Education roundup: rezoning, UF chapter disbanded, state bills
Hello from Gainesville, Florida. It's Monday, March 23, and you're listening to StreetSmart. I'm Lillian Hamman. StreetSmart is a weekly podcast from Mainstreet Daily News, where we cover local news that informs, engages, and inspires listeners like you.
Lillian:A big thanks to our sponsor, Forest Meadows, where compassion meets experience. Check out their beautiful gardens, funeral home, and tribute center. Cremations, funerals, and memorials all in one trusted place. With exceptional care and personal attention, Forest Meadows is here to honor every life with care.
Lillian:Here's the top headlines we're rounding up.
Lillian:St. Francis House is closing its downtown Gainesville shelter. The nonprofit expects to finalize the shutdown of regular and emergency services by mid April and hopes to open a new shelter after the downtown building sells.
Lillian:A Gainesville resident's bar complaint against a Florida lawyer advanced to the regional office for investigation. The complaint raises ethics concerns over Americans with Disabilities Act lawsuits targeting small businesses. The lawyer filed suits against 43 Gainesville businesses.
Lillian:The Gainesville Regional Transit System received a $10,200,000 federal grant last week. The funds will go toward multiple transportation improvements, including bus stop upgrades, a new West Side bus transfer station, and new paratransit vehicles.
Lillian:The High Spring City Commission will schedule a workshop to consider cutting the city's fire and police departments. The commission cited long term financial health and state bills that could erase ad valorem taxes.
Lillian:The Hawthorne City Commission voted to move forward with bringing a veterans memorial to the city. Early ideas include a granite monument with flags at the new community resource center.
Lillian:Award winning chef Charlie Keller opened a Japanese street food restaurant at Bo Diddley Plaza this month. Kushi and Co. is fast casual dining serving yakitori meat skewers and other traditional Japanese staples.
Lillian:As always, visit mainstreetdailynews.com for more details on our stories. Thanks to our generous members, this news stays free for the whole community with no paywall.
Lillian:Thanks again for listening to StreetSmart. I'm Lillian Hamman, and I've got Mainstreet's star education reporter Nick Anschultz in studio with me today. Hey Nick.
Nick:Hey Lillian, good to be here.
Lillian:Glad to have you. You're looking a little tan after your week long cruise of the other week.
Nick:Yeah, still peeling too.
Lillian:Oh no.
Nick:That's the worst.
Lillian:And you came back to a big vote from the school board of Alachua County, which we're going to get into in just a few minutes.
Lillian:But we're going to start with a ticket giveaway. When we first launched our podcast last month, we had four tickets to the Crayola Experience in Orlando, and we're happy to announce that we have four more. So if you would like to be entered for a chance to win these tickets, just click on the link in the show notes for today's episode, fill out the information, and we will pick a winner by Friday at noon. You're not going to want to miss out on these tickets.
Lillian:They have the world's largest crayon at the Crayola Experience, lots of fun for the whole family, and they're good through November. So good for a free weekend this summer or heading into the holidays.
Lillian:All right, and now it's time to jump into our feature story for this week. And Nick is going be bringing us kind of a roundup of a bunch of different education things that have been going on between the school board of Alachua County, University of Florida, and just some things going on at the state level. Nick, you want to kick us off with the big school board vote from March 12?
Nick:Yeah, that's right, Lillian. At that March 12 meeting, following months of discussion, community input, and revisions, the school board of Alachua County approved rezoning maps that will see Stephen Foster Elementary School close at the end of this school year and Williams and Alachua schools close at the end of the 2027- 2028 school year. Also as part of this vote, several middle schools will also expand into K-8 schools over the course of the next two years, including Oak View Middle School in Newberry and Lincoln Middle School. Oak View is expected to open as a pre-K-8 this fall, while Lincoln Middle School is expected to open as a K-8 by August 2028. A proposal to close Irby Elementary School in Alachua and have students from here, along with Alachua Elementary move to an expanded Mabane Middle School K-eight campus in 2028, is still under consideration.
Lillian:And these new rezoning maps are part of a rightsizing plan under the district's Our Schools Future Ready comprehensive planning initiative. Why did the Alachua County Public Schools want to launch this plan?
Nick:Yeah, so Lillian, the plan launched in November 2025 to address key issues like enrollment, school capacity, transportation, and educational programs. District staff have previously said that Alachua County Public Schools, like many school districts across the state and country, is facing a decline in student enrollment driven by declining birth rates and an increase in school choice options such as universal vouchers.
Nick:And just another nugget, this is actually the first time that the district has rezoned or adjusted attendance boundaries since 2003. And you know not all the board members were in favor of this. It was actually a split vote at that March 12 meeting with board member Leanetta McNealy and board member Janine Plavac in dissent.
Nick:This whole process has been it's caused a lot of opposing views or has had a lot of opposing views. And actually prior to the vote, City of Alachua, City of Gainesville, Alachua County Commission members actually asked the board to delay the vote to get more input before making a final decision. Community members also spoke and expressed the same feeling where they said, Hey, can we delay the vote? Some of them were also against closing schools. But of course, the board ended up proceeding to go forward with it in that three to two vote.
Lillian:And Nick, you also had some recent news with the University of Florida regarding a political party chapter disbanding. What happened there?
