Education on trial: The groups suing the state for allegedly not providing a high-quality education for all public school students will get two more days to submit their final written arguments to the judge. Attorneys asked for the extra time to review all the testimony and documents. The final arguments are now due to the judge by Wednesday. Orlando Sentinel.
Board member resigns: Palm Beach County School Board member Mike Murgio resigns a day after his federal indictment on a bribery charge. Murgio, 65, is accused of bribing the chairman of a New Jersey credit union to hide money made illegally by a bitcoin-transferring business. Palm Beach Post. Sun-Sentinel. Murgio’s arrest shocks the education community. Sun-Sentinel.
Student vaccinations: The Florida Department of Health reports that student vaccinations are at their lowest level in a decade. About 93 percent of kindergarten students and 90.6 percent of seventh graders had all of their required immunizations this year. Florida law requires students to be vaccinated. Tampa Bay Times.
Construction spending: Broward County School District employees failed to get bids for nine district construction projects for more than a year after the school board approved them. Six of the projects still haven’t been put out for bids. Sun-Sentinel. Central Florida school districts are tightening their rules for spending on construction projects. Orlando Sentinel.
Discipline changes: Changes in the Duval County School District’s discipline policies have pushed on-campus arrests down 39 percent this school year. School officials say the flexibility of making decisions by using the code of conduct is keeping students out of the juvenile justice system. Florida Times-Union.
Teacher bonuses: Two rulings have now gone against teachers challenging the eligibility rules for the state’s teacher bonuses. Judges from the state Division of Administrative Hearings ruled against two Sarasota teachers March 29 and April 8, saying one is a therapist, not a teacher, and the other didn’t score highly enough on his ACT test. A ruling on a third case is due in the next couple of weeks. Naples Daily News.
Religion and schools: The Hillsborough County School District continues to struggle to define the boundaries for religious activities in public schools. Tampa Bay Times. The district will not investigate the coaches who invited a Fellowship of Christian Athletes representative on campus for prayers. Gradebook.
State testing: Pasco County students who didn’t take the Florida Standards Assessments tests will be given one chance to take the makeup version. If they decline, says Superintendent Kurt Browning, “we’re going to note it and move on.” Gradebook. The opt-out movement is growing slowly in Miami and south Florida. The head of testing for Miami-Dade schools says her department has gotten fewer than a dozen opt-out inquiries — in a district of 350,000 students. Miami Herald. State testing is stressful for teachers as well as students. Ocala Star Banner.
Teacher shortage: More than 150 aspiring teachers attend the Volusia County School District job fair. Volusia plans to hire about 100 as the district and others around Florida struggle to fill jobs. “I’ve never seen it (the teacher shortage) this bad before,” said Lynda Hayes, director of the P.K. Yonge Developmental Research School at the University of Florida. Daytona Beach News-Journal.
Substitute pay: The Palm Beach County School District is considering a pay raise for substitute teachers. The highest-paid subs make $13.50 an hour, a figure that hasn’t changed since 2007. Palm Beach Post.
School changes: Lake Alfred-Addair Middle School has received an F grade in each of the past four years, and the Polk County School District is planning to turn the school around by making it a magnet program with a science, technology, engineering and math focus. Lakeland Ledger.
Portable classrooms: The oldest building at Oneco Elementary School will be torn down and replaced temporarily by five portable classrooms, if the Manatee County School Board approves. Bradenton Herald.
Teacher honored: Jon Mundorf, a secenth-grade language arts teacher at P.K. Yonge Developmental Research School, receives an Outstanding Young Alumni Award from the University of Florida College of Education. Mundorf emphasizes the universal design for learning, which encourages learning environments that are easily accessible for all students. Gainesville Sun.
Notable deaths: A house fire kills a Sabal Palm Elementary School second-grade teacher and her two daughters. Rajames Scott was a second-year teacher at the Tallahassee school. Her daughters, Anisha and Aniyah, were first and second-grade students, respectively. Tallahassee Democrat. Hiram Henderson, a physics teacher and the longtime head of the Vero Beach High School science department, died a week ago at age 81. Laurence Reisman, TCPalm.
