School board welcomes new Superintendent, changes job titles, votes to keep challenged books

BY JENNIFER CABRERA

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – At their December 2 meeting, the School Board of Alachua County postponed a budget amendment and three employee cases to next week’s meeting, changed five administrative job descriptions and titles, and voted to retain four library books that were either challenged or re-evaluated.

First meeting for Superintendent Kamela Patton and first full meeting for Member Thomas Vu

New Superintendent Kamela Patton said she was very honored to work in Alachua County: “It’s just a phenomenal county that’s filled with phenomenal students, parents, teachers, administrators, and community members.” She welcomed Member Thomas Vu to his first full meeting and congratulated Sarah Rockwell on becoming the Chair.

Patton praised the Stephen Foster Elementary Chorus students who performed at the beginning of the meeting and also the artwork that was displayed around the room: “If you don’t know, our brain is kind of like – the side that has logic and analyzing is the heavy end of what we do in public school, but the other side is our creativity and our emotions. So when we make sure kids have fine arts, then they’re using their whole brain… So I’m really proud to work now here in Alachua with people that recognize – let’s use the whole brain of our kids.”

Employee cases

The board took up four employee cases, which are never discussed in detail. The recommendation on the first one was to suspend the employee without pay pending termination proceedings. Member Kay Abbitt made a motion to accept the recommendation, and Member Leanetta McNealy seconded it. 

Vu said he hadn’t seen the investigative report on the case, just the recommendation: “I just feel like I don’t have any details on the case.” Deputy Superintendent Cathy Atria told him the investigative report was available to him, as a school board member, and he thanked her. The motion passed 5-0, with Member Tina Certain participating via Zoom throughout the meeting.

The second case recommended termination of an employee, and Certain made a motion to accept the recommendation; several board members indicated they had questions, but nobody seconded the motion until Board Attorney David Delaney said the motion needed a second before they could discuss the case. McNealy seconded it “so I can ask my question.”

McNealy said, “It appears to me that this employee is asking for some other consideration. I don’t know if there are some legal ramifications.” Atria said she was “not familiar with any legal ramifications, nor am I familiar with any further requests by the employee. The deadline to appeal the decision has passed.”

Vu was again concerned that he didn’t have all the information he needed to make a decision: “Again, we’re asking to rule on somebody’s employment, but I don’t feel like I’m being given the facts of the case to really do that, especially being given a glowing recommendation for the Director job that he did not get from his previous supervisor, Dr. Rawls. I’m just hesitant to terminate somebody until I have all the facts.”

Patton said that in the future, she would make sure everyone has investigation reports well before the meeting when they’re supposed to make a decision, “hopefully two weeks in advance.”

Abbitt suggested postponing the employee cases to next Tuesday’s meeting: “Mr. Vu has said twice that he doesn’t feel… comfortable enough to vote. I’m not sure about this one, either.”

Patton agreed to move the remaining three cases to next Tuesday’s meeting, and the board voted unanimously to do that.

Administrative job descriptions and titles

The board took up five proposed changes to job descriptions and titles for administrators.

The Chief of Equity, Inclusion and Community Engagement position, currently held by Anntwanique Edwards, is being renamed to Assistant Superintendent for Student Support Services. The new job description removes references to “cultural diversity, inclusion, affirmative action, and equity” and replaces them with knowledge about “areas of prevention and intervention support to increase student achievement and personal development.” A phrase about knowledge of laws and regulations about “educational equity” has been changed to knowledge about “eliminating educational barriers.” 

Responsibilities for the District Equity Plan were removed from the job description, but an existing responsibility to “Keep up to date on relevant best practices and current research in educational equity” was retained. A new responsibility to “Compile, maintain and file the District’s Equity Report” to the Florida Department of Education was added, and “Monitor the results of efforts to reduce disproportionality” was retained. 

A responsibility to provide training to staff “to identify and solve problems on educational equity, to ensure non-discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, gender, disability, or marital status” replaces a previous responsibility to provide training “to identify and solve problems on cultural competency, gender differences, disability, sexual harassment, and other topics to increase awareness and support of equity and inclusion values in all aspects.”

Several responsibilities relating to community engagement were deleted, including developing communication strategies, facilitating communication between the district and stakeholders, advising district leadership on media relations, coordinating crisis communication, directing special events to promote the district’s goals, facilitating the district’s visibility on social media, and coordinating employee recognition programs.

The titles of four other positions were changed, but there were no changes to these job descriptions:

• Chief of Finance to Assistant Superintendent for Finance;
• Chief of Operations to Assistant Superintendent for Operations;
• Chief of Teaching and Learning to Assistant Superintendent for Teaching and Learning;
• Staff Attorney to General Counsel.

The changes to job descriptions can be found here.

Abbitt made a motion to approve the changes on second reading, and McNealy seconded it.

