The 2024-2025 school year for Gainesville City Schools begins on Tuesday, Aug 6.
Gainesville Superintendent Jeremy Williams recently discussed upgrades to the system that have opened over the past few years.
“When you look at the progress made in Gainesville City Schools since the summer of 2020, we opened a new middle school, we opened the new Advanced Study Center for Workforce Development, we opened a new media center and cafeteria on the high school campus, we opened the Student Activity Center, the covered pavilion, some track and field improvements and the turf on that field,” Williams said. “Then last year, we opened up the final instructional building at Gainesville High School. The last four years have been extremely busy, extremely challenging in many ways, but also very rewarding.”
Williams added that it has been nice to take a step back from larger projects and see their vision come together.
“The last four years, we are glad to see all of that just come to fruition, because now we truly have state-of-the-art facilities for all of our programs, whether it's our academics and our AP programs, where we have over 500 students involved in that. Whether it's our workforce development pieces, and our CTE courses, where we have more than 300 kids involved in our Work Based Learning program. It's just a great time to be able to see the vision come together. And now we get to keep building on it year after year,” Williams said.
Williams discussed the biggest challenge of returning to school.
“Academics is always a challenge because it's just getting kids in school, and if they are in school, we are able to take them to new heights, attendance has continued to get better. But it's still a challenge,” Williams said. “We need our families to understand that your kid can't learn unless they are in school. And that partnership begins at home and getting the kids up and going and reinforcing the value of education and the doors that it will open for our students and their children.”
Williams added opening Horizons Academy will be challenging but it has come with success.
“That's a new setting for us in Gainesville City Schools. We had success last year as a program, we had 88 students from last year's cohort that were a part of that program, who were more than a year behind on credits, and 80 of those kids were able to graduate," Williams said. “Now having it as a separate facility and a separate focus within Gainesville City Schools is going to be a challenge to make sure that we implement those programs, and we also continue to see the success that we saw last year.”
Williams discussed the tragic death of Jeremy Medina who was accidentally struck in the head by a baseball bat at Gainesville High School's batting cages on Nov. 20.
“The most challenging situation we had, of course, was the passing of Jeremy Medina. That took a toll obviously on the Medina family, some of which we employ. But it also took a toll on the baseball players, the coaches and the teachers and just the community in general,” Williams said. “And when you get into this business, you get into it to serve families and to educate students. But you also realize the larger role you have to just support the community. And while that was an extremely challenging time, it was also a testament to how the community comes together to support one another during the challenging time.”
Lastly, Williams discussed what he is excited about this school year.
“So personally, I will tell you as a dad, I always enjoy seeing the kids come back like you would as a superintendent, but being able to see the growth of kids. I have had a unique perspective in my seven years here in Gainesville City School of having my children in the school system all of those years,” Williams said. “Being able to see kids is one thing, but then being able to see the relationships that they've built and that I've built and built amongst each other. It's great because you get to know the kids personally, and you get to be excited for their successes and the doors that you get to see open for them.”
