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The Gainesville Sun
From public to charter school? Newberry mayor answers questions, addresses concerns
By Lillian Lawson, Gainesville Sun,
2024-02-22
The city of Newberry may convert its three district-run public schools to public charter schools by 2026. Jordan Marlowe, the city's mayor, clarified things in an interview with The Sun Thursday morning.
What's the difference between a public and charter school?
"It's the point that I think most people — including myself when I began this educational process — are confused on," Marlowe said. "In a public charter school, parents are not asked to write a check on top of their already-existing tax dollars. The school is run off of the existing tax dollars. In a public charter school system it remains open to the public, so the charter school identifies the zone that it can handle, and everybody in that zone is entitled to come to that school."
He also said public charter schools must provide IEPs and services for students with disabilities. Therefore, "the things that people are generally objecting about private charter schools are incorrect when the topic of conversation is a public charter school."
What sparked this initiative?
Marlowe said the idea to convert to charter schools came up a few months ago.
"When these parents approached me with this concept, it was bold; it was, it was big; it was scary; it was complex," he said. "Quite frankly, I didn't see a path forward for it to work. But, after they did the research... At some point I lost the ability to push back anymore. They have a great plan."
"There's not one single issue that's driving this," said Marlowe. "It's not just rezoning; it's not just low teacher pay; it's not just behavior issues; it's not unreliable transportation; it's not moldy portables. It's all of these things collectively. The lack of — the inability to keep a superintendent for more than three years. It's not the fear of retribution if we speak out about these issues, from the school board, it's all of those things together."
Marlowe said some school board members have created a "culture of fear among educators," and if problems are mentioned, people are attacked on social media.
Where would my tax dollars go?
The school board would still set the tax rates, Marlowe said, but the charter team would receive 95% of every local, state and federal tax dollar while the school board keeps 5% of every dollar amount, which can only be spent on capital outlay projects in the school that produced it.
"They get 100% of the tax money, eventually, 95% goes to operating costs and 5% goes to capital outlay, which is constructing new classrooms, those kinds of things," the mayor said.
"Voting yes on this actually keeps more of your tax dollars in your local school," said Marlowe. "Right now, the school board is able to redistribute Newberry taxpayer money to other areas of the district. Voting yes means that you actually keep more of your tax dollars in your child's classrooms."
What would this initiative improve?
"The same teacher will be there, just making more money," Marlowe said. "The same students will be there, we'll just be able to have smaller class sizes because we'll bring in more teachers. The buses will still bring them there, they'll just be reliable buses that actually pick the children up on time and get them to school on time."
Despite fifth grade classes being held at Oakview Middle School, he said Newberry Elementary School is at 141% capacity. Marlowe said only 80% of those students live in the city and noted that in the rezoning proposal Newberry Elementary still never achieved a capacity under 100%.
He said the plan is not trying to match Alachua County Public Schools; it's seeking to perform even better than the district.
"We want to provide a higher level of service, so we're absolutely going to transport kids," said Marlowe.
He also addressed misinformation that Archer students would not be included.
"It's right there on the website," Marlowe said. "Archer and Newberry are sister cities, we go back more than 50 years together. Never any intention of not continuing that relationship — it's a familial bond."
Which students could attend?
"If you live inside the city of Newberry, if you live inside of the city of Archer, equal priority," he said. "If you live in the unincorporated area in between Newberry and Archer, you're automatically in... we take the whole eastern block there."
Marlowe said they would move eastward toward Gainesville and accept every student they can until schools hit 100% capacity. They may be willing to be at 105% or 110% capacity if needed, he said.
"We accept every student we can accept, of every race, of every persuasion, of every gender, of every transgender, of every disability," he said. "We want the same magnets, we want to help with transportation, we want to help provide better education.
"We are extending our hand and saying: 'We're willing to do the work. We're willing to be a partner. We want to help,' and I have given that message to this school board and past school boards for over 10 years... For 12 years I've said: 'Guys we've got to work together. The problems facing our county are too big for any one entity to fix. We've got to work together.' These parents have found a way for us to work together."
