Education bill: The Florida legislative session moves into its final three weeks, with a series of education issues to be decided. The Senate is reviewing the House education bill, and among the proposals being considered is replacing the House bill with the Senate version. Both bills would establish a Hope Scholarship for students who are victims of bullying or violence, though they disagree on how to pay for the program, and force teachers unions to disband if paying membership falls below 50 percent of the employees represented. Higher education issues, such as permanently funding an increase in Bright Futures scholarships, also will be addressed. News Service of Florida. redefinED. Gradebook. WUSF. Miami New Times. Gatehouse Media. WLRN. About 150 Tampa Bay area teachers protest against H.B. 7055 just down the street from House Speaker Richard Corcoran’s Land O’Lakes office. Gradebook.
Political pressure: Marjory Stoneman Douglas students plan a march on the capital Wednesday to demand action on gun safety, just one of several rallies planned. Florida legislators say they will consider laws enacting an age limit to buy an assault rifle and add a three-day waiting period for all rifle purchases. Gov. Rick Scott has organized three meetings today to discuss school safety improvements and ways to keep guns out of the hands of people with mental illnesses. Miami Herald. Associated Press. Politico Florida. News Service of Florida. Orlando Sentinel. Sunshine State News. Florida Politics. WLRN. Legislation pushed by Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam will be considered once legislators strip out a provision allowing people to get a concealed carry permit without a thorough background check. Politico Florida. President Donald Trump says he would support an improvement in putting criminal offenses and other data into the national instant background check system. Sun-Sentinel. Broward School Superintendent Robert Runcie has spent much of the past five days acting as a tour guide for state and national politicians to the tragic shooting in Parkland, with the bullet casings and pools of blood still on the floors. “We’ve given them detailed tours and explanations of what has happened so they become sensitized to the tragedy and we can get the support we need,” Runcie says. “We only have one opportunity to make sure they understand what was inflicted on our community.” Miami Herald.
Cruz’s rifles, appearance: Accused school shooter Nikolas Cruz had purchased 10 rifles in the year leading up to the killing of 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland last week. CNN. Cruz made his first appearance in a Broward circuit court Monday, but said nothing. The appearance was to discuss a sealed defense document that reportedly involved access of defense lawyers to Cruz. Sun-Sentinel. Miami Herald. WKMG. NBC News. Sun-Sentinel. The Florida Department of Children and Families will release 22 pages from a 2016 report compiled after caseworkers visited Cruz. The DCF got approval for the unusual move from a Broward County judge, which was necessary because Florida law prohibits the release of DCF files without a court order. Miami Herald.
Other developments: Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School will reopen to students Feb. 27. Sun-Sentinel. Miami Herald. A 15-year-old student at the Parkland school is credited with saving at least 20 students with his actions last Wednesday. Anthony Borges was shot five times, and is recovering in a hospital. Associated Press. Brevard County School Superintendent Desmond Blackburn says schools need more money to make security upgrades. Florida Today. Bay County Superintendent Bill Husfelt is calling for armed guards at every school. Panama City News Herald. Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd says his department is willing to train and arm teachers in schools. Orlando Sentinel. Some teachers are asking districts to let them know when emergency drills are planned so they know it’s safe to evacuate students and that it’s not a real emergency. Gradebook. Threats against schools and auctions of AR-15 rifles put gun control in the national conversation. Gatehouse Media. Pensacola News Journal. Sarasota Herald-Tribune. Tallahassee Democrat.
Injunction rejected: A Leon County circuit judge has rejected a request for an temporary injunction against the education bill passed last year by the Legislature. Thirteen school districts challenged H.B. 7069 , with districts alleging the law violates their constitutional powers to operate local schools by requiring them to share money with charter schools and to follow state-approved turnaround plans for persistently low-performing schools. Judge John Cooper did not explain his reasoning. News Service of Florida.
Outside operators: The Pinellas County School Board will consider a district proposal to turn three persistently struggling schools over to a company to operate. Under the plan, Fairmount Park Elementary, Lakewood Elementary and Azalea Middle would be turned over to Learning Sciences International in August if they don’t get C grades from the state this year. The district would pay $144,000 per school for the 2018-19 school year, and from $198,000 to $624,000 a year after that until 2023. Gradebook.
School repairs: Seventeen Palm Beach County schools have been repaired to date with money generated by the 1-cent sales tax increase approved by voters in 2016. Now the work moves on to more complicated projects, such as the rebuilding of Addison Mizner Elementary School in Boca Raton to an as-yet-t0-be determined site. “We’re on an aggressive schedule,” says Wanda Paul, facilities management director. “You’re going to see a lot more activity. We have 10 years to complete these projects, and it’s not going to take that long.” The tax is expected to generate about $650 million for schools. Sun-Sentinel.
School board elections: Collier County School Board member Kelly Lichter says she won’t run for re-election in November. She has been a school board member since 2014. One candidate, Jory Westberry, has filed papers to run for the District 1 seat. Naples Daily News. LaTrice Moore, a business professor at Polk State College, is running against three other candidates for the District 3 seat on the Polk County School Board. The seat is held by Hazel Sellers, who is not running for re-election. Lakeland Ledger. Thomas Kennedy is running for re-election to the District 1 seat on the Citrus County School Board. Citrus County Chronicle.
Coach arrested: A part-time assistant softball coach at Frostproof High School is arrested and accused of having a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old girl. Polk County deputies say the girl played for a travel softball team coached by Billy Ray Noe, 33, that is not affiliated with the school. A recommendation to fire Noe from his job at Frostproof will go to the school board later this month. Lakeland Ledger.
Ex-teacher’s plea: Kenya Williams, a former 1st-grade teacher at Breakfast Point Academy in Panama City, pleads no contest to charges of keeping a drug. She’ll receive 18 months of probation. She resigned her job a few days after her arrest last September. Panama City News Herald.
Opinions on schools: We should listen to the students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Just listen to them. Their voices are remarkable and offer something no one saw coming in the aftermath of this tragedy. Hope. Dave Hyde, Sun-Sentinel. Floridians should join these high school students to make their voices heard, to declare that merely fortifying schools and adding more armed officers to prepare for the next attack is unacceptable. We’ll find out soon if this moment really is different. Miami Herald. It is understandable that the Marjory Stoneman Douglas students arriving in Tallahassee on Wednesday labors under the false belief that if only they can speak with their elected officials and perhaps Florida Gov. Rick Scott, they will be able to reason with them to do something about the scourge of gun violence. That’s so, touching. And naive, too. Daniel Ruth, Tampa Bay Times. Schools have a responsibility to keep students safe, but doing so will, more than ever, require more than just armed guards. It requires realizing when kids are reaching a breaking point, and responding to their cries for help and attention. Gil Smart, TCPalm. Cutting Healthy Start is short-sighted both from a human and a financial perspective. We call on the Legislature, which is now in budget negotiations, to fully fund the program. Tallahassee Democrat.
Student enrichment: More than three years after suffering a brain injury in an accident, Lakeland Christian senior Brock Guynn is back on the soccer field and on track to graduate this spring. Lakeland Ledger. Eighty Escambia and Santa Rosa students will win a six-day trip to the National Flight Academy this summer, courtesy of the Studer Foundation of Pensacola. Pensacola News Journal. South Sumter High School student Andrew Ashley is selected as a 2018 Sunshine State Scholar for being one of Sumter County’s top juniors in STEM classes. Daily Commercial. Two Treadway Elementary School students explain to Lake County commissioners why a sidewalk is needed along County Road 473, near the school. Daily Commercial.
