On a spring day in April 2024, teachers and parents at Newberry Elementary filed in to cast ballots determining if the school would be converted into a charter.
By the end of that day, the answer —under the Florida Administrative Code at the time — was no.
Both a majority of teachers — and a majority of parents — had to vote in favor of the conversion. The parent vote passed. The teacher vote fell one short of the threshold — with only 22 yes votes out of the 44 teachers eligible to vote.
The Alachua County School District, which supervised the election with assistance from the county's Supervisor of Elections, certified the results and publicly posted the vote had failed.
Nearly one year later, the Florida Charter School Review Commission approved the charter application anyway.
The decision prompted questions from legal experts and community members about the interpretation of state law — and the role of local input in school governance — regarding Newberry’s only elementary school.
A vote cast, a vote dismissed
The state’s charter law was clear, until it wasn’t.
A few months after the failed vote, the Florida Department of Education revised its administrative code, changing the voting requirements from a “majority” to “at least 50%.”
It also removed a provision allowing an application to be submitted without the majority of parent and teacher approval.
The change was initiated by FLDOE Office of School Choice Director Adam Emerson. The revisions went into effect in September, five months after the Newberry vote.
Under Florida statutes, administrative rules can’t be applied retroactively, including those intended to clarify existing law, “unless that power is expressly authorized by statute.”
Johnathan Ferguson, a 67-year-old Cedar Key resident, is a retired education attorney. He spent 15 years advising Florida school districts on charter law, overseeing applications, compliance and litigation.
“The rule, in effect at the time of an action, is the rule that's controlling,” he said. “I am not aware of an agency having the authority to make a rule such as this, having retroactive application in this context.”
Under the same Florida statute, the DOE is not expressly authorized to retroactively apply any rule.
Newberry Community School Inc., a five-person not-for-profit, submitted the official conversion charter application in November to the Florida Charter Review Commission.
The DOE contracts with Miami-Dade College’s Florida Institute for Charter Innovation, which reviews and analyzes charter school applications submitted to the commission.
Throughout the entire campaign, leaders of the charter initiative said in public meetings and on official initiative documents the majority had to vote yes.
Charter advocates also didn’t appeal the failed vote within the required 30-day window, as required by state law. By not doing so, Ferguson argues it waived any right to challenge the determination, and therefore “their application never should have been considered,” he said.
When reviewing the application in February, the FCI explicitly stated it didn’t evaluate the validity of the vote, leaving the matter to the DOE’s legal team, according to the meeting’s transcript.
The commission’s choice to not certify the vote was “irresponsible,” Ferguson said.
“In my opinion, having a passing vote is the most important initial criteria that the review commission should have looked at,” he said.
FLDOE Deputy General Counsel James Richmond told the Charter School Review Commission the statute overrides the conflicting administrative rule, as previously reported by the Alachua Chronicle.
He acknowledged the rule was inconsistent with the law and said the department has since updated it — but that change came months after the vote and can’t be applied retroactively.
While Florida statutes are laws enacted by the state legislature, the Florida Administrative Code contains rules and regulations created by state agencies to implement those statutes.
Even so, Richmond advised the commission to recognize the vote as valid, citing legal precedent that statutes outweigh conflicting agency rules. The commission voted unanimously to accept his recommendation and move the application forward.
Municipal vs. conversion charter: Newberry’s application
Under the current application, it’s unclear whether Newberry will be a municipal or conversion charter school in practice.
A charter school must be organized as, or operated by, a nonprofit organization. Conversion charter schools are traditional public schools that have been converted to charters.
After it’s approved, applicants form a governing board to negotiate a contract with the district’s school board, which becomes the school’s sponsor, outlining academic and financial standards.
Municipal charter schools are sponsored by local school districts in partnership with a municipality, which enrolls students through a random lottery.
NCS Inc. submitted a conversion charter school application despite numerous instances in which it uses municipal wording.
Although day-to-day operations would be at the hand of school administration, and the independent governing board would oversee control, Newberry Mayor Jordan Marlowe, who will take over as city manager following the mayoral election April 8, called the city the “financial backstar” and “service provider,” according to the commission meeting transcript.
The application also makes it clear the principal will notify the city manager for personnel decisions, indicating a control structure involving city officials.
Understanding supporter initiatives and municipal involvement
Education First for Newberry Inc. was a not-for-profit organization formed to advocate for the conversion of Newberry public schools to charter schools. EFN created the YesNewberry campaign, which promoted the charter conversion initiative.