How would this affect the community and schools?
"If the adults in the room do a good job and we can work out all these details as partners, then the student in the classroom won't notice any difference," Marlowe said.
He said sports would stay the same and mentioned the possibility of the district-run magnet programs staying as they are, depending on the adults in the room, as well as the possibility of the charter schools operating their own magnet programs.
"No matter what the question is, the end result is the community itself stays the same," Marlowe said. "A lot of that is predicated on all of the leaders of all three groups — the city of Newberry, the school board and these parents — all sitting down and being willing to put the children's needs first."
What would happen to existing school buildings?
Marlowe said the school buildings would still belong to the school board and the facilities would be "utilized in exactly the same manner they are now to serve pretty much the same children."
What is Education First Newberry? Who is involved?
"Everybody that's involved is a parent, everybody that's involved is a stakeholder in a child's life," Marlowe said. "It's unfortunate that so many people on social media seem to want to focus on the parents and not the plan... There's got to be 50 to 60 parents involved in this movement... So attacking parents that are simply coming forth with a solution that is truly a partnership and saying: 'We're here, we're ready to help and we're ready to work,' to me, that's not leadership. To me, that's fear mongering; it's divisive; it's everything that's wrong with this country. It's what we should all be fighting against."
Marlowe said the Education First Newberry group is a new, local group of parents and that this initiative is its "only cause, only movement, only work."
What has the community's response been so far?
"When I talk to our teachers, you can see the overwhelmed look on their face, you can see the light leaving their eyes," said Marlowe. "You can see the excitement of this profession is a struggle for them right now, because of behavior, because of overcrowding, because of the instability of our school board, because of the divisive nature of the politics... But when you lay this plan out to them, when you talk to them about what are the possibilities here, the light comes back on... We're absolutely talking about the students first and their needs, but we're also talking about a whole lot of professionals... and they need help.
"They are getting beat down. They're getting overwhelmed and they're losing hope. And this idea brings hope back to them, and if for no other reason, that's a good reason to have this conversation."
He said the response from parents and teachers about the idea has been "overwhelmingly positive" so far and the only negatives have come from "people spreading misinformation and not giving an opportunity to listen to what these parents are trying to talk about."
What is the process of converting a public to a charter school?
A vote on the conversion will be finalized in April. Principals of each school currently have 60 days to print, mail out and collect ballots for parents and teachers to vote.
"Let's say all three schools vote to convert," Marlowe said. "It compels the school board to sit down and answer their part of all of these questions. Right now they could do that; they could say: 'Absolutely, if you guys want the magnets there and you're willing to work out a negotiation where Alachua County students still get access to them, they stay there'... They've got time, right, they can still decide that they want to help ease parents' minds and answer some of these questions. But that's what, the vote is what compels them to answer — at that point they can't not answer."
Each school would then begin a roughly 700-page application process and the applications would come back for a vote.
Could the initiative be voted down by the school board?
"I saw the school board members were contemplating voting it down, and there's a very narrow range that a school board member can vote no to the application," said Marlowe. "As long as we address everything that we have to address, then there's nothing that, legally, the school board can say no to. But that would — that process would probably take seven to eight months."
What about new legislation?
A new bill called Conversion Charter Schools (HB 109 or SB 246) would remove the requirement that, in compliance with Florida Statute 1002.33, at least 50% of teachers employed at each school and 50% of parents voting must support the change from public to charter.
The new bill would remove the requirement of teacher approval and would only require the support of at least 50% of parents to convert to a charter.
Current law allows groups of parents, teachers and school districts to apply to convert a public school into a charter school. But municipalities can't take that step, which could explain the creation of Education First Newberry by parents for this cause. The new proposed bill gives municipalities the standing to apply.
"The legislation that's going through Tallahassee now is not relevant to the application or the process that we're doing," Marlowe said. "We're using existing state statutes that have been around since the '90s."
The newly proposed bill, if passed, would not take effect until summer 2024.
When would schools be converted?
Marlowe said they would look to convert the schools in the 2025-2026 school year.
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