School Board votes down year-round schooling at Rawlings Elementary before first year is complete, Plavac sworn in, teachers to vote on 1.3% raise
BY JENNIFER CABRERA
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – At their April 15 meeting, the School Board of Alachua County welcomed new Member Janine Plavac and voted to discontinue the year-round pilot program at Rawlings Elementary. During public input, they heard from members of the public who want the district to change their guidance on interactions with ICE; a music teacher whose position has been cut to half-time; and the teachers’ union president, who said teachers will vote next week on a contract with a 1.3% raise, lower than the 1.6% they previously rejected.
Janine Plavac joins the board
The meeting began with the introduction of new Member Janine Plavac. Chair Sarah Rockwell said she was “thrilled to welcome” Plavac because of her “many years of experience and a wealth of knowledge.”
Plavac said she will continue teaching at St. Francis Catholic Academy, where she is the Director of the Health Sciences Institute, and added, “I tell my students all the time: education is a gift that we give our children, and so it’s our obligation to make sure they get the best education, and I’m here to help that.”
Member Thomas Vu, who worked with Plavac at Gainesville High School, said, “One thing I always admired about Ms. Plavac was how she always had really high standards for students, high standards for the people around her, her co-workers, but also for herself… It’s just something that I found a lot of affinity with. And so I’m just really happy to be sitting here on this dais and to see the fifth member now who’s joined us.”
Public input
During the public input period, 15 people asked the board to change their guidance on interactions with ICE, which can be found here.
Reassignment of art, music, and PE teachers
Stefie Pishock, the music teacher at Shell Elementary, said she had just been told that she could either stay at Shell with a half-time position or take a full-time position somewhere else. She asked, “The One Mill… is supposed to fund… music, art, and media, and yet this is not happening now at our schools. Where is it going if not funding my job??
Alachua Chronicle reached out to Alachua County Public Schools PIO Jackie Johnson, who said that as of today, ten teachers across the district will have changes in their assignments for the next school year. All have been offered full-time positions. Nine have accepted, and one is still deciding.
Four music teachers have been reassigned: the Shell music teacher will move to full-time at Irby, the Wiles teacher will become full-time at Lanier, and the Lake Forest teacher will be half-time at Lake Forest and half-time at Shell. The music teacher who was half-time at Meadowbrook and half-time at Chiles will still be half-time at Meadowbrook, but the other half will be at Wiles.
Three art teachers have been reassigned: the teacher at Shell will move to full-time at Williams, and the Lake Forest teacher will teach art half-time at Lake Forest and be a media specialist at Lake Forest in her remaining time. (The media position at Lake Forest will still be full-time, with another teacher currently at the school filling the other hours.) The art teacher who was half-time at Meadowbrook and half-time at Chiles will still be half-time at Meadowbrook, with the other half at Shell.
Three PE teachers have been reassigned: the teacher who was half-time at Meadowbrook and half-time at Chiles will now be full-time at Meadowbrook, the Shell teacher will move to full-time at Williams, and the Lake Forest teacher will move to full-time at Norton.
Johnson added, “Every year, the district reviews projected enrollment at each school. Positions are then allocated at each school based on those figures. It is certainly not unusual for teachers or other employees to be moved to another site based on changes in the student population. One Mill funds can ONLY be used on items specified in the ballot language. Any reductions in One Mill expenditures must be reallocated to other items in the ballot language, which include ‘school nurses; music, art and drama programs; school library programs; school counseling programs; band and chorus programs; academic magnets; career technical programs; and to update classroom technology.'”
Stadiums and a proposed contract for teachers
Jenn Garrett asked the board to consider a public-private partnership to build stadiums at Buchholz and Eastside High Schools, with the district providing some funding and the rest coming from private donations. She said several donors had already approached her about making large donations.
Alachua County Education Association President Carmen Ward said the union and the district were “finally done with the most excruciating bargaining season we’ve ever had, with the worst offer,” and teachers will be voting on April 23 to ratify a raise of 1.3%, lower than the 1.6% that was previously rejected.
