Alachua County Public Schools interim superintendent agrees to contract extension
Alachua County interim Superintendent Kamela Patton during Tuesday night's School Board meeting agreed to extend her contract as the board works to find a permanent district leader.
Patton, the former superintendent of Collier County Public Schools, was unanimously appointed by the board to the interim position in November 2024. Patton's contract was initially approved through June 30, 2025, with the option to terminate or extend it by mutual agreement. Patton on Tuesday agreed to extend her contract to June 2026.
“Part of the reason I wanted to come was to help stabilize things and dig at things and make sure that we collectively really attract a really great superintendent and hopefully one that has experience, and we can give them a roadmap of where we started and then continue on,” Patton said. “I’d be happy to request a year extension to take it to June of 2026 and in so doing that, but would make this a very further clear that there would be no other extensions — it’s June of 2026. That’s a public pledge that I would also not be part of that next search.”
Board Chair Sarah Rockwell said she was glad Patton agreed to an extension and looks forward to working with the community to find a superintendent.
“One of the promises I made to this community repeatedly is that we would have a superintendent search rather than appointing someone for a long-term contract,” Rockwell said. “I want to assure the community that — from my perspective — in order for us to do an intentional and comprehensive search with the kind of community input I’ve been promising our community, we really do need to extend that timeline. This is about doing things correctly rather than hastily.”
Board member Tina Certain said she wanted the board to make sure its priorities were taken care of before transitioning someone into the role because she wants to ensure the conditions in the district are strongly conducive to the success of the new superintendent.
“We have five board priorities that did not get addressed in the past two years,” Certain said. “We have to untangle some of this mess until we move forward and make ourselves desirable to the next candidate so we can attract somebody good. ... We want to get somebody that will be here for a long time.”
Board members on Tuesday also watched a presentation on the three options available to them to conduct the superintendent search: direct contact, request for information and request for proposals.
The direct contact option consists of identifying one search firm and the commencement of work is dependent on the firm’s availability. The superintendent search and selection process would take place from March 2025 through June 2025 and cost between $48,000 to $52,000.
The request for information option consists of identifying multiple search firms depending on the firms' availability with the firms directly presenting to the board at a workshop or meeting. After the presentations, the board would select a firm to enter into a contract with. The cost of the search and the timeline would mirror that of the direct contact option.
The request for proposals (RFP) option consists of the RFP being advertised and opened for submission proposals between January and February this year. Submissions will be sent to the Proposal Evaluation Committee, which will review proposals at a public meeting.