- Newberry Community School opened as a public charter school in Alachua County serving grades K-4 with plans to add fifth grade.
- Newberry Community School was formed by converting Newberry Elementary after years of planning, collaboration, and legal battles. Principal Lacy Roberts, former NES principal, returned to lead NCS.
- Approximately 355 students are enrolled at NCS, with staff emphasizing teaching American exceptionalism and celebrating America 250.
Community leaders, elected officials, teachers and staff, and other supporters came together on Friday morning to celebrate the ribbon-cutting of Newberry Community School (NCS), a new conversion public charter school in Alachua County.
“A school is much more than bricks, walls and classrooms. A school is a place where dreams begin, where curiosity is encouraged, where confidence is built, and where children discover who they are and who they can become,” Derek Danne, chair of the NCS Board, said while giving remarks in the school’s cafeteria on Friday. “Today, we open the door to those possibilities.”
Cutting the ribbon on NCS not only signals a new beginning in Newberry, but it also marks the end of a multi-year process consisting of planning and collaboration, along with legal battles, to convert Newberry Elementary School (NES) into a public charter school that will serve grades K-4, with plans to expand to fifth grade…