Alachua County Public Schools is a public

school district A school district is a special-purpose district that operates local public primary and secondary schools in various nations. North America United States In the U.S, most K–12 public schools function as units of local school districts, wh ...

serving Alachua County in North Central Florida. It serves approximately 29,845 students in 64 schools and centers. The district is governed by the School Board of Alachua County, which is made up of five board members elected at large who serve staggered, four-year terms. In 2015, the district's average SAT score of 1620 was the highest in the state of Florida and above the national average. The districtwide passing rate on Advanced Placement exams was 63%, higher than state, national and global passing rates on the exams, which reflect college-level material. Five of the district's six traditional high schools were ranked on ''The Washington Post's'' 2015 High School Challenge Index, placing them among the top high schools in the nation. The district also received the ''What Parents Want Award'' from SchoolMatch'','' the nation's largest school selection consulting firm. About 16% of school districts nationwide receive the award each year. The district offers a number of magnet programs for gifted/talented students at the elementary, middle and high school levels. It also has thirteen career-tech high school magnet programs in fields such as healthcare, biotechnology, culinary arts and emergency services. There are approximately 4,000 employees of Alachua County Public Schools. About half of them are teachers. Each school has a nurse on campus full-time. School resource officers/deputies are also assigned to all schools.

History

The Alachua County Board of Public Instruction was established in 1869. Prior to that year there had been no publicly supported schools in the county. The Board of County Commissioners had provided for the payment of tuition to private schools for students whose families could not afford the tuition, but few families were willing to be seen as paupers and receive the aid. In 1866 the state-supported East Florida Seminary, which had been in

Ocala Ocala ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Marion County within the northern region of Florida, United States. As of the 2020 United States Census, the city's population was 63,591, making it the 54th most populated city in Florida. Home to ...

until it closed early in the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

, was re-opened in Gainesville using the facilities of the private Gainesville Academy. The next year the Union Academy, a school for African-Americans sponsored by the

Freedmen's Bureau The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, usually referred to as simply the Freedmen's Bureau, was an agency of early Reconstruction, assisting freedmen in the South. It was established on March 3, 1865, and operated briefly as a ...

, opened in Gainesville. By 1870 there were 22 schools in Alachua County, each with its own board of trustees. The schools were integrated, and therefore unpopular with most of the white population. Funding was low and the schools were poorly equipped and short of qualified teachers. The

Compromise of 1877 The Compromise of 1877, also known as the Wormley Agreement or the Bargain of 1877, was an unwritten deal, informally arranged among members of the United States Congress, to settle the intensely disputed 1876 presidential election between Ruth ...

, which marked the end of Reconstruction, left the Alachua County school system under the control of white Democrats. A segregated public school system was established, with most of the available resources going to white schools. The change in control of the schools brought a cut in spending, and the school year for county supported schools, which had been five months long, was reduced to three months. The Union Academy, however, remained in session for six months a year, and then operated another two months as a

normal school A normal school or normal college is an institution created to Teacher education, train teachers by educating them in the norms of pedagogy and curriculum. In the 19th century in the United States, instruction in normal schools was at the high s ...

training African-American teachers. Kirby-Smith School - Gainesville, Florida (center view)

For a number of years public schools in Alachua County met in old houses or other rented spaces. The first building in the county erected specifically for use as a district school was in Gainesville in 1885. The Gainesville Graded and High School was built in 1900. With additions over the years, it has been known as Eastside Elementary and Kirby Smith Elementary. The building eventually became the administrative headquarters of the school district, designated the Kirby Smith Center, and since 2017, the Alachua County Public Schools District Office. The high school classes of the Gainesville Graded and High School moved to a new building, designated as Gainesville High School, in 1923. That same year the Lincoln School opened, replacing the Reconstruction-era Union Academy. Gainesville High School was moved to a new building in 1955. Gainesville High School was integrated in 1970 and Lincoln High School was closed, leaving Gainesville High School as the only high school in Gainesville. In northwestern Alachua County a school was opened in 1895 in the new community of Alachua. A new building for the school opened in 1901. Over the next few years schools in the neighboring communities of Newnansville, Haynsworth, Greenleaf,

Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital of ...

