It served about 170 students in its first term. Today, the Alachua County school district has 43 schools, with an enrollment of 29,763. School segregation ended in 1970, some 16 years after the U.S. Supreme Court's 1954 decision in Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka, Kan., after a 1969 case in which the U.S. Supreme Court agreed with a local minister's claims that local school officials were resisting integration. Children ride yellow school buses to large brick and concrete buildings, where they meet year-round. Computers are rapidly becoming a part of regular classroom instruction.
Teachers belong to unions, which negotiate yearly contracts with an elected school board.
Education has come a long way. But it has stayed the same. The opinion largely prevails that the public school system will largely fail to meet public expectations in its results unless more funds are provided. In 1999, many parents, teachers and school observers throughout the state still say the schools don't have enough cash. Several private schools opened, including James Henry Roper's Gainesville Academy, built on the corner of University Avenue and SW 2nd Street.