Land Purchase Letter to the Alachua County School Board
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UPDATE MAY 11, 2020:
I am disappointed to announce that only 2 of our board members asked for a special meeting (Tina Certain and Leanetta McNealy). The remaining 3 (Rob Hyatt, Gunnar Paulson, and Eileen Roy) chose to ignore the public outcry. My understanding is that the board received over 80 emails this Mother's Day weekend requesting the meeting and the Open Letter has over 225 signatures.

We are not done with this!

Please stay tuned and continue to share this letter and our information about this purchase.

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We ask that you read our Open Letter to the Alachua County School Board.  If you would like to have your name added as a signer of this letter please fill in the Signer Name Box provided below.  We will update the final letter with our added signatures.

May 9, 2020

Greetings,

We write as a group of citizens and taxpayers, Alachua County public school parents, community leaders, and public education advocates. We are disturbed by the recent 3 to 2 split vote of the School Board on May 5, 2020 resulting in board approval of a 37 acre land purchase for $3,680,000.

We write to request a special meeting of the School Board to consider rescinding the purchase.

We believe the school district is overpaying for this property. This property was originally purchased in December 2018 for $1,850,000. We are questioning the rationale of purchasing a parcel of property that allows for a 98.9% appreciation in only 15 months time. Furthermore, we believe this is not the time for the school district to purchase additional property for future new schools (the intended time frame to utilize this land is 5-10 years down the road). We are uncertain about the short and long term impacts on the tax base, changes in student population and the new demands that will be placed on public education because of the uncertainty associated with the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on the economic conditions of the county.  
 
We do not feel this is the time for the school district to speculate on land. We believe that when asked today, the majority of voters would not consider spending $3,680,000 for a future school site to be a fiscally responsible decision. Because of the marketing of the school facilities sales tax initiative, many voters were under the impression the tax initiative was going to primarily improve our already existing schools, not fund speculative land acquisitions for schools years away from breaking ground.
 
The May 5th School Board meeting heard comments from citizens that all expressed concern with this purchase. Two board members shared apprehension with the purchase as well.  We are disappointed the remaining board members were so eager to purchase what appears to be an overpriced property that they disregarded the concerns of their colleagues on the board and the feedback of all citizen comments for that meeting. Citizens may lose trust in the School Board and future initiatives based on this purchase and based on the resistance of the board to consider public input or attempt to find consensus among the board members for large expenditures.  
 
In light of the many emails and phone calls during the board meeting and those we know have come in since, and the signatures gathered below, we request a special meeting of the Board to consider rescinding the purchase.

Sincerely yours ,

Carlee Simon, Ph.D.
Courtney Simmons
Julie Crosby
Anne Koterba, DVM, Ph.D.
Chanae Jackson
Diedre Houchen, Ph.D.
Gail Johnson
Tracy Staples, Ph.D.
Shanna Johnson
Kimberly de Vries
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Jason Heckathorn
Brenadette Harper
Elizabeth Dobelstein
Mark Dobelstein
Jacquelyn Randall, Comissioner- City of Hawthorne
Ashley A. DePeiza
Scott Crosby
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