Adequacy review: Plaintiffs are asking the Florida Supreme Court to review a lower court’s decision denying their claim that the state doesn’t adequately fund public schools and therefore violates the state constitution. The lower court ruled that funding was adequate and that the lawsuit dealt with “political questions not subject to judicial review.” An appeals court agreed. The case, Citizens for Strong Schools v. Florida State Board of Education, was filed in 2009. Orlando Sentinel.
Payments to charters: The Palm Beach County School District’s request to block payments to charter schools is denied by a Leon County circuit judge. The district asked the court to temporarily block the provision of the new state education law that requires districts to share money district collect through local property taxes for school construction and maintenance. That law requires the Palm Beach County district to pay county charter schools $9.3 million by Feb. 1. School board chairman Chuck Shaw said, “We will continue to fight to protect local school board constitutional rights to control and operate our schools, and that includes making sure that every penny is properly spent with our oversight and not put into the hands of private property owners and managers.” Palm Beach Post. redefinED.
Teachers honored: Nicole Grebosz, a technology special area teacher at Citrus Grove Elementary School in DeLand, is named the Volusia County School District’s teacher of the year. Daytona Beach News-Journal. Cynthia Johnson, a music resource teacher for the Brevard County School District, wins the Florida Music Education Association Leadership Award. Space Coast Daily.
Principals honored: The Florida Department of Education chooses finalists for the Florida principal and assistant principal of the year awards. The finalists for principal of the year are: Eric Fleming, West Shore Junior/High in Brevard County; Kenneth Savage, James Stephens International Academy in Lee County; and Traci Wilke, Lawnwood Elementary in St. Lucie County. Finalists for assistant principal of the year are: Trisha Elliott, Crystal Lake Elementary in Martin County; Jackie Ramsey, Carver Middle in Orange County; and Tiffany Cantwell, the Webster School in St. Johns County. Florida Department of Education. Viera Voice. Space Coast Daily.
Tax plan’s effect: The new U.S. tax bill is likely to have a bigger impact on the Collier County School District than most other Florida districts. The bill puts a $10,000 cap on local property taxes that can be deducted from federal taxes, but the 56,140 households in Collier claimed an average deduction of $16,336. School officials worry that property owners will pressure the school board to lower the millage rate to offset their losses, which would reduce the amount of money collected by the district. Naples Daily News.
Displaced students: More than 2,400 students displaced by Hurricane Maria have enrolled in the Osceola County School District. Gateway High School has enrolled the most, 135, while Osceola High School has added 118. “It’s a big number, but the students are spread out,” says Dana Schafer, the district’s public information officer. “So we haven’t seen a major strain on resources yet.” Osceola News-Gazette.
School tax votes: Sarasota County education officials are trying to downplay divisions among board members, an ongoing pay dispute with the teachers union, and sexual harassment and discrimination allegations against Superintendent Todd Bowden as they ask voters to approve a four-year extension of the extra 1-mill property tax on March 20. Sarasota Herald-Tribune. Education advocates square off against the Republican Party of Manatee County over the March 20 election on a 1-mill property tax increase. If approved, the referendum would raise about $33 million a year, which would be used for teacher pay raises, a longer school day, STEM programs and charter schools. Sarasota Herald-Tribune.
Discrimination complaint: The U.S. Office of Civil Rights is investigating racial discrimination complaints made against the Alachua County School District by the local NAACP chapter and the African American Accountability Alliance. The groups allege the district discriminates in its hiring practices. Gainesville Sun.
