A “sigh of relief”: School Board agrees to extend Superintendent’s contract to June 2026

Alachua Chronicle | By Jennifer Cabrera | January 15, 2025

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – At their January 14 regular meeting, the School Board of Alachua County voted to extend the Superintendent’s contract to June 2026 while conducting a search for a permanent Superintendent.

Newly-hired Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources Deborah Terry told the board they have three options for conducting a Superintendent search:

• Select a specific search firm
• Issue a Request for Information
• Issue a Request for Proposals

Terry said firms are at the height of search season right now, so the timing of the search would depend on their availability. She estimated that if the board selected a specific firm, the search would take place between March and June of 2025 and would cost between $48,000 and $52,000.

Terry said they can select a specific firm because “the firm would be contracted as a professional services provider, and they are exempt from competition under state board rules.”

The Request for Information option would involve identifying multiple search firms, with the search period depending on the firm’s availability. The firms would give presentations to the board, followed by a board discussion, and then the board would vote to select a firm at their next meeting. The schedule and cost would be about the same as selecting a specific firm.

Terry said the Request for Proposals (RFP) process is more extensive and involves sending out an RFP, appointing a committee to evaluate the proposals, holding a public meeting to create a short list, hearing presentations from the firms on the short list, voting to select a firm, and then creating a timeline for the rest of the process. She said that would happen between March and June and would cost between $50,000 and $52,000, although the price could be higher depending on the scope of services and travel expenses for the firms.

Terry said the goal is to have a mid-June decision that would lead to a start date of July 1 for the new Superintendent; Superintendent Kamela Patton’s contract ends on June 30, 2025.

Certain: Board is facing “a short runway”

Member Tina Certain said she expected that an RFP process would take six to eight weeks before the search could even start, but Terry said the board is only required to keep the RFP open for 11 days. As Past President of the Florida School Boards Association (FSBA), Certain favored using FSBA for the search.

Certain said they were facing a “short runway” in trying to hire a Superintendent by the end of June: “Are we going to have a runway long enough to do that, and are we desirable to get a good person in here – is our district in a place?… We’ve got some challenges… It’s not just doing a search and putting somebody in there because this isn’t a spot where anybody can just do this job. It’s a skilled position… [The Superintendent] has to operationalize what [the board’s] vision and our goals and our mission are… And if it is not a good person, we end up… like a rudderless ship.”

Certain said they’re hiring a Chief Executive Officer for an organization with a $600 million budget, almost 4,000 employees, 38 to 40 schools and other sites, and 28,000 students: “It’s no secret, I want to go with our state association (FSBA), that’s my thing.” She said that whatever they decide, they will need to “get in line” behind other districts that are already conducting searches. She expressed frustration that the firing of former Superintendent Shane Andrew required the board to conduct an unplanned search instead of the transition that had previously been planned at the end of his contract.

Vu: “We need to make sure we bring order to the chaos first”

Member Thomas Vu agreed, “We need to make sure we bring order to the chaos first so we can attract the best possible candidate, and this is something I don’t want to rush.” However, he preferred the RFI process.

Rockwell: May is a busy month for interviews

Chair Sarah Rockwell preferred the RFP process as “a very transparent search process that allows ample opportunity for community input.” She didn’t think they would get good responses if the RFP was only open for 11 days. She said she was initially open to hiring FSBA to move more quickly, but since FSBA is already conducting several searches, that may not actually be faster.

Rockwell was also concerned that the proposed timeline would require interviews in May, which is a very busy month for school employees, students, and families. She added, “My biggest concern is what happens if we get to June 30 and because of all of the other obligations everyone has during May, because the firms have other searches going on, these ideal timelines can’t be met… What is our plan in that instance?”

Member Leanetta McNealy said the board has “always used the Florida School Boards Association,” but if they’re not going to use FSBA, she would like to have more time to look at the other options. She also thought the timeline was “a problem.”

Certain: “We’ve got to untangle some of this mess before we can go forward and make ourselves desirable to the next candidate”

Certain said that if there is no transition time for Patton to transfer knowledge to the new Superintendent, “the next person is going to have to take the time that she’s taken” to become familiar with the district. She said having another transition so soon would again postpone the board’s priorities, which have not been addressed in the past two years. She continued, “We’ve got to untangle some of this mess before we can go forward and make ourselves desirable to the next candidate, so we can attract somebody good… We want to make sure we make a good hire so this is not money that we have to spend again.”

Rockwell said she was also concerned about the lack of transition time, especially since administrative reappointments have to happen by June 30, so a new Superintendent would come in with all the appointments complete for the next year.

Patton: “You have a community that supports education off the chain here”

Patton said she had agreed to serve as Superintendent “to really try and help stabilize things and dig at things and make sure that we really attract a really great Superintendent.” She said she had enjoyed her short time in Gainesville and had enjoyed working with the board and staff and added, “You have a community that supports education off the chain here – two taxes plus the Children’s Trust. That’s three ways they tax themselves to help education.”

Patton: “I’d be happy to request a year extension”

Patton said she didn’t know how to get the board’s priorities accomplished and also hire a Superintendent by June, “so what I’m saying is that I’d be happy to request a year extension to take it to June of 2026… but no other extensions. It’s June of 2026, that’s a public pledge, that I would also not be part of that next search.” She said by then, the district will have gone through multiple rounds of the processes she’s setting up and would be more stable, “so [I’d be] happy to do that.” She suggested starting the search in October next year, which sets up interviews for April.

Rockwell: “I’m kind of breathing a little sigh of relief”

Rockwell responded, “So what I’m hearing you say, and I’m kind of breathing a little sigh of relief, is you’re willing to extend your existing contract for one year with a public promise not to apply.”

Patton emphasized that all the conditions would be the same, just with a new ending date of June 30, 2026. Her contract pays $22,275 per month.

Rockwell asked whether Patton would definitely stay through June if the new Superintendent wanted to start earlier, and Patton said, “I think we do the transition all the way through… We can work all that out. So we’ll make that happen, either way.”

Vu: “I really appreciate your willingness to stay on another year”

Vu said he was “just echoing the sigh of relief… because I wanted a very diligent process… I really appreciate your willingness to stay on another year.”

Certain: Board needs to “put some guardrails up”

Certain thanked Patton for being open to extending the contract, but she recommended having a workshop where “we sit down and we really map out what we’d like to see done in this extension – and we have some checkpoints and… make sure we’re all on the same page.” Certain said she would “probably melt down” if Patton started the rezoning process and then said they shouldn’t proceed: “I cannot go through that again… I don’t think it’s fair to our community to go through something like that… I think having additional time gives us a longer runway to be able to plan and do a good search, but I do think we should put some guardrails up… I want to come out of this vortex. I want to get off the crazy bus.”

Vu agreed that a workshop would be useful to map out what they want to accomplish in the coming year.

Rockwell: “This is about doing things correctly, rather than hastily.”

Recalling her campaign promise to do a Superintendent search, Rockwell said, “I want to assure the community that, from my perspective, in order for us to do an intentional, comprehensive search with the kind of community input that I’ve been promising our community, we really do need to extend that timeline. And when Dr. Patton says that she is not going to put her name into the search, I believe her. And when she says that she is not willing to stay more than that extra year, I also believe her because she has family down in South Florida and a home down there that she has graciously left behind… This is about doing things correctly, rather than hastily.”

No motion was made and no vote was taken, but Rockwell asked Terry for next steps, and Terry said she would bring back an addendum to Patton’s contract. Rockwell said the board would decide at a future meeting whether to choose a firm or use the RFI or RFP process.