Vu: Schools already pick up the pieces. They shouldn’t have to become every broken system.

Letter to the editor

Disclaimer: These are my opinions only. I do not presume to speak for the School Board at large. The School Board as a body will decide how to respond to the City and County’s letters at our next regular meeting on June 2, through a majority vote.

Most people do not go into teaching because they are looking for an easy job. They go into teaching because they care, because they want to give back, and because somewhere along the way, a teacher changed their life.

But every teacher learns the painful tension that comes with the work. You want to do more: more for the child who comes to school hungry, more for the family in crisis, more for the student carrying problems no lesson plan can fix. The human heart’s capacity to care may be infinite. Time, money, staffing, resources, and responsibility are not.

That is true for schools as institutions, too. Schools must be compassionate and responsive, especially to students experiencing homelessness. But schools also have to stay focused on their role: educating children, protecting learning environments, and preparing students for the future.

Correcting the Record

Recently, I said I was completely against using school facilities as homeless shelters or temporary housing. I stand by that. But let me be clear about what I did and did not say.

I did not say the School Board has no responsibility to students experiencing homelessness. We absolutely do. I did not say homelessness is not serious. It is. And I did not say our community should turn away from families in crisis. We should not.

What I did say is that schools should not be turned into homeless shelters or temporary housing facilities. Some have equated that with rejecting homeless students. I see it as defending the core mission of public education.

It is also important to correct the timeline. In his op-ed, the County Chair framed my April 29 comments as though I was responding to his May 6 letter, which the School Board had not yet received. My comments were a response to the April 28 County Commission motion, the public discussion around reviewing School Board facilities, and the broader pressure already being directed at the district. If the proposal has changed, that should be stated clearly. But we should not rewrite the timeline or pretend earlier conversations never happened.

McKinney-Vento

There has also been a lot of discussion about the McKinney-Vento Act. That law matters. It requires school districts to identify and support students experiencing homelessness, remove barriers to enrollment, protect school stability, provide transportation when required, and coordinate services so students can keep learning.

That is the school district’s lane, and it is an important one.

But McKinney-Vento is an educational access law. It does not make school districts housing providers, and McKinney-Vento education funds cannot be used to operate shelters or provide housing. Our responsibility is to educate children experiencing homelessness, support their stability in school, and connect families to services. It is not to become the housing provider of last resort because the housing system has failed them.

Budgets Reflect Priorities

That is why the current pressure from City and County officials is frustrating. The City and County have tools the School Board does not have: housing policy authority, zoning and land-use powers, adult services, public safety responsibilities, community development tools, local facilities, and budget choices directly tied to homelessness.

Budgets reflect priorities. In recent years, the City and County have found millions for projects like a former golf course purchase, downtown infrastructure, public space renovations, smart trash compactors, and other community investments.

But if family homelessness is now being presented as an emergency, then the public deserves to see the same urgency, creativity, and political courage applied within the City and County’s own responsibilities before school buildings become the convenient answer.

The closure of St. Francis House did not happen overnight. Family shelter capacity did not become fragile last week. Local leaders knew this problem was growing. The answer cannot be to wait until the shelter system breaks and then look across the street at school buildings.

Collaboration Needs Boundaries

I am willing to sit at any table focused on keeping students safe, enrolled, transported, supported, and learning. But the School Board must decide as a body. I support collaboration, but collaboration cannot mean the City and County arrive with a housing crisis and leave with the School Board’s buildings.

If there is going to be a summit, I think it should start with clear boundaries:

• No School Board facilities for shelters or temporary housing
• No School Board operating or capital dollars diverted from classrooms to housing operations
• No one currently running for office should be a participant
• No serious proposal without the City and County first presenting their own facility inventory, funding plan, service provider, security plan, and operational model.

The school district should continue to do its part: identify students experiencing homelessness, enroll them without delay, protect school stability, provide transportation when required, remove barriers, connect families with services, and support children so they can keep learning.

The City and County need to do their part: fund, operate, and lead a serious housing response using the tools, budgets, facilities, and authority that belong to local government.

Schools Already Pick Up the Pieces Every Day

Schools pick up the pieces when a child comes to school hungry, when a family cannot afford school supplies, and when a student is grieving, scared, behind, overwhelmed, or carrying adult problems no child should have to carry.

That is what educators do. They see the child in front of them, and they respond.

But picking up the pieces is not the same as being asked to become every system that broke. Public education assets should not be a workaround for failures elsewhere.

Our community deserves more than leaders who wait for systems to break and then ask schools to absorb the damage. Schools will always be there to pick up the pieces. It is time for the City and County to stop leaving so many pieces behind for us to pick up in the first place.

Thomas Vu, Chair of the School Board of Alachua County

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