Each month, Irby Elementary School promotes a positive character trait for students. This month’s character trait is grit — something Shernee Bellamy-Fults said teachers are exhibiting in the face of the school’s proposed closure.
The school’s potential closure is a part of the district’s “Our Schools — Future Ready” Initiative, which looks to rezone and rightsize schools to minimize district spending.
The process began in November 2025, but talks of closures and consolidations didn’t come until early February.
On Feb. 2, the school board proposed the closure of five schools: Alachua, Foster, Williams and Rawlings Elementary Schools, as well as Duval Early Learning Academy.
In a Feb. 26 meeting, the board suggested the closure of Irby Elementary School — just 14 days before the rezoning plans were to be approved.
Then, in a March 12 meeting, the board approved the closure of three schools: Alachua, Foster and Williams Elementary Schools. It postponed the decision on Irby until May 5 to collect community feedback.
Bellamy-Fults, a librarian at the school, said the quick turnaround time united community members.
“These teachers have grit,” she said. “They're fighting hard. Community members are fighting hard — even people who don't even live in this community.”
Bellamy-Fults, who has worked at Irby for six years, said the school’s uniqueness is worth fighting for.
Irby Elementary School is the only pre-K through second grade school in the district.
Its proposed closure, along with the closure of Alachua Elementary School, would result in the consolidation of pre-K through eighth grade students in a Mebane K-8 School. Bellamy-Fults said she worries about the change’s impact on students.
“It [Irby] allows students and kids to stay young and to not feel like they have to have all these older responsibilities,” Bellamy-Fults said.
The school’s design includes colorful murals and flooring that allow students to act and learn like kids, she said, free from the responsibilities and pressures they may face at home.
The school’s closure may drive parents to switch their kids to private and charter schools, Bellamy-Fults said. Parents have already begun to do so in the face of uncertainty and fear, she added.
“It's a lot of stress. It's a lot of fear,” Bellamy-Fults said. “So people are being pulled. Parents are fearful of what will happen — and rightfully so. There is no communication.”
The district proposed four map options for Irby at an April 13 meeting. Three options recommended the school convert to a pre-K through fifth grade school. The fourth proposed the school’s closure.
In an April 29 workshop, the board supported option one, which proposes Irby expand to accommodate pre-K through fifth grade students. Option one divides elementary school students in Alachua between Irby and Mebane K-8 School.
The board also requested a fifth option, in which Irby is converted into a pre-K through fourth grade school — an idea suggested by teachers at the school.
Bellamy-Fults said she supports the school’s conversion to a pre-K through fourth grade school because it minimizes transitions between schools, she said.
For other teachers, like speech therapist Mackenzie Robertson, the division of elementary school students between Irby and Mebane K-8 School — as proposed in option one — creates even more concerns.
For Robertson, who has worked at Irby for eight years, student safety when walking to school remains a worry.
“A really big concern of mine is the safety because of where Mebane is and where the communities, like the neighborhoods around Mebane, [are],” Robertson said. It's walkable distance, but it's not safely walkable.”
Her concerns, she said, stem from a 2023 traffic incident.
In January 2023, 5-year-old Kaiden Mincey was hit and killed by a car while crossing Hipp Way to get to his bus stop. Hipp Way is located about 1.5 miles from Mebane Middle School.
Another of Robertson’s concerns is how school boundary lines will impact student demographics.
Prior to 1992, the Alachua community had just one elementary school: Alachua Elementary School. As the city’s population grew, she said, Irby was constructed as a second elementary school.
Rather than split Alachua students between the two schools at the time, Robertson said, the district decided to make Irby a pre-K through second grade school that feeds into Alachua Elementary School, a third through fifth grade school.
This was due to concerns that halving the population along State Road 441 would create segregation, Robertson said.
Despite this past concern, the newly proposed option one divides elementary students along SR 441 between Irby and the proposed Mebane K-8 School.
While the district determined the split along SR 441 will not create a socioeconomic imbalance between the two schools, it did not examine how racial demographics will be impacted.
The district’s research into socioeconomic status suggests 51% of elementary school students attending Irby would be “economically disadvantaged.” Mebane K-8 School would show a similar proportion, with 54% of elementary schoolers falling into the category.
While the district considered socioeconomic status in its proposals, Robertson said it did not examine race.
A map utilizing the U.S. Census data shows residents living north of SR 441 are mostly Black. Under option one, students living north of SR 441 will attend Mebane K-8 School, whereas students living south of the road will attend Irby.
Robertson said she worries the division along SR 441 will result in change reminiscent of segregation.
The district didn’t examine racial demographics in the rezoning process due to federal mandates.
In April 2025, the U.S. Department of Education eliminated DEI programs in K-12 education because they are used to “discriminate against one group of Americans to favor another based on identity characteristics.”
With these concerns, Robertson said she hopes Irby remains open. She said the school’s “We are family” slogan speaks to its importance to the Alachua community.
“We are a family out there,” Robertson said. “That's why it's so important that we want to keep our family together.”
The familial sentiment also rings true for Demetrius Hall. He’s worked as a custodian at the school for three years, and both of his sons are students there.
Ever since his sons started at Irby, teachers have offered him kindness, he said.
“The teachers have been very helpful with me,” Hall said, “helping me out when I need things for school supplies, with extra curriculum work for my boys — anything they need to help them to get better in the classroom.”
For Hall, the school’s proposed closure is upsetting. But the worst part, he said, is knowing students are aware the school may close.
They’ve asked him what will happen to the school, he said, but Hall is equally uncertain.
“It's hard for me trying to get them my answer,” Hall said. “I just tell them, ‘I don't know.’ That's all I could tell the kids every day. I tell them, ‘I don't know.’”
The board will vote on the conversion of Irby Elementary School at a May 5 meeting.
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.
