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Vu: Public service or ego service? Alachua County deserves better.

Letter to the editor

This past Tuesday, a majority of the Alachua County School Board – Diyonne McGraw, Kay Abbitt, and Leanetta McNealy – voted to terminate Superintendent Shane Andrew, effective November 15, just days before a new board is sworn in. This decision, made without public notice or input, should trouble anyone who believes in accountable, transparent governance. The people of Alachua County deserved to be heard but were left out of the process entirely.

The termination wasn’t on the agenda, depriving concerned citizens of the opportunity to comment. This isn’t governance – it’s a power grab, focused on protecting the interests of a few board members rather than what’s best for our students. When hasty decisions are made without input, it’s our students and teachers who suffer from choices clearly made with other people in mind. Our school board should be responsible stewards of public trust, making decisions transparently in the best interests of students, educators, and the community. Instead, we’re left with chaos that undermines confidence in both the board and our public schools.

If this board majority truly believed there was cause to terminate Superintendent Andrew, they should have followed an orderly and transparent process. Instead, they rushed a decision without giving the community – those most impacted – a voice. This was a decision driven by politics and pride, not what’s best for Alachua County’s students. Even though I’ve been critical of Andrew’s leadership, this isn’t how leaders should be treated, and it certainly isn’t how we should run a school district. When adopting Andrew’s contract, board members stressed the need for ninety days’ notice if he were to resign to avoid the chaos of scrambling for a replacement. Now, those same board members are inviting chaos by rushing through his termination to avoid public comment and scrutiny. Shane Andrew deserved better. Alachua County deserves better!

Public service requires sacrifice, not complaints

What’s particularly disappointing is that two board members – who voted to terminate Andrew despite giving him positive evaluations – took the opportunity to complain about the criticism and scrutiny they face, insisting that people need to be more encouraging. This is absurd. Anyone who runs for public office knows full well that scrutiny, criticism, and even attacks come with the territory. Whether fairly or unfairly, elected officials get blamed when things go wrong and rarely receive credit when things go right. That’s the reality of public service.

The same goes for someone earning a $200,000+ compensation package while leading one of the largest employers in the county. When you take on a role of that magnitude, public accountability comes with it. You’re signing up to face tough questions and criticism – it’s part of the job. Our community – students, staff, and families alike – deserves leaders who understand that.

Those who complain about how “unfair” the criticism is are acting disingenuously. These complaints are projections of pride and ego – two things that serve the individual, not the public good. Public servants must leave their egos at the door and focus on the job they were elected to do. If you can’t handle criticism, public service isn’t for you.

My approach will be different. I welcome honest, constructive feedback, even when it’s uncomfortable, because it helps me grow and serve better. I understand that many in our community feel cynical about whether their voices matter, but I’m committed to changing that. By creating spaces for genuine dialogue and making decisions that reflect community input, we can move forward together and find real solutions across our divides.

A vision for a better way forward

As I prepare to take office next month, I want to lay out a vision for a school board that serves the people of Alachua County – transparently, responsibly, and with integrity.

Accountability and transparency in governance

The board must stop delegating excessive authority to the superintendent without proper oversight. We need policies that ensure regular, public reporting on key metrics – such as student performance, teacher retention, and resource allocation – so the community can clearly track how our district is performing. Unfortunately, these basic reports are often treated as burdensome by the current district administration when they should be a cornerstone in the management of our public schools. To truly serve our students and community, the board must step up and make tough, data-driven decisions through direct votes, rather than relying on vague delegations of authority to avoid public scrutiny.

Fiscal responsibility

Alachua County taxpayers deserve more from their hard-earned dollars, especially given our district’s financial challenges. To ensure better oversight, we need to establish an independent budget review board composed of community members with diverse financial expertise. This board, with members chosen by both the school board and local city and county commissions, would provide critical oversight on budget decisions. By focusing on transparency and accountability, the board would help ensure that taxpayer money is spent wisely and, most importantly, directed toward our classrooms. Our spending decisions must reflect our core values as a community committed to quality education, and it’s time we show fiscal responsibility that prioritizes both taxpayers and teachers.

Supporting our teachers and staff

Our teachers and staff are the backbone of our schools, and they deserve consistent raises and fair treatment. We should focus on what’s important by rewarding those who have the greatest impact on our students – our educators who work with students, day in and day out. Too often, teachers and staff are left out of the decision-making process while others with little to no positive impact on our students receive pay increases behind closed doors. We must change this by prioritizing transparency in compensation and creating systems that ensure decisions about pay are made openly while allowing public input. Just as our board should be accountable to the community, so, too, should compensation decisions be accountable to the people who directly serve our students.

Public service is about doing what’s right for the people, not serving one’s ego. The events of the past week have shown us what happens when leadership is driven by personal pride instead of the needs of our community. But we can do better. Moving forward, we need leaders who prioritize stability, transparency, and responsible governance – working together to bring real solutions to Alachua County Public Schools. Our students, teachers, and community deserve nothing less. As a board and as a community, we can accomplish this through collaboration and a shared commitment to serving the public good.

