Sister cities? Archer passes resolution opposing Newberry's charter conversion plan

The city of Archer passed a last-minute resolution Monday in opposition of a plan by the city of Newberry to convert public schools into charter schools.

Last month Newberry announced a plan to convert its three public schools — Newberry Elementary School, Oak View Middle School and Newberry High School — to public charters. Since launching the public-to-charter plan on Feb. 19, the group spearheading the campaign has been unable to offer any guarantees to the public. The plan has been updated multiple times amidst residents voicing their concerns and opposition to the proposed conversion.

A resolution opposing the conversion of Newberry’s three public schools to charter was placed on the Archer City Commission meeting’s revised agenda Monday.

The resolution says the commission “opposes the conversion of Newberry Elementary School, Oak View Middle School and Newberry High School into non-traditional public charter schools and any attempt to redraw school zones that would exclude neighboring communities."

It also calls on "the City of Newberry and the School Board of Alachua County to engage in open dialogue and collaboration to find solutions that preserve the integrity of our shared educational system and ensure that all students have equal access to quality education close to home.”

The conversion: Initiative to convert Newberry public schools into charters backed by elected officials

Save our Schools Newberry

A handful of people showed up at the meeting Monday evening to voice their opposition of the conversion plan to Archer commissioners.

Bobby Mermer, a member of the group opposing the conversion, asked for Archer’s support.

“We do not disagree that there can be improvements made at these schools. There can be improvements made at any school,” he said. “But we need to work within the current system, we need to keep these schools public, we need to ensure that every resident of the city of Newberry, every resident of the City of Archer, residents of the rural areas… residents of the suburban areas… all have an opportunity to send their children to public schools, and know what they’re going to get, and work within the current elected school board to improve those schools.”

Save our Schools (SOS) Newberry, Mermer said, is comprised of parents of children in Newberry schools, teachers in Newberry schools and others who generally oppose the conversion. The group is part of the No Newberry initiative that opposes the conversion to charter schools.

Mermer referred to those people as: “People like me, who do not have children and are not teachers, but do not appreciate when false promises that have really no teeth behind them are being made to fool people into thinking that somehow they are going to get a better deal from some outside group that we do not know.”

Additionally, he said the group is speaking with an attorney who believes that conversion charter schools would not be able to restrict admission based on geography, and therefore admission would turn to a lottery system for students. Students in Archer, and even in Newberry, would not be safe, Mermer said.

Other speakers also asked the city to support the resolution and reach out to people in the community to get the conversation started on their side. For example, Newberry parent Brandy Oldman said while they were door-knocking Monday the group found that many community members didn’t know they don’t have to be a registered voter to vote on the conversion.

“I think our schools are good,” Oldman said. “They’re not a train wreck like they’re saying — they’re not.”

Oldman also said she thinks the conversion of Newberry Elementary will pass but is unsure about the other two schools.

Iris Bailey, mayor of Archer, said she reached out to a few people from Newberry about the initiative because she was curious about their feelings about it. In terms of the initiative, Bailey said she felt like she was “blindsided by it and that it happened way too fast.”

“I love charter schools; however, I don’t think that it’s appropriate to take over the system that is already in place,” she said. “When I heard pieces of it my first thought was: ‘Why?’ If you want to start a charter school in Newberry, you start a charter school… There’s nothing wrong with those schools; however, I have a problem with you taking over, or trying to take over, an entity that’s already in place.”

Bailey also said she has been a School Board of Alachua County (SBAC) employee since 1995 and thinks the plan may be a “fight with the school board,” as she feels the board won’t let it go down really easy.

Commissioner Joan White voiced her opposition to the proposed charter conversion, stating that the plan would leave out students who live on the outskirts, such as from Archer Road to County Road 346, and some in Bronson.

“This has the potential to take out two-thirds of our students,” White said. “I’m in full support of this resolution.”

Schools are failing

Armando Grundy-Gomes said that while he doesn’t have to agree with the conversion, he won’t pretend that the public school system is fine, because it’s failing students in Alachua County.

During his comment, Grundy-Gomes emphasized the importance of facts and evidence. He mentioned discrepancies in education between Black and white students in the district. Additionally, Grundy-Gomes said there are very few Black men in the school system.

