Alachua County School Board members vote to keep superintendent until June 2024

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (WCJB) - After hours of discussion, Alachua County School Board members voted to postpone superintendent search until January 2024.

Dozens of parents and even Newberry Mayor Jordan Marlowe, took part in the Alachua County School Board meeting to show their support for Interim Superintendent Shane Andrew, after school members shared their evaluation of his performance.

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Although Interim Superintendent Andrew’s contract ends in June of 2024, board members initially agreed on Monday, to bring in a new superintendent by November 30th. After several hours of debate board members decided to keep Superintendent Andrew until the end of his contract. Members voted to maintain Andrew in a 3-2 vote, with Tina Certain and Sarah Rockwell in dissent.

Member Tina Certain told TV20 student achievement, rezoning and strategic planning are some of the goals that she believes Andrew lacked focus on.

“I brought forth the superintendents name,” shared Certain. “He’s in this position because I valued his experience with the district, his work experience with the district. But he was hired on to be our interim superintendent until the new board came to do a superintendent search.”

However several parents and residents shared their concerns at the podium saying Andrew should stay in his position because he is a strong leader and maintains stability in the district.

“This man has shown his dedication to the children,” shared resident Janet Evans. “He needs to have more time in order to put some of his plan in place. With the problems that we have in the school, it can’t be expected to be fixed overnight.”

Alachua County schools have had seven superintendents, including interims, throughout the last ten years.

Superintendent Andrew argued he needs more time to put plans in place. After hours of discussion and resident input the board unanimously agreed to accept their evaluations of Superintendent Andrew, which had mixed opinions about his work.

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