator apply to be the superintendent in Alachua County? The board is a hot mess and it is reflected in the education of the students. The board talks about being for the students but they aren’t.
LOL…hats off to Abbitt, McGraw and McNealy. Well done ladies! Y’all made the best of a bad situation for Super Andrew and for the district. Now he goes out in a relatively good position instead of as a lameduck while they conduct their ridiculous national search.
This board would not support the best superintendent in many years, Karen Clarke. She was an experienced insider who led competently without drama. Now, after seeing how short the tenure of Alachua supers, it will take a brave person to attempt this task of bringing up the lowest quartile in a district that focuses more on equity than on excellence.
I’m sure they’ll fill it with some “do boy or girl.”
I also think stupidity and naivety will play a larger role than bravery.
I still remember how the suggestions from parents were neglected and the magnet programs were destroyed. Please make sure the voice from parents and kids are listened and don’t make moves with ego and stupidity. Thanks for making this right move ladies!
So much talk about blacks education at school.
But no super hire will Change the way these kids are prepared at home to be ready for school.
Maybe the “blacks” as they put it, have consistently under performed across the nation maybe that’s something the school board should look into. Maybe idk…. Follow the parenting of the Asian minority kids… Because for some odd reason…. They are very high educationally…. But also very low statistically in crime. I wonder if there is a correlation🤭
I don’t think it’s a race thing, but I agree that it’s a parenting thing. As an ACPS educator for six years, the parents make the difference.
These heifers think that firing a superintendent every other year will provide a smokescreen for their own failures and lack of leadership.
Nothing positive will ever happen in our school system when we have such bigoted people on the school board. You have Tina Certain and her obvious inferiority complex on display at every meeting. Instead of playing Race War and worrying about “achievement gaps” between races, why don’t you focus on getting all kids up to the same state standard?
And I mean all kids, not just the 0.01% of kids who don’t know what bathroom to use because of how their creepy parents raised them–the only kids that Sarah Rockwell seems to care about. Rockwell is the last person on earth who should be saying someone’s work performance “needs improvement”, when all she has ever done is screech nonstop about toilets and gay pride proclamations at every meeting.
McGraw:
“I’m not afraid to have tough conversations” either!
“it takes a village to raise a child” ain’t working out, so let’s get another superintendent!
Doing the same thing over and over again looking for different results is the very definition of insanity.
They all need to be wearing coordinating face diapers like
“Cousin It”.
Oink Oink 🐖 , 🎶 hey, teachers!, leave them kids alone🎶 🐽😷
Yes, single member districts is what we need.
These ladies are not held to accountability but request accountability from everyone. This the worst board ever. Certain is only here to help kids that look like her.
Rockwell is only interested in forcing mask mandates.
Mcgraw, she’s pretty common sense.
Mcnealy needs to retire because she is no longer helping children to stay on this board.
Abbit is really just a disappointment. Our children are illiterate in this county. Truancy is joke. Parents are not held accountable to their children’s success but they don’t talk about that at board meetings. Once the gavel drops the knives come out and drama ensues. The real issues get papered over.
Single member districts is the only answer to make elected officials subservient to the constituents expectations. Each board member should give a self assement, I’d like to know how far they have their heads stuck up their asses because they certainly can’t hear what the voters are saying. The key to great children is consistency, this board knows nothing of it because they change things every single week. My grandson is struggling because they don’t prioritize children.
The statistics show a continuation of the failed school boards agenda. They should submit their resignations as well. Do not give them more money to waste. A true complete overhaul of this structure maybe in the future. Can’t wait to see who these failures throw in as interim superintendent. I have this bunch grading out as an F minus.
I hear a bus loading in Alaska! National search over! The SBAC sweetheart is on her way! Someone tell the media she will do interviews again soon!
Sincere question: what are the qualifications of the board members? Do they all have college degrees? In what fields? Do any of them have any business experience in hiring senior level executives? My questions are not rhetorical. I’m new to the area and genuinely curious.
The main qualification for 3 or 4 of the seats is Leftist world view. That’s it.
The school board is elected in Alachua County. No qualifications needed.
If the parents paid for their children’s education instead of the property tax payers, we definitely would have better results.
Parents: don’t breed em if you can’t educate and feed em!
personal responsibility….it works!
Same circus, different clowns…can’t wait to get out of this county.
Don’t be surprised if this “national search” is just a smokescreen to bring back Carly Simon so that she may continue the current trend of reducing the performance gap between the children by further reducing the performance of white children until all the children are as dumb as rocks.
Please don’t even entertain this as a joke. Under her there were more high-paying unnecessary positions. Loyal, effective people were fired. No more third world style personality cult leaders, please.
How is the superintendent supposed to raise the scores of these students?? Many of these kids don’t have a chance. No father figure, rap music blaring in the home, fighting, cursing, yelling. But Diyooooone says: We need change
Who on planet earth would want to come to Alachua or Gainesville? The elected leadership between these places is a joke! How many superintendents and city managers have we had? And I’m not saying they’ve all been good because we all remember the fiascos over the years but at the core of the dysfunction has been the elected folks who make these decisions. THEY are the problem.
