Florida schools roundup: Growth, jobs, teacher pay and more

florida-roundup-logoGrowth. The Hillsborough district puts off plans for a new middle school to focus its resources on accommodating enrollment growth at high schools. Tampa Tribune. Manatee schools will have to add portable classrooms to accommodate enrollment growth next school year. Bradenton Herald.

School choice. An add for presidential candidate Jeb Bush features a former school choice student. First Cost News. A Tampa Tribune columnist looks at vouchers’ track record over the years.

Budgets. Sarasota schools officials say they’re getting less funding than they’d expected. Sarasota Herald-Tribune. What’s in the state education budget? GradebookredefinED.

Superintendents. Alachua’s Owen Roberts gets a positive evaluation. Gainesville Sun.

Job security. Hillsborough teachers who failed to pass a state certification exam are set to lose their jobs, and a majority of them are assigned to low-income schools. Tampa Bay Times. All but seven annual teacher contracts are renewed in Brevard County district schools. Florida Today.

Teacher pay. Palm Beach teachers and support staff approve a pay raise. Sun-Sentinel

Success. A once-troubled teen prepares for college. Florida Times-Union.

Administration. Martin and Indian River County school district shuffle administrators for next year. Stuart News. Indian River Press-Journal. A Leon County Schools saga looks more like a soap opera each day. Tallahassee Democrat. Palm Beach’s new chief starts hiring staff. Palm Beach Post.

Support. A new program aims to help rising middle schoolers prepare for the next level. Naples Daily News.

Nutrition. Alachua makes changes to its summer meal program. Gainesville Sun.

Activism. A Miami-Dade school gets named after a longtime community activist. Miami Herald.

Planning. The Pasco school district crafts a success plan. Gradebook.


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BY Travis Pillow

Travis Pillow is Director of Thought Leadership at Step Up For Students and editor of NextSteps. He lives in Sanford, Fla. with his wife and two children. A former Tallahassee statehouse reporter, he most recently worked at the Center on Reinventing Public Education, a research organization at Arizona State University, where he studied community-led learning innovation and school systems' responses to the Covid-19 pandemic. He can be reached at tpillow (at) sufs.org.