A junior in the Academy of Future Teachers at Gainesville High School said Alachua County Public Schools has “little respect for teachers… They’re short of supplies, have too many students per classroom, deal with extreme out of line behavior, or can work all weekend because their planning time is taken up with meetings – and so many more issues that you can think of, and yet you pay teachers so low… You must start paying more to the instructional staff, like other counties do in Florida. You must also keep ICE out of schools.”
Year-round calendar at Rawlings
An agenda item to approve the proposed 2025-26 Rawlings Elementary year-round calendar led to a robust discussion. Rawlings is finishing the first year of a four-year, state-approved pilot for a year-round program, with the goal of providing more consistent year-round academic support for the students. The students still attend school for 180 days a year, but the calendar is spread over an 11-month period with intersessions to provide short breaks. Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum Jacquatte Rolle told the board that although it is a four-year pilot, the district is not obligated to continue implementing the year-round model.
School Improvement Principal Jim Kuhn gave a lengthy data presentation (click here to see the full presentation) that showed enrollment decreasing about 20% since the 2023-24 school year. The attendance rate has improved slightly over the previous year, but attendance drops noticeably on days when Rawlings is in session but the traditional schools have holidays or teacher workdays.
A survey of families and staff this spring resulted in mixed responses to the question of whether respondents would recommend the year-round model.
Notably, 75% of teachers supported the year-round model; Kuhn said 44% of the teachers are new, and “this is all they know.” 50% of families said the year-round schedule has made it more difficult to schedule their family’s routine, and 39% said the year-round calendar has impacted childcare arrangements negatively.
Motion
After the presentation, Member Tina Certain made a motion to discontinue the year-round calendar, and Vu seconded it.
“You’re misinterpreting what you’re hearing”
During public comment on the motion, Taylor Gilfillan said it would have been nice to have the presentation available before the meeting so he could have come prepared with questions, and a woman said, “I know the research on the year-round calendar, and I know you know it, too. This is good for, especially, low-income kids. It reduces achievement gaps. It helps people. The stats that were just presented showed that it’s overall helping the school. It’s helping the achievement of the school. The parents don’t all love it, no, and a lot of that is because of the inconvenience of the fact that the whole district doesn’t do it. So I’m frankly really shocked that, following the presentation that we just had, we had a motion to discontinue this and a second from the school board. The stats are positive… You’re misinterpreting what you’re hearing.”
Vu said if Certain hadn’t made the motion to discontinue the calendar, he would have. He cited the drop in enrollment and the need for daycare on days when some kids in a family are in school and some kids are not. He said students who need year-round academic support can attend summer school. He concluded, “I honestly don’t see the value in it.”
Plavac: “We set these kids up for failure because 44% of the teachers at that school are new, brand new.”
Plavac said, “I don’t know why we did this or why it happened, but in a way, we set these kids up for failure because 44% of the teachers at that school are new, brand new.” She said the family survey showed that fewer families want year-round schools than the families who either don’t want them or don’t care either way, “and you’ve got to have a parent engaged to be able to get a child to go to school.” She concluded, “I think we have to take teachers that are high-performing teachers and put them in low-performing schools, and that’s really a bugaboo, especially in high school, because the high-performing teachers get a financial consideration when they pass their AP testing, and that doesn’t happen in elementary schools.” She said the students might see better gains in a year-round school with “more seasoned” teachers.
McNealy: “We couldn’t even give a full year”
Member Leanetta McNealy thought the board had not given the schedule enough time: “We embarked upon this this year, and now it is April, and we are already deciding… that we need to discontinue the program, based on this survey… We couldn’t even give a full year… Yes, we lost a lot of students at this school, but we’ve lost them all over the county… We have not given enough time to make a decision at this point.”
Certain: “I don’t think enough planning and preparation was done to enter into this particular model.”
Certain said she didn’t vote for it when it was proposed because she felt the district was “rushing into it… I don’t think enough planning and preparation was done to enter into this particular model.” She pointed out that the pilot was implemented at the urging of former School Board Member Kay Abbitt. She agreed with Pavlac that “we have too many new teachers in our hardest environments, and we have too much change in administrative staff in our hardest environments.”
Rockwell: “What I’m seeing is – we’re scrambling to try to fit a mold from the state of Florida that is not having a huge benefit but is taking a huge amount of staff work.”
