OCALA, FL (352today.com) – Rezoning and consolidating elementary schools on Marion County’s Northend is hardly a new conversation, and it’s one that’s vitally important.

It appears that staff’s recommendation is not to move forward for the 2026-2027 school year. However, it’s all too apparent that change needs to happen.

At the Marion County Public School Board work session Thursday, March 5, 2026, members of the community voiced their concerns, in some cases critical of the urgency and the impact it would have on staff, students, families and communities if rezoning and consolidation were to occur.

It now appears that the rezoning will take place in 2027-2028.

There will be a community meeting at Sparr Elementary Monday, March 9, 2026, at 5:30 p.m. to gather further input. The primary reason for the conversation is that Reddick-Collier is at 47 percent capacity, though the board seems amenable to taking its time in addressing the issue.

Rezoning is step one, said Marion County Public School Board Member Nancy Thrower, Dist. 4, who pointed out Reddick-Collier because of its more than a decade of declining enrollment, noting that the population in that area is aging. Thinking far into the future as the school district and board make these decisions is extremely important.

“This is what I mean by taking a little bit of extra time, and coming up with a community-type concept,” said Thrower. “We need to look at the whole Northside area as we make these decisions. We have to get started, but the conversation has to continue, so we can land on the right thing that’s going to take us forward into the future and protect the schools that we have. Reddick is our youngest school, and it’s still not even that new. We need to protect it as best we can.”

In October 2025, there wasn’t a great deal of community input regarding the schools on the Northend, although the conversation regarding those schools was already happening, said Rev. Eric Cummings, MCPS Board member Dist. 3. In making these decisions the history of the school, the culture of the community and the legacy of these educational institutions need to be protected. Community input is the vital piece of the puzzle.

“That was the issue, the community didn’t have the opportunity to talk,” said Cummings. “That’s why Madison St. (Academy of Arts) came forward and said what they said, and we were talking about Sparr and Anthony. They hadn’t had the community input. I think when we paused then, it wasn’t to put a hold on anything to stop anything from going forward, it was more so to get the input of the stakeholders. We’re talking about people lives. We’re talking about stability.”

Changes and choices 

The majority of the board seemed to be in agreement in postponing a rezoning for Sparr and not moving forward with rezoning for the 2026-2027 school year, said MCPS Chair Dr. Sarah James. The reality and the uncomfortable thing in the room is that Reddick-Collier is under capacity. If the district doesn’t rezone now, they’re gambling on (charter education initiative) Schools of Hope. The rezoning should be delayed to have a real data-based decision about building something new on the Northend to address consolidation and then timing the rezoning conversation more effectively to make sure staff has a chance to get to a different place if they so desire as well as families with school choice, who have missed the school choice window.

“The board’s expectations are that those community meetings are informative about updates that have occurred in meetings like this,” said James. “Transparently communicating that consolidation and rezoning is a high probability for what needs to happen on the Northend and to gather community input as to solutions for how we’d go about that. That would appease the community and be best aligned with the community’s values.”

The school district’s recommendation would be to move at a slower pace than what had been proposed previously, to look at long-term plans for combining campuses. There have to be some conversations about how the Northend is structured for elementary schools. Staff’s recommendation would be not to move immediately. There are a lot of moving parts that they’ve have looked at, asking the question can the district make it happen, if they were asked to do that, absolutely, said Ben Whithouse, MCPS deputy superintendent. But it may not be the best thing to move forward immediately.

At the last work session, the school district did present an update to their proposal for the Northend rezoning, the potential of combining schools in the future, and the board asked at that work session that the district come back at the March 5, 2026, work session and present a new plan that would allow for moving all of the students off of the Sparr campus for the 2026-2027 school year, and presented the plan on Thursday.

Community concerns 

Dan Davis, a retired Marion County school administrator who worked at North Marion High School and Fort McCoy Middle School, and retired from Marion Technical College, is a lifelong resident of the Sparr community and longtime member of Sparr Baptist Church.

“Sparr is a true community school, it’s in an old historic area, that enjoys and benefits from the support of Marion County residents, including the parents, businesses and churches in the area,” said Davis. “Involvement by the community reflects the concern that our children in the North Marion area and in the Sparr area have the opportunity to attend and participate in their school and in their local community. Currently, students who attend Sparr Elementary School or matriculate to North Marion Middle School and then North Marion High School, these three schools are all located on HWY 329 and within just a few miles of each other. That is true community. We believe that community is important to our schools, important to our kids, and they best learn when they’re in community.”

One of the area’s elements Davis is particularly pleased about is the relationship and cooperation that exists between Sparr Elementary School and Sparr Baptist Church. The relationship has developed over many years and includes an after-school Faith Champions program that serves about 70 children.

The church also provides adult volunteers that assist teachers in the classroom, as well as individual tutoring in specific areas, and specifically in the reading area. The volunteers develop close relationships with the students as well as with teachers, and they serve as quality community role models for the children, he said.

Jackie Beard is a resident of Sparr, and he spoke about the history of Sparr Elementary School, with his children having gone to Sparr and how they are now excelling in life, having achieved not only in academics, but in business, because of the foundation the learning institution provided his children.

“I’m proud of our school, and I’m proud to say that I used to go to that school,” said Beard. “I went from a one room portable at Fort McCoy, when it was a Black school. I went to Citrus School, which is now at Sparr Elementary School as the music room and the art room. I went from there to Sparr Elementary. I’m asking you to consider our school.”

David Hartley is the librarian/media specialist at Sparr Elementary School. He has served the Marion County Public School district since 1990, and he was concerned about the urgency in taking Sparr Elementary offline; there would have been no official word until the end of April, and that creating an inequitable situation for personnel at the school having to seek employment and enter the transfer portal by the end of March.

“I realize that you have a much larger picture to look at than what I’m involved with at this time, but I hope to bring to you at least one perspective on how this very important decision will be so impactful,” said Hartley.

Madelyn Rainey asked that the board’s decisions and considerations remain centered on one thing above all else: the well-being of the children.

“For elementary children, school is so much more than a building, it is where they learn how to form friendships, how to trust adults outside of their family, how to manage big emotions, and how to feel safe and confident in the world around them,” said Rainey. “Research consistently shows that school stability in the early years supports strong literacy development, emotional regulation, social confidence, and long-term academic success.”