More than 50 community members filed into Eastside High School’s auditorium Wednesday night to protest Alachua County Public Schools’ proposed rezoning maps.
The maps call for the closure of up to four elementary schools: Williams, Foster, Rawlings and Alachua Elementary — five if Duval Early Learning Academy, a pre-K through kindergarten school, is considered. The maps also propose the conversion of three middle schools — Mebane, Lincoln and Oak View — into kindergarten through eighth grade schools.
One group of community members gathered wearing Duval Early Learning Academy T-shirts and holding posters that read “Duval belongs here.”
Samantha Barclay, a pre-K teacher at Duval Early Learning Academy, was among the group.
For Barclay, Wednesday’s meeting was about showing the school district the importance of early learning academies.
“Just sitting in my classroom, I know how it feels to be a young person and to be someplace where you belong,” Barclay said.
For some community members, concerns over the rezoning aren’t specific to the closure of just one school, but rather a pattern of closures across East Gainesville, which is home to Porters Quarters and other historically Black neighborhoods.
Melvina Wilson, the parent of a student at Williams Elementary School, expressed concerns with the district’s handling of the east side of town.
“Why are you busing students from the east to the west, but none of the west students are getting bused to the east?” Wilson said. “This feels very 1960s to me…”
Another of Wilson’s concerns was the format of the community input meetings and a lack of public discussion.
JBPro, which leads the community input meetings, is an engineering company hired by the district to plan the rezoning initiatives.
“The company that was hired, and the way in which they're doing their community forums, seems very disingenuous,” she said.
Following the presentation, Wilson attempted to engage in a public discussion in the auditorium, but the presenters required one-on-one discussions be held in the media center.
Wilson wasn’t alone in her frustration with the format. Carrie Johnson Parker-Warren, a Gainesville resident, also felt the meeting’s structure discouraged parents from speaking up.
“We did not exercise our freedoms tonight — our freedom to have a voice and a freedom to be heard,” she said.
Parents who cannot attend the meetings but wish to share their thoughts can fill out an online survey. The next community input meeting is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Thursday at Kanapaha Middle School.
Contact Grace Larson at glarson@alligator.org. Follow her on X @graceellarson.
Grace Larson is a first-year journalism student, currently serving as K-12 education reporter. She has previously served as city/county commission reporter for The Alligator's metro desk. In her free time, she enjoys staying active and hanging out with her family.
