Vote against changing spring break dates
Published: Tuesday, February 7, 2012 at 10:10 p.m.
Last Modified: Tuesday, February 7, 2012 at 10:10 p.m.
The Alachua County School Board Tuesday heard that teachers and staff overwhelmingly voted to keep spring break separate from the University of Florida and Santa Fe College.
The board also approved several lease agreements with the city of Gainesville as part of the stormwater dispute settlement.
The School Board held a public hearing on the proposed 2012-2013 school calendar. School Board Chairwoman April Griffin said she wanted the board to consider aligning spring break with that of UF and Santa Fe on March 2-6.
Teachers and staff members were polled by the Alachua County Education Association on their feelings about aligning the breaks, said President Karen McCann.
Nearly 740 teachers and staff members voted to keep the proposed spring break — now set for the last week in March — while 79 voted to align it with UF and Santa Fe.
McCann said she was “surprised” that the School Board chose to get involved with the calendar issue when usually the spring break date is settled during contract negotiations between the superintendent and ACEA.
She said she hoped the district would take the feelings of its employees into consideration.
“Somebody's going to be happy, and somebody's not going to be happy,” she said.
Bridget Grogan, an instructor at the University of Florida, told the School Board that for the past 14 years, she has missed spring break with her children.
“My kids were left home alone; that was their spring break,” she said.
Many support staff at the university also have children enrolled in public schools, Grogan said, and would like the luxury of spending that week as a family, thus avoiding costly day-care bills.
Under the stormwater agreement with the city, the school district agreed to lease 15 sites at different schools to the city. The city then can build retention ponds and other stormwater management facilities on those sites in lieu of collecting fees from the district.
According to the agreement, the district will charge rent for the land, but the amount, just over $12,000 a month, is equal to what the district has paid in stormwater fees in the past, officials said.
The school sites include: A. Quinn Jones, Howard Bishop Middle, Duval Elementary, Stephen Foster Elementary, Gainesville High, J.J. Finley Elementary, Kirby-Smith Center, Sidney Lanier Center, Lincoln Middle, Littlewood Elementary, Professional Academies Magnet at Loften, Metcalfe Elementary, Rawlings Elementary, Terwilliger Elementary and Williams Elementary.
The lease agreement was a final part of ending an ongoing lawsuit filed by the city against the School Board, which voted unanimously in 2009 to stop paying stormwater fees. The city sued in 2010 after mediation efforts stalled. In January, both governmental agencies developed the leasing plan. The two bodies will now dismiss the lawsuit.
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