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Wednesday, March 18, 2026

Metro: Public Schools

Metro

Conservative parents weigh in on school library objections

Following Alachua County Public School’s first book removal under protocols for challenging school library books, conservative parents are skeptical about whether a formalized system achieves its goal of protecting their children from inappropriate content at a young age.


Third grade teacher Alayna Schwenker sits on a hand-made bench in the library corner of her classroom at Stephen Foster Elementary School Sept. 8, 2023.
Metro

Teachers spend up to thousands on classroom supplies

Teachers across Alachua County Public Schools and throughout the country spend from hundreds to thousands of dollars each year buying school supplies, class decorations, cleaning supplies and snacks for their students — most of which can’t be purchased using district-allocated supply funds. Among the ACPS teachers who talked to The Alligator, the average amount spent out-of-pocket was between $1,460 and $2,500, with the lowest estimate being $100 and the highest being $10,000.


Jess Hunt, 33, addresses two students of the Gainesville Empowerment Zone’s one-year-old class Friday, Sept. 1, 2023.
Metro

GNV4All tackles learning achievement gap with new pre-school center

The GEZ Family Learning Center is a new preschool center founded by the local nonprofit Gainesville for All, known as GNV4ALL, which seeks to address racial and economic inequities in the community. The center opened its doors to Alachua County families Aug. 10 and is located on the Metcalfe Elementary School campus. Roughly 20 students ranging from 6 weeks old to 4 years old currently take advantage of the resource, said Schuran Cartwright the assistant director for the center.


Outside the entrance of F. W. Buchholz High School in Gainesville, Florida.
Metro

Buchholz High School ranked No. 54 in Florida

Buchholz High School was ranked No. 54 best high school in Florida and No. 1 in Alachua County Public Schools by US News & World Report for the 2023-2024 school year. The school was also ranked No. 822 out of 17,680 public high schools in the country, putting it in the top 5%. 


Metro

Gainesville families choose to educate children from home

About 1.3% of students in Alachua County were registered for home school from 2021 to 2022. Across Florida, home schooling rates have risen since 2015. The sharpest increase was in 2020 — during the pandemic — with a 35.2% change, according to a Florida Department of Education report.



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