Rockwell said the biggest issue to her is that “we don’t actually have a year-round school here.” She said a true year-round calendar would have breaks of two to three weeks to prevent learning loss, but the schedule set up by the state has a six-week summer break. She continued, “What I’m seeing is – we’re scrambling to try to fit a mold from the state of Florida that is not having a huge benefit but is taking a huge amount of staff work.” She said she kind of wanted to give it another year and look at the data, “but at the same time, I know that we don’t have an actual year-round model here.”
McNealy said, “This isn’t the first year that Rawlings has had [so many] new teachers.” She said high-performing teachers won’t go to “a school like Rawlings… because we have a strong ACEA (teachers’ union), it seems, and people know – before coming into Alachua County, they’ve already done their research into what schools they want to [work at]… I will end this, Madam Chair, by saying we didn’t give it enough time.”
Certain: “I think if we could get all on one schedule, [we would] have a little bit more consistency.”
Certain said Superintendent Kamela Patton has a mantra about being in alignment, and “I think if we could get all on one schedule, [we would] have a little bit more consistency.” She said schools with a lot of new teachers should get “more focused support… I don’t think that is happening right now at our neediest schools… We’ve got to do better. We’re in a competitive environment where people can walk with their kids, take them someplace else… I feel sometimes the students that are neediest, and their families have the least means, they get whatever we give them, and sometimes that’s not our best. And I think that has to change.” She said that going back to a traditional calendar would be the best use of the district’s limited resources.
Patton said with the new Instructional Empowerment program, “we already have seen that difference in a short period of time.” However, she said, although the district has “a ton of coaches at Rawlings and a lot of these SI (School Improvement) schools, there is no commonality among these coaches.” She said that all the coaches will need to come to a Coaching Academy this summer “so we can get our coaches’ arrows lined up.”
Patton said the district can’t run the schools; they can only support the schools. She added that it is “shocking” to her how many schools in the district do not have common planning.
Plavac: “Is it fair to the students to keep them another year in an environment that is not successful for them now, and then they’re another two years behind when we make a change?”
Plavac referred to the 0% of fourth graders at Rawlings that are projected to be at grade level in English Language Arts and Math and said that as a high school teacher, she has students who cannot read a clock: “In nursing, you use a watch… They can’t subtract military time. Why? Because they can’t subtract… Is it fair to the students to keep them another year in an environment that is not successful for them now, and then they’re another two years behind when we make a change?” She asked Patton for her recommendation.
Patton: “It’s a tough call, either way”
Patton said the survey didn’t “say something one way or the other, definitively,” but she was concerned that Rawlings is the only school on this calendar, so “it’s a lot of energy that I think is very difficult for parents… It’s a tough call, either way… If there was something more that showed me that this has made a tremendous difference, then I think I’d be a little more supportive.” She said that providing five weeks of summer school with a traditional school year calendar is another option that provides year-round schooling.
Vote
The motion to discontinue the year-round calendar at Rawlings passed 3-2, with Plavac and McNealy in dissent. Plavac asked if she could abstain because it was her first meeting, but Rockwell said that would only be allowed for conflicts of interest, so Plavac voted no because “I’m not 100% committed to yes… I think that there’s good and bad.”
Breaking even on driver’s education
During a discussion on performance indicators for summer programs, Vu asked about driver’s education: “I know it’s not something we have to offer, and it’s something we offer at a loss.” He asked how many students are served, and Patton said 160. She reminded the board that the district increased the lab fee for that course from $100 to $200.
Vu said the district would need to charge $300 or $350 to provide the program at cost, “and so if we’re talking about what we need to cut and what’s a luxury… I’d love to hear what my colleagues have to say.”
Patton said she wasn’t sure how much it costs, but her staff is looking at it, “because it’s a luxury; it’s not our mission.”
Rockwell agreed that the district “should be looking to break even on providing something that isn’t required and isn’t academic. I mean, yes, we don’t want our students out on the road causing car accidents, but ultimately, that is not the job of the school district. It’s the job of the terrified parents.”
Summer food program and free and reduced lunch programs will not change
In response to a question from Plavac, Chief of Operations Maria Eunice said the summer food program will still be offered this year, despite changes to the U.S. Department of Education. Eunice also said the free and reduced lunch programs will continue next fall: “That’s not going to change.”