, Gracy, Perseverance, Spring Hill, Santa Fe, Bland and

LaCrosse Lacrosse is a team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game was extensively ...

were closed and the students moved to the Alachua school. In 1917 the high school classes were moved to a new building. In 1955 Alachua High School was combined with High Springs High School as Santa Fe High School.

Desegregation

Public schools in Alachua County were

racially segregated Racial segregation is the systematic separation of people into race (human classification), racial or other Ethnicity, ethnic groups in daily life. Racial segregation can amount to the international crime of apartheid and a crimes against hum ...

from the end of Reconstruction in 1877. In response to the ruling of the U.S. Supreme Court in

Brown v. Board of Education ''Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka'', 347 U.S. 483 (1954), was a landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled that U.S. state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools are unconstitutional, even if the segregat ...

, the Alachua County Public Schools Board was ordered by the courts to operate a freedom of choice system starting in 1964, when there were eleven all-black schools in the district. In 1969 there were still eight all-black and three all-white schools in the district. That year the U.S. Supreme Court decided, in

Alexander v. Holmes County Board of Education ''Alexander v. Holmes County Board of Education'', 396 U.S. 19 (1969), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court ordered immediate desegregation of public schools in the American South. It followed 15 years of delays to integrate ...

, that public schools must be immediately fully desegregated. A district appeals court order established a biracial committee to advise the school board on a plan for desegregation. When the school board refused to forward the committee's recommended plan to the courts, the committee submitted it directly to the court, which ordered it to be implemented. Students were assigned to schools so that each school had a 70% white - 30% black ratio. Three elementary schools and Lincoln High School were closed.

2020s

In 2021 the district chose to implement a mask mandate despite

Governor of Florida A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political r ...

Ron DeSantis Ronald Dion DeSantis (; born September 14, 1978) is an American politician serving as the 46th governor of Florida since January 2019. A member of the Republican Party, DeSantis represented Florida's 6th district in the U.S. House of Represe ...

prohibiting local school districts from doing so. The conflict brought national attention and led the

Florida Board of Education The Florida Board of Education, also known as the State Board of Education (SBE), is a committee composed of members appointed by the Florida governor to guide and direct the public K-12, community college and state college education in the U.S. ...

to take action against the Alachua County School Board, including financial penalties. The district subsequently became the first in the nation to receive a U.S. Education Department grant to cover the cost of garnished wages for school board members who voted for mask requirements and other COVID-19 mitigation measures.

Schools

The district has 48 schools including 31 elementary schools, 9

middle school A middle school (also known as intermediate school, junior high school, junior secondary school, or lower secondary school) is an educational stage which exists in some countries, providing education between primary school and secondary school. ...

s, 8 high schools, two special education centers (Sidney Lanier School and A. Quinn Jones Center), an early childhood center (Duval Early Learning Academy), a family services center (Fearnside Family Services Center) and an environmental education center (Camp Crystal Lake). The School Board of Alachua County also operates the virtual, online Alachua eSchool. Private, for-profit, and charter schools are not administered by the School Board of Alachua County, and are not included in these lists.

Elementary schools

Elementary schools in the county run from pre-kindergarten to fifth grade, unless otherwise noted. *Alachua Elementary School (3-5) *Archer Community School *Chiles Elementary School *Carolyn Beatrice Parker Elementary School (K–5) *Stephen Foster Elementary School (K–5) *Glen Springs Elementary School (K–5) *Hidden Oak Elementary School *High Springs Elementary School (K–8) *Idylwild Elementary School *Irby Elementary School (PK–2) *Lake Forest Elementary School *Littlewood Elementary School *Meadowbrook Elementary School (K–5) *Metcalfe Elementary School (1–5) *Micanopy Area Cooperative School *Newberry Elementary School (PK–4) *Norton Elementary School *Rawlings Elementary School (1-5) *Shell Elementary School *Talbot Elementary School *Terwilliger Elementary School *Wiles Elementary School (K–5) *Williams Elementary School (K–5)