Articles of Incorporation for EFN were filed in November 2023, indicating it was formed nearly three months before the charter initiative’s first public announcement.
EFN hosted the first public announcement of the initiative outside Newberry City Hall in February 2024, citing reasons including overcrowding, test scores and a desire for more local control.
Just a few days later, YesNewberry held its first community presentation on the plan, with promises to increase teacher pay and benefits, shrink classroom sizes and include a flexible curriculum.
The presentation also stated the charter would partner with the city to use its existing departments, such as maintenance, human resources and accounting and finance.
While the charter proposal was presented as a community-led initiative, public records show significant involvement by the City of Newberry.
Emails obtained through public records requests show city officials — including Mayor Jordan Marlowe, City Manager Mike New and Assistant City Manager and Chief Financial Officer Dallas Lee — hired consultants, coordinated strategy meetings and negotiated budgets for the charter application more than two months before the official community meetings began in February.
During the charter initiative, Marlowe publicly maintained he wasn’t involved with the campaign.
But Marlowe quietly invalidated his public statements when he emailed Andy Binns, a previous financial director for Palm Beach County Schools, to discuss teacher salaries in December 2023.
“I need an idea of what I can offer to get as many teachers voting yes as possible,” Marlowe wrote. “Let me know if [or] when my requests have exceeded your scope of work, and I will make sure we compensate you!”
Just a few days after working salaries with Binns, Marlowe emailed FLDOE Office of School Choice Director Adam Emerson, thanking him for his “assistance” on the preliminary budget.
While the coordination continued through the April 2024 vote, education attorney Johnathan Ferguson said he believes Newberry didn’t do anything illegal as far as its involvement with the not-for-profit. Rather, he said the city of Newberry found a “huge loophole.”
“This is a way for cities that are more conservative than the county that they’re located in to take control of public schools,” he said. “So even though conversion charter schools aren't allowed by cities, the way this is happening is, in effect, a municipal conversion charter school.”
Marlowe did not respond to requests for an interview.
The governing board
Months after the failed April 2024 vote, the Newberry City Commission unanimously approved over $100,000 in legal services to help build the charter application at a meeting in June.
During the presentation, no information was presented on the consultants or impact to the overall budget.
Directly after that vote, Marlowe presented the nominees for the charter’s initial governing board, the group to become Newberry Community School Inc.
It’s unknown whether there were public notices of an application process to apply for the governing board, and it’s unknown how some of the members were chosen by the board.
Shortly after the meeting, the city hired project manager Caroline Anderson to oversee the application process.
Public records reveal her company, The Osmanthus Group LLC, was paid at least $6,600 in total by the city to formulate the application. Records also show Newberry paid the company over $3,000 at the end of July for “charter school project management.”
There was no direct mention of The Osmanthus Group when it was originally presented to the commission.
Newberry Community School Inc. wouldn’t become an official not-for-profit until September, according to Sunbiz records. It’s unclear whether NCS Inc. received money from the commission before registering as a not-for-profit.
Days before NCS Inc. submitted the November charter application, the commission unanimously approved over $2 million in loans to help launch the charter – money to be repaid by the school in future years.
NCS Inc. board members didn’t respond to interview requests.
As of April, the Florida Auditor General hasn’t created an audit of Newberry’s 2024 expenditures.
ACPS’ current response
While Florida statutes state the Charter Review Commission’s decisions can be appealed, the provisions only mention appeals by an applicant.
Due to this distinction, there isn't clear authority for ACPS to appeal the application’s approval, Ferguson said.
“It seems the legislature decided that it wasn't going to set up a process for a school district to get involved within that decision making,” he said. “That leaves the school district in a quandary as to how to proceed.”
Despite having no grounds, the Alachua County School Board formally appealed the state’s approval of the proposed Newberry Community School anyway, arguing the conversion violates Florida law and administrative rules.
In a letter March 26, the board asked the Florida State Board of Education to overturn the Charter Review Commission’s decision.
According to the appeal, the district noted at least 92 concerns with NCS Inc.’s application, where 17 sections of the application “partially” or “does not meet” the standard.
The letter also argued the review commission’s decision sets a dangerous precedent undermining the integrity of school conversion rules.
ACSB wrote the concerns brought up at the review commission meeting were addressed “superficially,” without extensive details.
The appeal also claimed an argument “can be made” for the application to be a “de facto municipal conversion charter application.”
