The Alachua County School Board elected Thomas Vu as chairman and Leanetta McNealy as vice chairman at its annual organizational meeting today.
The pair will replace Sarah Rockwell and Tina Certain.
Rockwell and Certain both came under scrutiny, from the public and from the Florida Board of Education, in the past year for social media posts they made about the deaths of wrestler Hulk Hogan and conservative activist Charlie Kirk, respectively.
Vu, who was first elected to the school board last year, previously worked as a civics teacher and math teacher for grades six to 12 then spent two years in the ACPS district office.
McNealy was re-elected to the school board last year for another four-year term. She was nominated by Vu.
“[McNealy’s] experience just having been here, seeing a lot, would be very valuable,” Vu said during the meeting.
Both Vu and McNealy were elected to their positions unanimously after other failed nominations.
Contact Alexa Ryan at aryan@alligator.org. Follow her on X @AlexaRyan_.
Alexa is a second-year journalism and international studies students serving as the Fall 2025 Criminal Justice beat reporter. She previously served as a copy editor. She spends her free time running, traveling, having movie nights and going on random side quests with friends.