Thomas Vu, Alachua County School Board Member-Elect, District 2

The opinions expressed by letter or opinion writers are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of AlachuaChronicle.com. Assertions of facts in letters are similarly the responsibility of the author. Letters may be submitted to info@alachuachronicle.com and are published at the discretion of the editor.

  • Vu: If you are going to be in office READ and Learn and Follow the Law. Know it. Quit showing your ignorance of your upcoming job.

    You cannot whine about the item not being on the agenda. The public meeting law requires the MEETING time and place to be advertised
    THERE IS NO STATUTORY REQUIREMENT FOR AN AGENDA.

    At a properly advertised meeting ANY legal business can be conducted if it only requires a motion. If it needs prior written notice to neighbors, or placards on the highway, or two weeks notice published in the newspaper, then these must be done before the meeting.

    But at any point at any legal meeting any member can move to fire the super, and a 3-2 vote passes it. Please learn the law before being sworn in.

    Would it be nice if everything was pre-advertised on an agenda? Yes. In the name of transparency, etc. Be careful instituting such a rule when you get on the board, or it may hamper the board’s working if it cannot make a legal motion at a legal meeting.

    If you doubt this, I challenge you to find the relevant Florida Statute and quote it here.

    • Hmmm. How many times have we heard EVERY elected body in Alachua County delay an action so the public could have imput. Many.

    • Did he say it was required by statute? I missed that. It seemed more like he was saying they should have allowed more public involvement. Not that it was required by law or that they violated any law not doing that, but the board represents Alachua County and a decision of this magnitude should have involved those that are truly effected by the decision.

      • Hey Me: “should” is nice but it is not a requirement, it is optional. Read Florida Statutes and notice how the lawyers in the Legislature gut nice sounding bills.
        If a law says “shall” or “must” then it must be done. If a law says “should” or “may” it is optional and can be ignored.

      • More often than not the board makes decisions about a multitude of issues without any community input and sometimes when they do get community input they ignore the voices that don’t align with their agenda.

    • What are you talking about? Nobody said anything about “statute”. Vu even said that when making decisions of these magnitudes, the board “should” be more transparent.

  • “Alachua County taxpayers deserve more from their hard-earned dollars, especially given our district’s financial challenges.”

    $600,000,000 for 29,000 students and you say the district is financially challenged? The district is top heavy and wasteful. The money is there, it’s just misspent

  • It’s probably not a good idea to lecture the board one is about to join about its faults (one needs allies to get anything done). I expect that after this he’ll get a chilly non-welcome and will be told that it’s a longstanding tradition that the newest member makes the coffee and tidies up after meetings.

    • He was really only lecturing two of the board members and he isn’t concerned with whether they will welcome him because the other two are rejoicing that he won the seat.

  • Witches coven runs our school district. If you vote for Kamala, expect the same self-defeating / blame others egoism to happen nationally, too.
    ACLUSPLCDNC 👿👹

  • “This board, with members chosen by both the school board and local city and county commissions, would provide critical oversight on budget decisions. By focusing on transparency and accountability, the board would help ensure that taxpayer money is spent wisely”

    Mr Vu, you’re thinking outside the box, and that is good. Unfortunately there’s not a brain surgeon on the planet who is capable of performing the type of lobotomy needed for this current crop of Commissioners to put them in the right mind to select the right members for such a board.

  • Since McGraw originally said Andrew was doing okay and subsequently voted to fire him, I have to think she may have been throwing a tantrum in response to losing her election. Maybe she decided to break a few things before exiting the building, exhibiting her usual classy behavior. I’m frankly surprised no one else has brought up this possibility.

    • It was a mercy firing. If you notice, he was fired without cause before the new board was installed. That means he gets all of his severance. He and McGraw routinely covered each other’s backs to get anything done, this was another because she rated him “Effective” the very same night.

      • Your view is quite interesting. So, McGraw and the Superintendent working together to get things done was a bad thing? What nefarious things did they do?
        I guess having a Certain board member who won’t even meet with or speak to the Superintendent is the way a board member should conduct themselves. And to think that the two who gave him poor evaluations voted to keep him

  • Vu has been talking about a national search…now he decides that the public needs input on whether or not to get rid of the current superintendent when it appears that is what he has wanted all along? Did he care how the previous 2 superintendents were treated when they left? Give me a break. Double talk already and he hasn’t even been in office yet.

  • As a long term teacher in Alachua County, I feel it is time for a new slate of board members. With each coming election, please take a good look at those who may be running for an incumbent’s seat. The Alachua Chronicle is consistently running comments from community members about their dissatisfaction with the Alachua County School Board. Please, get out and vote- especially when one of these seats is up for reelection.

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