More on graduation rates: Miami-Dade County’s graduation rate of 80.7 percent in 2017 is a record high. Ten years ago, the rate was 58.7 percent. Patch.com. Osceola County’s graduation rate increased by 4.3 percentage points from 2016 to 2017, to 86.3 percent. It’s the 15th best rate among Florida’s 67 counties. Osceola News-Gazette. Florida Department of Education. Lee County’s graduation rate was up to 78.7 percent in 2017, the highest since 2011. Fort Myers Beach Observer. Comparisons of the graduation rate performance of Lee and Collier counties against other districts’. Fort Myers News-Press. Marion County’s graduation rate fell by 3.3 percentage points in 2017, from 81.8 percent to 78.5 percent. It was the second-biggest percentage point loss among counties with more than 20,000 students. Ocala Star-Banner. A change in state law involving senior year transfers and lower graduation rates for some groups of minority students are thought to have contributed to a decline in Martin County’s graduation rate. TCPalm. Gains in Florida Standards Assessments scores in Collier County don’t match up with graduation rates, and a possible explanation is the increasing number of students who fail the FSA and instead use SAT or ACT scores to meet graduation requirements. Annika Hammerschlag, Naples Daily News. Seven of the nine Lake County high schools show graduation rate gains, but Leesburg High’s rate fell 8.4 percentage points, dragging down the county’s rate compared with last year’s. Daily Commercial. Brevard County’s graduation slips slightly, but remains above the state average. Florida Today.
New district projects: The Brevard County School District will soon starting working on 16 projects that are expected to cost about $14 million. Among the projects are the reopening of an elementary school, providing transportation for students who attend schools outside their zone, and hiring more social workers, literacy coaches and security officers. Florida Today.
Affordable housing: The Monroe County School Board will consider formally endorsing a project to build 480 affordable rentals for teachers and other public employees on the site of the district’s administrative offices in Key West. Keynoter.
MLK Day absenteeism: Almost 9,000 of Collier County’s 47,000 students stay away from school Monday on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The district held classes as a makeup day for time lost when Hurricane Irma hit the state. WBBH.
School board elections: A senior at George Jenkins High School in Lakeland is challenging the incumbent for the District 3 seat on the Polk County School Board. Kala Ivy Tedder, 18, joins middle school science teacher Sarah Fortney in seeking the seat of retired teacher Hazel Sellers, who is serving her fourth term on the board. Sellers has yet to announce if she’ll seek re-election. Lakeland Ledger.
Personnel moves: Khrystal Phiri is named athletic director at Montverde Academy in Lake County. Phiri will succeed Denarvise Thornton, who is leaving at the end of the school year. Daily Commercial.
Opinions on schools: A Legislature-ordered study on whether individual districts should be allowed to use national exams to replace state assessments tests asked the wrong question. What the Legislature should have asked is whether it would be feasible to replace the existing high-school-level FSA exams in math and English language arts with the SAT or ACT on a statewide level and still get federal approval for Florida’s Every School Succeeds Act plan. Paul Cottle, Orlando Sentinel. Kudos to Collier, Lee and Florida schools, which all improved their graduation rates compared with a year ago. Naples Daily News. We cannot help but wonder what would have happened if the community and parents had enthusiastically embraced Evergreen Elementary School, had befuddling state laws not driven the best teachers away from the school, had attendance lines been drawn with community in mind and the school board had been more attentive to what was undeniably a failing school. Ocala Star-Banner. There is no amount of resource the Lake County School District should be unwilling to expend to address the social, academic and environmental factors that have eroded Leesburg High School. Daily Commercial. We should hold all schools accountable — traditional public, charter and private receiving tax credits — and ensure that all schools that receive government resources or tax credits take an equal share of students from homes that are struggling financially, and that the racial and economic ratios remain close to the actual ratios in the larger community. Cecile Scoon, Florida Politics. Raising graduation rates and closing the achievement gap don’t happen by accident. It takes concentrated, data-driven effort and considerable resources to get more kids — especially poor and struggling students — into a cap and gown. Tampa Bay Times. A senior from Nease High School in Jacksonville could go directly from graduation to deportation, and it would be a loss for this country. Mark Woods, Florida Times-Union. It’s still clearly better to enter the adult world armed with a high school diploma than without one. Thus, while achieving a 75 percent graduation rate is good, we must not stop encouraging our young to finish school. Lakeland Ledger.
Student enrichment: Safely Ever After founder Pattie Fitzgerald speaks to students and parents at several south Florida Jewish schools on ways to prevent childhood sexual abuse. Sun-Sentinel. About 135 adults in the Duval County Reading Pals program help preschoolers learn their shapes and the sounds of letters and words. Florida Times-Union. Gainesville’s Eastside High School celebrates the 35th anniversary of its International Baccalaureate program. Gainesville Sun.