Crazy cat lady still wears a mask even while on a dais
Slice has been triggered.
At my son’s graduation last year, she wore a mask and shaked every student’s hand.
She shook hands. The word is shook, not “shaked”. Maybe you shouldn’t be criticizing the school board LOL
Slice, what does it matter to you whether or not she wears a mask?
The Mindless MAGA Masses need to stop worrying about the behavior of others that hurts no one and maybe start worrying about the things that do – like making it easy for whack jobs to get access to guns and shoot up schools.
From a personal standpoint, if someone wants to rub blue mud in the their navel and dance around, I say more power to them.
One someone elected to a leadership position engages in behavior that calls their judgment into question, people have a right to discuss it.
Sure – but she’s wearing a face mask, maybe to protect herself or someone she cares for/lives with. She’s not smoking a bong.
Funny how you people all the sudden want strangers to mind their own business! If only you and your ilk would take your advice and ACTUALLY practice it! You people vote for government scum to meddle in everyone’s lives, every 2&4 years! Libertarians and conservatives will gladly mind our own business the second you people start voting against government scum intrusion into the lives of others! Until such a time, reap what you sow!
SBAC has failed the students, parents, and teachers of AC for too many years now!
Not one of them (Ms. Plavac excluded) has a clue (or is interested in) of how to get the ACPS on track for student success! Certain, Vu, and Rockwell, are all activists for anything other than the success of the overall student population!
SBAC (minus Ms. Plavac) continues to play their dumpster fire of the week game to avoid addressing the real problems with ACPS School system: discipline, rezoning, supporting teachers to “teach” students the 4 Rs, and not have to act as babysitter, or referee by the students in school primarily for daycare services! Guess who this “underserved population” is, hint, they make up the 35% of voters in AC who do go to the polls to keep Certain, et al., in office in order to continue receiving this free daycare service paid by AC taxpayers)
They (Certain and Rockwell, and new Certain bootlicker Vu) are interested in serving their small minority, underserved, community, not the ACPS student, parent, and bill payer (the AC taxpayers)!
I would say they should be ashamed and resign, but they have no shame and are going to continue to be reelected by the 35% of AC who are active voters in order to keep the free services gravy train running!
So even when a majority are in favor of year round schooling, the SBAC goes against it and the positive effects it has had on the students. If that doesn’t sound like other Democrat/Liberal ruled government entities in Alachua County I don’t know what does.
Next meeting Tina Certain is sure to blame it on the white folks and their lack of understanding and unfair advantages over certain minority groups – specifically her group. As you have mentioned, Vu will fall in line with whatever Certain tells him to do because he’s her ‘boy,’ and isn’t capable of independent thought. Rockwell’s mask continues to restrict her oxygen intake because she still flounders for any semblance of human intelligence.
The junior at GHS had me with respect to the lack of respect for teachers shown by the school district – right up until mentioning keeping ICE out of schools. To my knowledge, ICE hasn’t been to any campus. Also to my knowledge, ICE has the authority to do what is required to enforce the proper and legal laws of the United States. If the student disagrees with that, it’s clear some of the reasons for the lack of respect for authority in this country.
Patton said, “the district can’t run the schools.”
She’s partially correct. The District shouldn’t be running the schools. Unfortunately for students, parents and teachers, they have been, and they’ve run them into the ground.
The only school board member with any brains and integrity is Plavac and she will soon find out for herself the ineptitude of the other four school board members and the staff at the county office.
If local public schools need more revenues why not issue fees, fines and surtaxes on the parents/guardians of juvenile delinquents? Much of recent history’s new expenses on schools have been to address them, failing to integrate but making excuses. Just surtax the home bound adults responsible for misbehaving pupils.
Problems will decline, then no additional programs and costs needed. Just focus on education.
@realJK: Interesting idea, but you can’t get blood from a turnip.
Jeff, the problem with your idea of penalties, is that most of those parent(s) or guardians don’t have the money to pay any penalties. Thanks to the local Democrat machine over the last 50 years, the local low income people are dependent on continuing support/welfare from local government. It would take years for that dynamic to be changed.
