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Alachua board keeps Irby open as PreK–2, shifts Mebane to grades 3–8 after heated public debate
Summary
After hours of public comment and a lengthy staff presentation on capacity, traffic and costs, the Alachua County School Board voted 3–2 to keep Irby Elementary as a PreK–2 site for the Alachua zone and convert Mebane to serve grades 3–8; board members signaled more design work, traffic studies and cost estimates will follow.
The Alachua County School Board voted 3–2 on May 5 to keep Irby Elementary as a PreK–2 site for the Alachua zone and reconfigure Mebane as the grades 3–8 campus for the same zone, a decision the board cast as a compromise between community cohesion and long-term capacity planning.
The vote followed a lengthy staff presentation from Ms. Neal reviewing four options for the Alachua area and detailed enrollment and concurrency projections. Neal told the board that under one model Irby’s estimated attendance would be about 539 students once pre-K and projected housing growth are included. "In that area scenario, Irby would have an approximation of attendance at 539," she said as she walked trustees through capacity charts and a concurrency analysis of approved housing developments.
Public commenters filled the dais during two public-comment blocks to…
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