ACSB said the lack of legal grounds for a sponsor to file an appeal is “inherently unjust and unfair.”
The district will be drafting an initial proposed charter contract to NCS within the next few weeks. The charter negotiations and an appeal can move forward simultaneously, ACPS Spokesperson Jackie Johnson wrote in an email.
“If the district does not present the charter board with a proposed contract, the charter board can essentially write its own, which obviously would be a problem,” Johnson wrote.
Community perspectives
Some parents have been vocal in opposing the charter conversion, citing concerns about transparency, equity and future precedents for charter efforts.
Annie Muscato, a 34-year-old parent of two Archer Elementary students and an active opponent of the charter conversion, said she initially approached the proposal with an open mind — but grew concerned after attending public meetings and reviewing documents.
She partnered up with nearly 10 other community members to form the opposition not-for-profit Save Our Schools Newberry.
With a background in education communication and grant writing, Muscato said she immediately noticed inconsistencies in the charter's finances, especially regarding the repayment of the $2 million loan. She was told by charter advocates in a public meeting that they weren’t hiring a grant writer, she said.
“Even people who are professional grant writers don’t get 100% of grants funded that they apply for,” she said. “Like city staff has any qualifications to write a federal education grant.”
Muscato said she also questioned the integrity of the review process after the Review Commission accepted the application despite the failed vote.
“The fact that the process is simply being ignored to push something through makes it hard not to be suspicious of why or how that’s even happening,” she said.
The situation has eroded trust within the community, she said, noting relationships among parents have become strained.
Some parents would stop her to say they didn’t feel comfortable speaking out against the charter but appreciated what she was doing. Others sent her “Hey, girly” texts asking her to reconsider.
From Muscato’s view, the issue is larger than just Newberry. She said she feels like the elementary school is a “test case” that could be used to replicate charter conversions across Florida.
Jessica Mrozinske Baker, a 52-year-old Newberry resident and member of SOS Newberry, said the charter approval was both a “theater” and “a sham.”
Her biggest worry is how the application failed to present meaningful solutions to well-known infrastructure issues at Newberry Elementary, she said.
“The capacity issue is a big problem,” she said. “It’s over capacity without even the fifth grade there, and yet they dodged that question and, in fact, added students without changing anything about the structure.”
The population of children up to age 9 in the Newberry-Archer sub-county area is 1.4 times higher than the rate of children in Alachua County as a whole, according to 2023 census records.
While she didn’t feel directly retaliated against, Baker said she felt parents who opposed the charter were regularly painted as anti-child or anti-teacher.
While some said the city acted as a “de facto applicant,” coordinating finances and consultants, Newberry City Commissioner Tim Marden said the city was simply supporting what it saw as a grassroots community effort, where charter advocates are “plowing new ground.”
“Our obligation is to hear people out,” he said. “We have told the staff their marching orders… is to find a way to say yes.”
The city won’t have “anything to do” with the management of the school, and after the loan is paid, Marden said it won’t contribute further funding.
Marden said he hopes Oak View Middle School and Newberry High School, both located within the area, also become charter schools.
In addition to being a staunch supporter of charter schools, Marden works as a national development officer for The John Birch Society, an American right-wing political advocacy group criticizing public education, stating schools are “systematically brainwashing students with harmful ideologies,” according to its website.
“I would like to think that, given the success I anticipate for the elementary school, as those kids grow up, they’re going to want to stay in that sort of environment,” he said. “I think the parents will as well. I think they will eventually convert.”
Marden said he believes the Newberry charter could be used as a model for other cities in Florida, calling the city a “trailblazer” that is “thinking outside the box.”
Looking ahead
ACPS Spokesperson Jackie Johnson wrote the ACSB will decide whether the district moves ahead with legal actions “if an appeal is denied.”
Newberry Community School is slated to open Fall 2026, and the district will “obviously have to plan for” loss of revenue, charter expenses and service costs for students in Newberry who choose not to attend the charter, Johnson wrote.
Concerns remain about the precedent the decision may set for other Florida districts, leaving community members to navigate the aftermath of a vote that was held — and, some argue, ultimately disregarded.
Contact Sara-James Ranta at sranta@alligator.org. Follow her on X @sarajamesranta.
Sara-James Ranta is a third-year journalism major, minoring in sociology of social justice and policy. Previously, she served as a general assignment reporter for The Alligator's university desk.