“What system are we saving?” he questioned. “Are we saving where we’re pushing our children toward the criminal justice system, where they cannot read, they don’t know where they’re going? Tell me, what are we saving?”

Grundy-Gomes also questioned what stability Superintendent Shane Andrew — who has had a somewhat controversial tenure, as he was initially meant to serve as interim and was made permanent in February — has brought, stating that people should also say no to a "$182,000 man that continues to bully… and tell you that Tina Certain is the devil.”

“When we vote no, what else are we going to do?” Grundy-Gomes asked. “Because we still have to vote for school board members, we still have to vote for all these things, and still nothing changes.”

He also said that it’s not easy to run a charter school and that charters don’t have to provide transportation. Grundy-Gomes said while he supports the idea of charter schools, the way the plan was rolled out was bad.

The mayor said while she agrees the public schools aren’t perfect, there are a few in the county that are pretty good.

“I also agree that the Black and brown kids have suffered in these schools,” Bailey said. “But, now, is it right to go into an entity and take it? No. That’s my position on that, and I stand firm on it. That does not mean that the School Board of Alachua County is perfect, because it’s not, and I do believe that some of that money down at the county office needs to go to the schools.”

Wait until later?

One citizen asked the commission to table the resolution and put it on the agenda in a timely manner to give everybody a chance to speak, as this measure didn't go onto the agenda until Monday.

Commissioners responded that they have facilitated public meetings and that everybody knows about the proposed plan by now. Additionally, they said, advocates of the plan and people from the Yes Newberry group could’ve been at the meeting Monday and nobody was prevented from coming.

Yes Newberry is sponsored by Education First for Newberry Inc., the group behind the proposed conversion, and plays a part in the Newberry Education First Initiative.

“I know, I’m almost certain, the majority of people in Archer are against this,” White said.

White motioned to adopt the resolution, which was seconded by Commissioner Marilyn Green. It passed unanimously.

“The city of Archer and the city of Newberry have had a long history of working together on different things,” White said. “I don’t want to hurt our relationship, I truly don’t, but that has the ability to hurt our kids… That’s the only reason I’m as vocal about this as I am.”

Other commissioners agreed.

Members of SOS Newberry emphasized that the commissioners needed to pass the resolution Monday because there isn’t much time left, as the vote on the conversion will take place in April.

Not enough information

Commissioner Fletcher Hope said he didn’t really want to vote for the resolution, as he hasn’t seen enough facts to persuade him either way.

Before voting for the resolution, Hope said he counted over 200 questions asked at a prior community meeting concerning the initiative. He asked, as someone who doesn’t use much social media, if there was something that shows questions and answers from both the Yes and No Newberry sides in a documented form.

Speakers said that many exact questions haven’t been answered by proponents of the conversion, as Yes Newberry members say they cannot give concrete information or guarantees until the conversion is passed.

Hope questioned how valuable promises are and implied that governments can choose to not uphold promises. He also mentioned that Archer used to have a high school and middle school years ago. but lost them because of mediocrity and complacency.

“I am just a grandpa, but I am frightened to death… Our elementary school is under capacity, by a lot. We’re next on the hatchet list,” Hope said. “In the 60s we lost because we just thought: ‘Oh, they can’t do this,’ and the county did it; they took the school away… and we let it happen here in Archer.”

Newberry High doesn’t have the capacity for future westward growth that’s coming and that there is a capacity need for a high school, he said, hopefully in Archer.

SOS Newberry released a letter on March 8 calling on the Alachua County School District to sit down with SOS Newberry and Newberry Education First to discuss the charter conversion voting process. So far, no meeting with all three has been announced.

The website speaking out against the conversion, nonewberry.org, calls the initiative “half-baked,” citing a lack of transparency and community input, concerns over which students would be guaranteed admission, and other unanswered questions.

No Newberry is tied to the Save our Schools Newberry Initiative, which is led by community members Tyler Foerst and Melissa Hawthorne, who serve as co-chairs; a parent, Brandy Oldman; and another community member, Jenn Powell.

The website in opposition includes a petition that can be found at: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/save-our-archer-newberry-schools.

Another petition against the conversion, started Feb. 21 on Change.org by Newberry parent Justin Raiford, urges the Newberry Education First Initiative to halt its plan and not turn current public school buildings into charters.

This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Archer resolution opposes Newberry charter conversion plan