It should be noted that Kay Abbitt, the conservative on the board, made the motion, and his other supporters passed this measure. His two biggest critics voted no. Interesting.
In addition to being a feckless incompetent leader Shame Andrew is also a repulsive human being masquerading as wholesome Christian. During his time as Superintendent, he has managed to aggressive run off quality leaders by creating a hostile work environment and replace them with unqualified people as clueless as himself, that nobody respects. The strength of the district is, and will always be, the teachers and school leaders who improve the educational outcomes of our children. While Shame has earned his dismissal many times over, the fact that a lame duck Diyawn McGraw who rated him as effective was in fact the deciding vote, really illustrates the dysfunction of this elected board.
McGraw who was rightly bounced out of office should have NO SAY in an interim Superintendent.
He should have cut more positions
Between the minutes of the school board, the city commission, and the county commission, it’s hard to say which is most depressing. Our tax dollars might as well be sent directly to an incinerator.
They already have that covered…that’s what the biomass plant is for.
Poor ACSB, they have their problems but I know they’re trying to make the best of a bad situation.
Here’s why I say that.
First and foremost, as the county commission goes, so go the school board; that’s universal.
Since the school board is expected to produce an acceptable product year over year, they are unfairly held to a higher standard than other government agencies. One must take into account that SBAC’s performance can be negatively impacted by other agencies like county planners and growth management.
SBAC in noway have total control of their own destiny, and they have to deal with the fallout from bad policies of others.
BoCC social engineering is the causal nexus between inefficient utilization of resources, preparedness, and outcomes. Therefore chaos at ACSB is inevitable.
The playing field is nowhere close to level for east-west students and ACSB is expected to succeed playing by those ground rules.
We need two separate but equal school boards to reflect the unbalanced east-west policies of the BoCC. Otherwise, the ACSB will not be able to hire enough superintendents, nor supply them with enough shovels and brooms to clean up behind the BoCC government elephant.
I’ve lost count of how many interim/actual superintendents this board has dismissed. They’re either selecting the wrong people or doing a terrible job managing them.
It’s a good thing that the corrupt Diyonne McGraw is finally on her way out. I guess she’s reached the end of her successful grifting in this particular spot but I’ve no doubt she’ll turn up on a ballot somewhere soon. If she and her family can’t belly-up to the public trough, they won’t be able to eat. (Relevant link below)
https://alachuachronicle.com/looking-into-alleged-school-board-policy-violations-controversy-over-club-gain-dominates-school-board-meeting/
Some of these comments make me feel ill. You are not voting to give the board more money with one mill- you are voting to keep schools funded. There is a national teacher shortage and taking away school funding is only going to grow that gap.
The amount of grown adults name calling in these comments is absurd. Be better, our kids are watching! If you want change- run for the board, volunteer in classrooms, support your child’s learning at home, substitute teach, but sitting behind a key board and “venting” your frustration accomplishes absolutely nothing.
The actual problem is performance. Parents are taking the vouchers and going to schools where their kids are educated, not indoctrinated.
No, no more $$$ for ACSB until they focus on education – reading, writing, STEM, civics. Nothing else.
So my school property tax is of no consideration for the ACS existing? I’m calling BS. Y’all need a rude awakening like Gainesville/Wokesville just received. Enough of your indoctrination and political agenda.
You might be hearing concerns about One Mill after last night’s School Board decision to dismiss the Superintendent.
The ballot language requires that One Mill revenues be spent exactly as indicated on the ballot. It also requires the use of an oversight committee to make sure that’s happening. More information about the oversight committee are included in the minutes from past school board meetings.
One Mill supports 352 teaching and staff positions at ALL Alachua County public schools. Without this funding, these positions – and the programs they support – are at risk of going away. The funds go directly to the schools. The School Board doesn’t decide how they are spent. Regardless of how you feel about the School Board, supporting One Mill directly supports students and schools.
The actual problem is performance. Parents are taking the vouchers and going to schools where their kids are educated, not indoctrinated.
No, no more $$$ for ACSB until they focus on education – reading, writing, STEM, civics. Nothing else.
A religious private school isn’t indoctrination?
It’s indoctrination into the parents’ values, not the teachers’ union’s values. Big difference.
And TruthBTold is probably talking about the Frazer School, which is not a religious school but is highly academically rigorous.
If you want to see CONservative indoctrination, wait and see how they run the new charter school Newberry is stealing from Alachua County.
The students may not learn reading and writing, but they will for certain be forced to hate 1950’s Soviet Union style Communism, and they will be experts at worshiping the moldy corpse of Brother John Birch.
There will also be excommunication and banishment for anyone who does not worship the blonde hair blue eyed white surfer dude Jesus who hates gays, liberals, and Democrats.
To “Wait and See”: the beautiful thing about the Newberry Charter initiative is that unlike “1950’s Soviet Union style Communism,” the government won’t force you to participate and you are free to leave if you think your *yet to be conceived children* will be “forced to hate” your precious communism.