Vu said a lot of the deletions in the job description for the Assistant Superintendent for Support Services had to do with “community engagement, communications, communication with community groups, coordination with volunteer programs, other community programs. I’m just curious where these duties are expected to fall.”

Atria said it would depend on “the content of the communication… If it’s something related to community involvement, it will likely fall onto the shoulders of the [Public Information Officer]… If we’re talking about communication related to things involving teaching and learning, that communication would fall on the [Assistant Superintendent for Teaching and Learning] and the staff that falls under that department. If it’s things like communication related to zoning, it would still fall under [the Assistant Superintendent for Support Services].”

Vu concluded, “It sounds like [communication strategy] will be shifted up to the higher leadership levels, aka you (Atria) or Dr. Patton… instead of being under one role like this, yes?” Patton nodded her head in agreement.

Rockwell asked Patton whether she had reviewed the changes, since she just joined the district, and Patton answered that she had gone through them and asked some questions, and “I think they’re right.”

Rockwell also asked who would be the point person for crisis communication with district school staff, law enforcement, and other relevant agencies: “That’s been, in the past, a little bit of an issue with kind of late decision-making about storm closures and things like that.”

Patton said that would be the responsibility of the Superintendent.

The motion passed, 5-0. 

Book challenges and re-evaluations

The board then took up two book challenges, voting unanimously to keep “Lucky” by Alice Sebold in the Buchholz and Gainesville High School libraries and “Burned” by Ellen Hopkins in the Eastside and Gainesville High School libraries. 

Regarding Lucky, former Staff Attorney Susan Seigle said, “I do not disagree with [the challenger’s] statement that the first chapter was horrific. However, that was the point of the first chapter of this book. The first chapter was a description of an actual violent attack and forcible rape. That was a true story. It was suffered by the author of the book when she was a freshman at college many, many years ago. It may be sexually explicit, but it is not pornographic. And the reason for that is, the dictionary definition of pornography is “sexually explicit material, the purpose of which is to elicit sexual excitement.” That was not the purpose of the first chapter of this book. The first chapter, the purpose was to horrify and shock that this could have happened in real life to a young woman of 18 or 19 years old… One of the reviewers described it as the story of the author’s fierce determination to wrest her life back from the rapist. It goes through the reactions of her family and friends, her dealing with the legal system, how she turned to drugs and alcohol to cope, and how she was strong enough to finally wrest back her life and live again as a successful adult. It’s specifically important for high school students to be able to read and understand this. The author was just one year out of high school when this rape occurred. Indeed, in Florida, 12% of girls in grades nine through 12 have been sexually assaulted. This book serves as a means of healing and empowerment for the victims, therapeutic to those who have experienced sexual trauma and to those men whose wives, girlfriends, mothers, sisters, daughters have been forcibly attacked.” Seigle said the book has been removed from the shelf in 17 Florida counties and restricted in two more counties, “but interestingly, the objections to those books were overruled in two other counties… Santa Rosa and Indian River, two of the more conservative counties in the state.”

Vu made the motion to keep the book, McNealy seconded it, and the vote to keep it was unanimous. Vu also made the motion to keep “Burned,” Certain seconded it, and the vote to keep it was unanimous.

District Media Specialist Patty Duval presented the final two books, which were re-evaluated this fall; the previous two books were presented by Seigle because they were challenged last year, when she was Staff Attorney. 

“Empire of Storms” by Sara Maas was re-evaluated in response to a citizen’s request, and the District Library Advisory Council (DLAC) recommended retaining it for students in grades 9-12. Certain made the motion to retain it, Abbitt seconded it, and the vote was unanimous.

“FADE” by Lisa McMann was also re-evaluated after a citizen request, and the DLAC recommended retaining it for students in grades 9-12. 

After Certain made a motion to retain “FADE” and Vu seconded the motion, Rockwell said, “I just want to say that I read ‘FADE,’ and it was an excellent book, so much so that I immediately purchased and read the sequels.” Duval responded, “So did I.” The motion passed, 5-0. 

Budget amendments

Several budget amendments were removed from the consent agenda at Certain’s request. The first one passed 4-1, with Certain in dissent. However, after Certain asked a specific question about the Capital Outlay budget amendment, Budget Director Deborah Parrish acknowledged that the revised budget referenced in the budget amendment was incorrect: “It looks like somehow the formula got messed up or was typed in from the month before.”

Vu made a motion for staff to correct the budget amendment and bring it back on December 10, with a second by Abbitt. The motion passed, 5-0. 

Certain also opposed the Special Revenue budget amendment and the October 2024 monthly financial statements, but they were approved, 4-1. 

Next meeting

The board originally did not plan to have a second meeting in December, but at their November 19 meeting, they scheduled an additional meeting for 6 p.m. on December 10.