Nick:Yeah, that's right, Lillian. UF announced via social media on March 14 that it was in the process of deactivating its local College Republicans chapter as a registered student organization. This was at the request of the Florida Federation of College Republicans. UF said in the post, its social media post, that the state organization disbanded the UF College Republicans after it found that some members had engaged in a pattern of conduct that violated its rules and values. This included a recent antisemitic gesture.
Lillian:Did the University of Florida say what gesture was in the photo?
Nick:They actually didn't. However, there's been a photo circulating on X, formerly Twitter, by a North Carolina based journalist that appears to show two people, including the UF College Republican secretary performing a Nazi salute on an online communications platform for gamers. The secretary who is allegedly in that photo on the X Post reached out to Main Street separately and denies that he is the secretary of the UF College Republicans or a member of that organization, but rather the secretary of a different registered student organization, Uncensored America.
Lillian:And the UF College Republicans also said that it is not affiliated with the Florida Federation of College Republicans, which is the organization that requested the UF College Republicans be shut down. But they said they are affiliated with the College Republicans of America. Nick, can you kind of explain the connection between all these different groups?
Nick:Yeah. So I actually reached out to the Florida Federation of College Republicans for comment regarding its connection with the UF College Republicans, but have not received a reply. I also reached out to UF College Republicans for documents showing its affiliation with College Republicans of America and when its membership began but have not received a response. Two days after UF announced it was in the process of deactivating its local College Republicans chapter, a Lake County Commissioner, Republican, and attorney filed a lawsuit on behalf of UF College Republicans alleging a violation of First Amendment rights.
Lillian:And Nick, you also covered some education bills going on at the state level this month. You had a whole roundup of different bills people can watch and how they could potentially affect the schools if they're passed. But you want to just touch on some of those that have come through?
Nick:Yeah. So one of the bills that the Florida Legislature passed during its sixty day regular session has to do with school safety and it would expand Florida's school guardian program to include the state's public colleges and universities. Right now the program just applies to K-12 public schools. One of the provisions with the bill would allow trained school guardians at Florida's universities to carry firearms on campus for school defense. If signed by DeSantis, this bill would take effect immediately.
Lillian:If you're interested, for more information on this bill and others that passed during the session of the legislature, you can visit our website at mainstreetdailynews.com.
Lillian:And we're going take a quick break and hear from our sponsor, Forest Meadows, before we bring you the news forecast and events segment.
Sponsor:At Forest Meadows, our commitment is simple. Exceptional care, personal attention, and respect for every family we serve. Forest Meadows offers every option in one trusted place. Visit our beautiful gardens and glass front niches or plan ahead for cremation, funerals and memorials at our funeral home or tribute center located on our cemetery grounds. Forest Meadows, where compassion meets experienced and every life is honored with care.
Nick:On Monday, the Alachua City Commission will review designs for a new Hathcock Community Center, and the Newberry City Commission will hear presentations from candidates for its April election. Archer will also hold a special meeting on Tuesday, and High Springs will meet on Thursday.
Nick:Alachua County will consider disc golf, dog parks, and putting areas as part of the master plan for new West End Park. The commission will consider the master plan on Tuesday with millions in investments planned over the next three years.
Nick:The city of Gainesville will kick start its budget season at a special meeting on Thursday. Thursday. The budget will take months to compile with special budget meetings in the coming months.
Lillian:Now for our event segment covering upcoming family friendly events this weekend. Saucy by KFC will celebrate its grand opening in the former PDQ Chicken on Thursday. Starting at 11AM, customers can swing by for free chicken tenders and sauce giveaways.
Lillian:The UF Astronomy Teaching Observatory will host a free public viewing night from 08:30 10PM on Friday, and you can get active on Saturday with multiple races to choose from. The Archer Brave Trail 5Ks and 10Ks will start in Archer, and the Trail of Payne 5K , 10K , and one mile fun run will be at Payne's Prairie Preserve State Park. Registration for each event can be found online.
Lillian:The shops at Thornbrook will hold a spring market on Saturday. Shop from local crafters and vendors, eat at food trucks, and enjoy live performances.
Lillian:And Gator Fly In is coming to the Gainesville Regional Airport with a special Armed Services Appreciation Day slated for Saturday. The event will feature military aircraft displays, classic cars, food trucks, live music, and airplane and helicopter rides.
Lillian:Now I've flown in plenty of airplanes, but I've never been in helicopter. I can't imagine every time I think of one, I just think of the scene from Superman where Lois Lane is dangling out of the helicopter, and it makes me not wanna get in one. Nick, have you ever been in a helicopter?
Nick:I'm kinda like you, Lillian. I've, flown on airplanes, but not a helicopter and not sure if I would want to try it. But maybe I might try one day.
Lillian:Okay. Well, we will leave that to the aviation enthusiast to try out on Saturday. But don't forget on Friday to register by noon for a chance to win tickets to the Crayola Experience in Orlando. Remember, we've got four tickets available. They're good through November.
Lillian:All you have to do is click on the link in our show notes for this episode and fill out the information. And that's all we've got for this week's StreetSmart Podcast, brought to you by Main Street Daily News and made possible by our generous members. Another special thanks to Forest Meadows for believing in local news and sponsoring us. We'll be back next week to round up more local news that matters to you. Take a minute to share StreetSmart and help us continue the work.
Lillian:And remember, you can click on the link in the show notes to find more free local news at mainstreetdailynews.com or pick up a print copy around Alachua County. Our theme music is Sunset Sonata by Gainesville's ska band Now Leaving Space. This episode is a production of MARC Media.