Travis are you on one of your weird rants ?
If they want me to vote for a 1 mil TAX, they have one thing to do FIRST. Abolish the DEI office, fire ALL persons with DEI in their job title or job descriptions, and pass rules that the district will not be run with DEI ‘virtues’ as their major or minor focus.
Short of that, I vote NO on all taxes. They have enough money to accomplish their goals if they quit this BS wokeness called “DEI.”
I’ll add, no more $$$ for ACSB until they focus on education – reading, writing, STEM, civics. Nothing else.
Please don’t underestimate art, music and PE.
Ann Johnson in here acting like a broken record.
Im voting NO on the 1 mil. Its obvious that throwing money at issues in this county (and others) does not increase results.
Give the teachers some raises out of the budget and use whats left over to fund the schools and some programs.
This counties taxes are already high enough.
Cappy: agreed…She’s a lefty commie who prolly wears a face diaper and wants the kids in classrooms wear them too.. no new taxes! 😷🐽‼️
When Mcgraw is replaced, can Wu ask for a re-vote?
There are people on this forum blowing off steam who are not aware of the facts about the One Mill. There are a number of on here who do a great job of explaining it. The One Mill and the dysfunctional Board don’t have any connection to one another. Please don’t penalize the staff and students by voting down the One Mill. Those of us in the schools have enough problems as it is. Thanks! Veteran Teacher.
So one thing to know. Alachua doesn’t actually have interim superintendents. There is only contracts for superintendents, no matter how short the time span may be… 1 year, 6 months, etc. The question should be… Why can’t the current deputy super fill in the role while the board finds a new super… Look at the dates of everything… Andrews is out right after the election, so like 2 days after, the replacement is made… No way that the new member could be a part of that process.. There is very little transparency if a replacement is made so quickly… My guess is that someone gets promoted to the position from the inside (hopefully they are qualified) and then given a contract for at least a year…?
Also, with Andrews being dismissed without cause, doesn’t he get paid for the remainder of his contract? Why not let him keep working until the search is completed and then cut him loose.. Is he that much of a detriment that he needs to be dismissed immediately?
So much waste from ACSB, seems like a very reactionary board that doesn’t consider long term repercussions. Also, is it even possible to consider the effect of someone who was in charge for such a short period of time. If I recall, research shows that the impact of a leader in business and education can only truly be measured after a minimum of 2 years, as their polices/plan can not be implemented overnight…
Strange times…
I agree with much of your comment but the fact that he allowed that ridiculous strategic plan to be presented to the board is reason enough for termination. It was a joke. A slap in the face to the board and to the citizens. Any board would fire the top executive after a strategic plan like that was presented. Nothing has changed since he came in and his forward looking plan was non-existent. There was nothing strategic about it. It wasn’t even a plan. To his credit, the board is even worse, much, much worse. God help the kids!
Good point.
LOL….waste created because they have to pay out his contract? How about the waste of a new classroom building at an underenrolled school in a negative growth area?
How about all the layers of management at district? Three “turnaroud principals?” How about keeping e-school open when not all b&m classrooms have certified teachers? The state has a virtual option, why do we need our own?
Here’s the biggest waste: that the district has left tens of millions of dollars on the table by refusing to request impact fees for schools. Then y’all complain when people utilize the vouchers. I don’t even want to use the vouchers but when ACPS zones my daughter to an elementary school 30 min away instead of the better one 5 min away, what choice do I have?
Andrew needed to go Better to cut him loose and promote someone to interim.
How about fire Certain? All they want is people like themselves to help their people and no one else.
Sad place. Keep it real. Lairs and dishonesty has taken this country and this town to levels never seen before. The reality is people feed off untruths. GOD divide is divine. Be real it may save your life.
Vote NO on the 1 mil unless the entire (current) SBAC resigns!
They have spent the past 4 years pretending (past non partisan Republican members included) to work issues, only to identify a NEW, MORE IMPORTANT, ISSUE, each meeting! Send them all home and take their ridiculous discipline plan, DEI focus, and all their other plans which don’t focus on our students safety and basic education, with them! No qualified senior educator will accept the Superintendent position, except for the previously banished Carlee Simon, who has been undermining the ACPS education effort since she was fired and went to AK (sorry Alaska!), to qualify her leadership experience!
Go home and stay home, all five SBAC Members! Do the students a favor an RESIGN!
Correction to “an RESIGN”: and RESIGN!
This is a very dysfunctional failed ACSB. I feel so saddened for the students that suffer educational demise under this bizarre corrupt group that could soon be removed by the Governor. ALL OF THEM!!!
Also the appointed ESE Director, Kathy Black, Chief of Equity, Antwanique Edwards, All appointed supervisors, Dr.Toni Griffin, Coi Owens, Kelly Brill-Jones, Laura Schwartz needs to be factchecked to attest the truth and validity of their licensing and certifications, a audit needs to take place with conducting an official financial examination of each individual accounts, they all need to be completely investigated and immediately terminated.