If ALL the delinquents’ homes are “poor” then the fees can be smaller, just enough to wake them up about their kids and home culture consequences on society. It doesn’t take a lot but could go a long way to reverse the “behavior probs”. No excuses.
Here’s something that’s taught early…
1.3% < 20%…WAY LESS. Hope all the teachers who vote have a thorough understanding of that. If you don't, it's no surprise the failings of Alachua County schools. Maybe you should choose a different profession.
1.3% Shame on you!
Don’t fall for the union begging us to vote “Yes”. A “No” vote will be the final nail in Carmen Ward’s coffin and our union will finally be forced to make a leadership change. Her ineptitude as a negotiator and union head is why we’re in this mess.
1.3% teacher raises. How much raise do the administrators get???
Maybe just try to do “normal” things, like a normal school district would do, as hard as that must sound for a bunch of circus freaks.
In other arenas, just have a normal Christmas parade and call it that. Have fireworks on Independence Day instead of NYE when most folks are out of town. Stop killing downtown with more and more stupid ideas. I saw the illegally-tinted Ambassador pickup driving down South Main today with its modified blinkers/flashers on, almost like an emergency vehicle. WTF? Downtown is starting to look like something out of a sci-fi film, like a Planet-of-the-Apes dystopian future where most of the businesses are closed and unkempt empty spaces remain – and you see brain-damaged zombies on every street corner holding signs. Did anyone see the crazy old people grinning (pretending they don’t hate themselves) and holding signs today at Depot Park? The crowd was much smaller than two weeks ago. They are a different breed of local Gainesville zombie. Having those displays makes us retarded as a city – not “special.”
New Member Janine Plavac has no business being on the school board. She was never elected. She’s a republican in a democratic majority county. When she’s up for election she’s going to lose to a Democrat. Plavac, I hope you CHOKEon the job. Enjoy it while you can because it’s only temporary. I said it before and I’ll say it again: conservatives get the hell our of our liberal county! Be gone and good riddance.
Hoyt Schmuck, there’s that liberal hate on full display mentioned.
Thanks for the confirmation.
The little Cornish hen won’t be reelected. He’s already having a nervous breakdown or something. Most of you deranged old coots will be dying off soon. Keep on holding the idiotic signs all summer long in the heat – that’s a wonderful idea.
The left wing trash in this county has been running the sbac for how long? The sbac is BROKE… much like to gru debt, left wing trash is responsible for the demise and bankruptcy of everything they touch! If only the left wing trash were the only ones forced to pay for their stupidity!
Leave AC? It is happening: One demographic is down over 1200 students since 2019. Hmmm? How much funding are they taking with them that can’t be used to support SBAC Daycare Services?
One thing is for sure, at least students (with smart parents) are leaving AC Public Schools!
Data?
Here is the link to all comments below, fact check at your leisure:
https://edudata.fldoe.org/ReportCards/Schools.html?school=0000&district=01
Graduation rate in AC Public Schools has decreased from
90.4% in 2019 to 84.1% in 2024. That is attributable to the SBAC and District Staff!
Why?
Look at discipline in ACPS! Big problem from a certain “underserved” demographic. They make up 35% of the student population, of which 64% have 1 or more “In School Suspensions”, 63% have 1 Out of School Suspensions, and 72% have More than One Out of School Suspension.
The good news is, out of this 35%, 47% have a Chronic Absenteeism problem, so at least they aren’t in school causing trouble, damage, cursing teachers and fellow students, and just being………..well, just being their parent, on a daily basis!
What has the SBAC done to combat this behavior in the past 5, 10, 15 years? Nothing!
Certain and Co. (minus Ms. Plavac) have had numerous lineup changes, along with hiring and firing so called Superintendents, but nothing changes so they can continue getting the votes from their “constituents” who benefit from the free childcare services the teachers are forced to provide for this group of ………?
The victims of all this are the students who come to school to learn, their parents who support them, and the teachers who are forced to deal with the SBAC/ACPS District created 3 Ring Circus on a daily basis, and then to be sold out by their Union Chief for a measly 1.3% Cost of Living Increase.
I’d much rather have my taxes used for a child in a private school, where they can learn, that paying for the daily feeding and supervision of the “road to jail” population.