School Board votes 3-2 to make Irby a PreK-2 school for all Alachua area students, with all students attending Mebane for third through eighth grades

BY JENNIFER CABRERA

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – At the May 5 School Board of Alachua County meeting, the board voted 3-2 to make Irby Elementary a PreK-2 school for all students in the Alachua area, with all students moving to Mebane for third through eighth grades.

Board previously favored making Irby a PreK-4 school

At an April 29 workshop, the board narrowly favored a plan in which all PreK-4 students zoned for Alachua schools would attend Irby Elementary, and all students in the 5th-8th grades would attend Mebane. The option favored by the other two board members (Option 1) was to send PreK-5 students who live south of U.S. Hwy 441 (except for Turkey Creek and nearby neighborhoods) to Irby, while all students north of 441 and in Turkey Creek would attend a PreK-8 at Mebane.

However, a presentation posted to the agenda of the May 5 meeting indicated that staff would recommend Option 1, and several people showed up during public comment to speak in favor of the plan that came out of the workshop (Option 2).

Public comment

Shay Bellamy-Fults, who works at Irby, accused staff of “skewing” numbers “yet again, to fit your narrative” and said there is no concrete way to know how many students would move into the approved developments. She asked the board to vote against Option 1.

Former Alachua City Commissioner Dayna Williams said that consolidating the Alachua schools could cause more students to move to private or charter schools and advocated for keeping Irby open.

School Board candidate Jancie Vinson said it’s “necessary and vital to have a neighborhood school,” and she supported Option 2.

Alachua County NAACP President Evelyn Foxx said the discussion has caused stress for families at Irby Elementary and Williams Elementary, and she asked the board to pause the whole rezoning effort and “rethink some of the things that we have done.”

Alachua City Commissioner Jackson Youmas spoke about Kamala Harris, “one of the most powerful black women in this country, a well-respected role model,” who has said that a rezoning when she was a child was traumatic for her. He said, “That tells you there’s… a mental health issue that is long-lasting… Let’s stop looking at models; let’s become the model. Let’s become and set the new standards.”

Staff presentation

At the May 5 meeting, Director of FTE and State Reporting Kim Neal gave a presentation, which can be viewed here, estimating that 505 students (plus 60 PreK students) would attend an Irby PreK-4, over the school’s capacity of 525. A concurrency review indicates that already-approved developments would generate an additional 240 K-4 students in the next three years, plus 60 additional PreK students.

Neal said that the PreK-4 plan for Irby would include increased traffic, and a traffic study and potential roadway improvements will be required. Adding a new building on the northeast corner of the property would eliminate a field that is currently used for physical education and play space, and there are additional layout concerns.

Neal said staff also has “substantial safety concerns” with Option 2, including limited space for evacuation and safe gathering areas.

The renovations and new building at Mebane are estimated to cost $65 million, while the new Irby building is estimated at $47 million, along with the $31 million Mebane renovation, so the PreK-4 Irby option would cost $13 million more. Also, the projected enrollment of Irby would be 865 students (including PreK), 225% larger than the current enrollment; the presentation states that this will make Irby one of the largest elementary schools in Alachua County.

After the presentation, Member Sarah Rockwell said that since it doesn’t seem viable to add a new building at Irby, she wanted to know whether it would be possible to keep Irby as a PreK-2 when the additional students from new developments are considered; Neal said Irby would have an estimated 565 students under that scenario, over the capacity of 505.

Motion

Rockwell made a motion to keep Irby as a PreK-2 for the entire Alachua zone, with students from third grade to eighth grade attending Mebane. Chair Thomas Vu said the motion “deserves a vote” and passed the gavel to second it.

Member Janine Plavac asked whether staff had considered taking away the zoning exceptions for Irby and whether that would create space for PreK-4 students; she also said Irby staff members have said that the number of estimated PreK students is unrealistically high. Neal said exceptions are not counted in attendance estimates and explained how staff came up with the PreK numbers.

Member Tina Certain said that keeping Irby as a PreK-2 does not achieve the district’s goals of tightening operations and reducing excess capacity. She thought that a K-2 would “repeat past errors” and that students benefit from being in a K-5 environment.

Member Leanetta McNealy said she still supported Option 2; she said she was “not oblivious” to staff’s concerns, but they could be overcome. She said, “If we’re going to do $78 million, then build a new school… Please do not divide Alachua community families and students into divisional pieces; they don’t deserve it… [The K-4] needs to go forward.”

Vu said that given staff’s concerns, “The juice isn’t worth the squeeze for a K-4.” He said he supported a single K-8 school because it would keep the community together, but he could be convinced to vote for a compromise, and the only option he saw was the split with all PreK-2 students at Irby.

Plavac proposed keeping all three Alachua schools open and putting money into renovating Alachua Elementary instead of into new buildings at Mebane or Irby. Vu said the status quo “is not good for kids” because splitting between K-2 and 3-5 has caused Alachua Elementary to have poor school grades; he said that splitting students between Irby and Mebane is better because it eliminates the transition between fifth and sixth grades.

Superintendent Kamela Patton said staff would prefer Option 1 so that all Alachua students would attend a K-5 or a K-8, and she said that as Alachua continues to grow, they would have to move additional grades from Irby to Mebane because the Irby site would already be crowded under the PreK-4 proposal.

Certain said she also preferred Option 1. Rockwell said that while PreK-2 is “not optimal,” she thought Option 2 would be the “most equitable” because all students have the same transition between second and third grades. Vu said he was “not happy with what is before us, but I feel like I have to find something that’s palatable.”

The motion passed 3-2, with McNealy and Plavac in dissent.