Middle schools

Middle schools in the county run from 6th to 8th grades, unless otherwise noted. *Howard Bishop Middle School *Fort Clarke Middle School *Hawthorne Middle School *High Springs Community School *Kanapaha Middle School *Lincoln Middle School *Mebane Middle School *Oak View Middle School (5-8) *Westwood Middle School

High schools

High schools in the county run from 9th to 12th grades. *

Buchholz High School F. W. Buchholz High School (commonly referred to as Buchholz (pronounced ) or BHS) is a high school in Gainesville, Florida, United States. Buchholz is one of seven high schools in Alachua County. Opened in January 1971, it is the largest public ...

(

Bobcats The bobcat (''Lynx rufus''), also known as the red lynx, is a medium-sized cat native to North America. It ranges from southern Canada through most of the contiguous United States to Oaxaca in Mexico. It is listed as Least Concern on the IUC ...

) * Eastside High School (

Rams In engineering, RAMS (reliability, availability, maintainability and safety)Gainesville High School ( Purple Hurricanes) * Hawthorne High School (

Hornets Hornets (insects in the genus ''Vespa'') are the largest of the eusocial wasps, and are similar in appearance to their close relatives yellowjackets. Some species can reach up to in length. They are distinguished from other vespine wasps by th ...

) * Professional Academies Magnet @ Loften High School (

Eagle Eagle is the common name for many large birds of prey of the family Accipitridae. Eagles belong to several groups of genera, some of which are closely related. Most of the 68 species of eagle are from Eurasia and Africa. Outside this area, just ...

s) * Newberry High School (

Panthers Panther may refer to: Large cats *Pantherinae, the cat subfamily that contains the genera ''Panthera'' and ''Neofelis'' **''Panthera'', the cat genus that contains tigers, lions, jaguars and leopards. ***Jaguar (''Panthera onca''), found in Sout ...

) * Santa Fe High School ( Raiders)

School and Facility Name Controversies

Alachua County Public Schools District Office

The Alachua County Public Schools District Office is in a building which dates back, in part, to the Gainesville Graded and High School, which opened in 1900. When the Gainesville High School moved to a new building in 1923, the facility became the Eastside Elementary School, and later, Kirby Smith Elementary School, named after

Edmund Kirby Smith General Edmund Kirby Smith (May 16, 1824March 28, 1893) was a senior officer of the Confederate States Army who commanded the Trans-Mississippi Department (comprising Arkansas, Missouri, Texas, western Louisiana, Arizona Territory and the Indi ...

, a general in the

Confederate States Army The Confederate States Army, also called the Confederate Army or the Southern Army, was the military land force of the Confederate States of America (commonly referred to as the Confederacy) during the American Civil War (1861–1865), fighting ...

during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

. On August 27, 2017, following the August 11 and August 12, 2017

Unite the Right rally The Unite the Right rally was a white supremacist rally that took place in Charlottesville, Virginia, from August 11 to 12, 2017. Marchers included members of the alt-right, neo-Confederates, neo-fascists, white nationalists, neo-Nazis, ...

Charlottesville, Virginia Charlottesville, colloquially known as C'ville, is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is the county seat of Albemarle County, which surrounds the city, though the two are separate legal entities. It is named after Queen Ch ...

, the School Board of Alachua County re-named the Kirby Smith Center At the time of the name change, School Board Chair Robert Hyatt stated that the board considered the name change prior to the

Caroline Beatrice Parker Elementary School

Prior to June, 2020, the school was named JJ Finley Elementary School for

Jesse J. Finley Jesse Johnson Finley (November 18, 1812 – November 6, 1904) was a brigadier general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War and a member of the United States House of Representatives from Florida, following the reco ...

