Alachua board keeps Irby open as PreK–2, shifts Mebane to grades 3–8 after heated public debate

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 urge the board to pause closures and to question some of staff’s data collection methods. Jancey Vincent, a candidate for School Board District 5, told the board she had heard from teachers who received termination notices after school-closure announcements and asked, "Why?" Evelyn Fox, president of the Alachua County NAACP, urged the board to "reconsider your actions" and seek more community input and independent expertise before finalizing closures.

Critics also pressed staff on the traffic and site studies that would be required if Irby were expanded. Community organizer Shea Bellamy-Fultz accused the district of relying on insufficient counts, saying: "If you count cars alongside dismissal to get data from a single day and present it as factual and true, you are doing something wrong." Staff repeatedly said a traffic study and potential city/county roadway improvements would be required for some build options and that the district does not pay for public right-of-way work.

Board members debated education and operational trade-offs. Supporters of the Rockwell motion to make Irby PreK–2 and Mebane 3–8 said the configuration preserves a neighborhood identity and avoids risky, expensive construction on Irby’s constrained campus. Opponents argued the district’s concurrency forecasts and projected growth could make a larger Irby or different grade spans necessary and warned about operational pressures such as cafeteria and bus capacity.

Dr. Rockwell, who moved the motion, told colleagues he favored the configuration because it "keeps Alachua together" and reduced the chance of creating an oversized building at a constrained site. After more than an hour of discussion the motion passed with Dr. Rockwell, Ms. Certain and Chair Vu in favor and Dr. McNealy and Ms. Plavac dissenting.

Board members directed staff to proceed with the next planning steps for the adopted configuration: conduct necessary traffic and site studies, refine cost estimates and prepare conceptual designs and timelines for implementation. Ms. Neal reminded the board that some consolidations discussed earlier carry a projected start date in fall 2028 and that any major construction would require coordination with city and county partners.

The board’s decision reverses part of an earlier slate of closures staff had prepared and responds directly to intense community comment in recent weeks. The item will return to the board with refined estimates, identified funding sources and, where needed, requests for municipal coordination on roadway or stormwater improvements.