After over two hours of deliberation, amendments and rants from school board members, the Alachua County School Board approved a new contract for Superintendent Shane Andrew in a 3-2 vote.
Florida’s graduation rates for the 2022-2023 school year soared with a record high of 88%. Alachua County’s rates, which include both public and charter high schools, fell to 84.2%, lower than its rates the last five years. Educators, students and parents wonder what contributes to underperformance and what is being done to address it.
On Tuesday, Gov. Ron Desantis announced the allocation of $25 million to protect the safety of Florida’s 134 Jewish Day Schools, which includes one Gainesville school.
Trask, a parent to two children at Meadowbrook Elementary School and a co-chair of the District Advisory Council, worries about the lack of transparency from the district when books are being discussed to be taken off shelves in school libraries.
The IB PYP magnet is a school-wide curriculum designed to foster a love for learning through student inquiry.
The Alachua County School Board voted against rezoning the existing school boundaries for the 2025-2026 school year in a special hearing Thursday night.
As the first semester of the 2023-2024 school year comes to an end, Alachua County Public School District employees prepare for the break and a potential increase in salaries.
In a continuation of its comprehensive rezoning plan, the Alachua County School Board heard community concerns and postponed the next hearing of the plan to January during a nearly two-hour meeting Tuesday night.
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.
Alachua County installed flashing signs indicating to drivers when a pedestrian is crossing the road at three public school crosswalks.
Terwilliger is Alachua County’s first and only public school to offer dual language immersion as a magnet program, with that language being Spanish. The program is in its second year, with its first class of students starting first grade.
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.
Alachua eSchool has lost seven of its original 13 teachers, leaving it with only six full-time instructors, according to the school directory.
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.
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%.
Metcalfe Elementary School will become the 37th site to offer free meals to students on campus after school beginning Sept. 5. The After School Meal Program, or supper program, feeds students during after-school activities.
Alachua County Public Schools will close Tuesday and Wednesday to prepare for Tropical Storm Idalia, according to an ACPS press release.
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.
Alachua County School Board members and concerned parents met in a workshop meeting Wednesday to discuss the district's comprehensive rezoning plan.
After a two-day quarrel between the Florida Department of Education and the College Board, high school students will get to keep AP Psychology on their class schedules.
Solutions by The State News