, who was a brigadier general in the

during the

Removal of Confederate monuments and memorials More than 100 monuments and memorials to the Confederate States of America (CSA; the Confederacy) and associated figures have been removed, all but five since 2015. Some have been removed by state and local governments; others have been torn do ...

is motivated by the belief that the monuments glorify

white supremacy White supremacy or white supremacism is the belief that white people are superior to those of other races and thus should dominate them. The belief favors the maintenance and defense of any power and privilege held by white people. White su ...

and memorialize a

treason Treason is the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplo ...

ous government with founding principles based on the perpetuation and expansion of

slavery Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

. An opposing belief also exists, that monuments and memorials to Confederates are part of the

cultural heritage Cultural heritage is the heritage of tangible and intangible heritage assets of a group or society that is inherited from past generations. Not all heritages of past generations are "heritage"; rather, heritage is a product of selection by soci ...

of the southern United States of America. In August 2017, the School Board of Alachua County acknowledged the Finley legacy as potentially problematic, but declined to take action to rename the school. On June 16, 2020, the School Board of Alachua County (Florida) removed J.J. Finley's name from the school, during international protest associated with the

murder of George Floyd On , George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, was murdered in the U.S. city of Minneapolis by Derek Chauvin, a 44-year-old white police officer. Floyd had been arrested on suspicion of using a counterfeit $20 bill. Chauvin knelt on Floyd's n ...

. The school board on August 18, 2020 named the school Carolyn Beatrice Parker Elementary.

Caroline Parker Caroline Parker is an English actor, comedian and performer. She is deaf and a British Sign Language user. Early life Parker was born in Cheshire to a hearing family. As a child, she enjoyed dance classes. After attending mainstream schools wi ...

was a native of Gainesville who graduated from, and later taught at, Lincoln High School in Gainesville. She worked as a research physicist in the

Dayton Project The Dayton Project was a research and development project to produce polonium during World War II, as part of the larger Manhattan Project to build the first atomic bombs. Work took place at several sites in and around Dayton, Ohio. Those working ...

during World War II.

Stephen Foster Elementary School

Stephen Foster Stephen Collins Foster (July 4, 1826January 13, 1864), known also as "the father of American music", was an American composer known primarily for his parlour music, parlour and Minstrel show, minstrel music during the Romantic music, Romantic ...

is an American songwriter known primarily for parlor and minstrel music. Some modern interpretations of Foster's compositions consider the compositions to be disparaging to African Americans. Others, however, have argued that Foster unveiled the realities of slavery, while also imparting dignity to African Americans in his compositions, especially as he grew as an artist.

Sidney Lanier School

Sidney Lanier Sidney Clopton Lanier (February 3, 1842 – September 7, 1881) was an American musician, poet and author. He served in the Confederate States Army as a private, worked on a blockade-running ship for which he was imprisoned (resulting in his catch ...

served in the

as a private, and was promoted by the

United Daughters of the Confederacy The United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) is an American neo-Confederate hereditary association for female descendants of Confederate Civil War soldiers engaging in the commemoration of these ancestors, the funding of monuments to them, ...

as a poet of the

Confederate States of America The Confederate States of America (CSA), commonly referred to as the Confederate States or the Confederacy was an unrecognized breakaway republic in the Southern United States that existed from February 8, 1861, to May 9, 1865. The Confeder ...

. As stated in a previous sub-section of this article,

removal of Confederate monuments and memorials More than 100 monuments and memorials to the Confederate States of America (CSA; the Confederacy) and associated figures have been removed, all but five since 2015. Some have been removed by state and local governments; others have been torn do ...

is motivated by the belief that the monuments glorify

and memorialize a

ous government with founding principles based on the perpetuation and expansion of

. An opposing belief also exists, that monuments and memorials to Confederates are part of the

of the southern United States of America.

References

External links

* {{coord, 29.657, -82.302, type:edu_globe:earth_region:US-FL, display=title School districts in Florida Education in Alachua County, Florida Education in Gainesville, Florida 1869 establishments in Florida School districts established in 1869