Help with costs: High-school costs can add up quickly, especially for struggling families. Some organizations, such as Belle of the Ball in Clearwater, are helping by providing prom dresses free of charge to girls from low-income schools. WUSF.
Abuse settlement: The Monroe County School Board is expected to approve a $550,000 settlement with the family of an autistic boy who was reportedly sexually abused by a substitute teacher at the Reynolds School. The teacher, William Britt, is now in a federal prison for possession of child pornography. Miami Herald.
Ex-union chief’s time: A federal judge rejects part of former Broward Teachers Union president Pat Santeramo’s plea agreement with prosecutors. Santeramo will now serve 18 more months in federal prison after his five-year state prison term. He was found guilty of stealing money from the union, and also pleaded guilty to a federal mail fraud charge. Sun-Sentinel.
Teen hit by truck: A 15-year-old Palm Harbor High School student is seriously hurt when he’s hit by a pickup while walking to school Friday morning. Tampa Tribune. Tampa Bay Times.
School threats: Sheriff’s deputies think a hacker is responsible for making online threats against Okaloosa County schools Friday. They say the hacker was probably trying to pin the threat on the man whose account he hacked. Northwest Florida Daily News. Atlanta Journal Constitution.
Opinions on schools: Transgender students possibly using the bathroom of their choice constitutes an emergency for the Marion County School Board? Brad Rogers, Ocala Star Banner. Disrespect for teachers starts at the top and trickles down from the Broward County School Board, through the taxpayers, the parents and directly into the classroom. Steven Maltese, Sun-Sentinel. Leesburg High School can be a top flight school or a top fight school. School officials need to do more than press charges for last week’s cafeteria fights to make sure it’s the former. Lauren Ritchie, Orlando Sentinel. The flawed teachers bonus program rightfully received sharp criticism during its formation. An analysis showing that teachers in affluent schools are much more likely to get the bonus than teachers at poor schools proves the critics correct. Bradenton Herald. Nothing is more frightening than needing to be reassured about the safety of their children at school. Wendy Victora, Northwest Florida Daily News. School choice may be a good thing, but it’s probably going to cause headaches for the St. Johns School District. St. Augustine Record. Athletic transfers within a county in the same school year will take high school sports down a corrupt road. David Moulton, Fort Myers News-Press. It’s important for voters to hear from Collier County School Board candidates about issues but also how they intend to conduct themselves if elected. Naples Daily News. As the Sarasota County School Board looks to replace Superintendent Lori White, it must remember that no quality is more important than trustworthiness. Thomas Tryon, Sarasota Herald-Tribune. The first Leon County Shark Bowl shows that the entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well in the district’s high schools. Chris Mills, Tallahassee Democrat. The state can’t afford to waste millions of dollars on the half-baked teacher bonuses program. Daytona Beach News-Journal. The Legislature delivered by keeping choice, innovation and students’ education needs as top priorities in 2016. Erika Donalds, Naples Daily News.
Student enrichment: The Orange County School District is one of 15 districts to receive a 2016 U.S. Department of Education Green Ribbon award. Orlando Sentinel. Students at Matanzas High School are conducting video interviews of Flagler County’s veterans to preserve their stories. Daytona Beach News-Journal. Two dual-enrolled State College of Florida Collegiate School students, Jacob Johnston and Sofia Sirocchi, are among 128 named to the Florida Department of Education’s 2016 All-Florida Academic Team. Bradenton Herald. Fourteen Collier County students are honored at the Afro-Academic, Cultural, Technological and Scientific Olympics. Naples Daily News. About 100 Lee County elementary students swing and sway in the Colors of the Rainbow Team Match, the ninth annual dance-off to show what they have learned throughout the Dancing Classrooms program. Fort Myers News-Press. North Bay Haven Middle School math teacher Frank Luke occasionally turns over his classroom to students. “If you put the onus of responsibility on them, they will do it,” Luke says. Panama City News Herald. A hands-on GED program at First Coast Technical College provides older students a second chance at a diploma and a career. St. Augustine Record.
