Teachers grade lawmakers: The state’s largest teachers union, the Florida Education Association, releases the grades it’s given to legislators. Most Republicans got F’s, while most Democrats got A’s and B’s. The Senate grades are here, and the House grades here. The grades given were almost the inverse of those handed out in April by Jeb Bush’s Foundation for Florida’s Future. Unlike the foundation, the FEA calculated a grade based on the 2017 and 2018 legislative sessions, and also considered factors such as bill votes, committee work, lobbying and accessibility to union members. Gradebook. WFSU. Tallahassee Democrat.
Virtual schools: A study by the National Educational Policy Center questions the performance of the nation’s virtual schools, saying there’s “overwhelming evidence” they don’t work. The report finds that virtual schools have high teacher-to-student ratios, huge enrollments and underperform academically. Virtual schools run by districts perform far better than those run by charter schools, the researchers found. Enrollment in virtual schools have been growing steadily, and is now up to nearly 300,000 students. T.H.E. Journal.
Higher education offer: Walmart announces it will subsidize college educations for its 1.4 million U.S. workers, who will have to pay just $1 a day for 365 days a year as long as they’re enrolled in one of three universities – the University of Florida, Brandman University in Irvine, Calif., or Bellevue University in Bellevue, Neb. Walmart thinks as many as 68,000 of its employees could enroll under the plan. USA Today. Washington Post. New York Times.
School security: The city of Tallahassee rejects a request from the Leon County School District to help provide security at 18 elementary schools inside the city, despite support from Police Chief Michael DeLeo and the district’s $1 million offer. “We considered what we could do,” says interim city manager Reese Goad. “We concluded that it wasn’t something that we could help with.” School Superintendent Rocky Hanna says he’s disappointed, and will consider other options. Tallahassee Democrat. Tuesday, the Gulf County School Board will consider Superintendent Jim Norton’s recommendation to join the state’s guardian program and arm school employees. Port St. Joe Star.
Superintendent’s contract: The Duval County School Board is expected today to approve a $275,000-a-year base salary for the newly hired superintendent, Diana Greene, not including health insurance and other benefits. That’s the same base salary former superintendent Nikolai Vitti made when he was hired in 2012. On her job application, Greene’s base salary is $212,000 in her current job as chief of the Manatee County schools. She starts her new job July 1. Florida Times-Union.
National spelling bee: Two Floridians are among the 41 students qualifying for the finals today at the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C. Simone Kaplan is a 12-year-old 6th-grader from Davie who attends St. Bonaventure Catholic School in Broward County, and Marisa Langley is a 14-year-old 8th-grader from Tallahassee who is home-schooled. The 519 spellers who started the competition included 31 students from Florida. Scripps Howard Spelling Bee. Palm Beach Post. Naples Daily News.
Education and politics: Education issues such as school security, guns in schools, charter schools, scholarships for K-12 students and teacher pay figure to be critical in the U.S. Senate election this fall between incumbent Democrat Bill Nelson and the state’s Republican governor since 2011, Rick Scott. The 74.
Students empowered: An increasing number of American students now believe they can have at least a moderate influence on the government’s actions, according to a survey from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and MTV. About 48 percent of students between the ages of 15 and 22 think they have some influence, which is up from 33 percent in March. Associated Press.
Video game pulled: After parents of the students slain at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School expressed their outrage, the video game Active Shooter has been dropped by the gaming platform Steam. The game allows players to play as a school shooter who can “hunt and destroy” people they come upon, or as a first responder. CNET. The Independent. Associated Press.
Cell phone videos released: Three cell phone videos recorded by Nikolas Cruz before he began shooting people at Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14 are released to the public. In them, Cruz discusses his plans to murder students and teachers. “With the power of my AR-15 you will all know who I am,” Cruz says in one video. Sun-Sentinel. Miami Herald.
Charter renewed, warned: Manatee Charter School is given a two-year extension by the Manatee County School Board, but it comes with a warning that the school’s contract will be terminated if it doesn’t file teacher evaluations in a “timely, proper” manner. Evaluations were completed in May, but the school failed to submit 113 during the previous two school years. Bradenton Herald.
Getting into construction: Women now outnumber men attending programs related to the construction industry at the Latin Builders Association Academy high school in Hialeah Gardens. Miami Herald.
Personnel moves: LaShakia Moore is named principal at Rymfire Elementary School in Flagler County. She replaces the retiring Barbara Sauvelpahkick. Daytona Beach News-Journal. New principals are appointed at 14 Marion County schools as a result of restructuring, retirement or other departures. The changes take effect July 1. Ocala Star-Banner. Jeff Higgins is named the principal at the Orange County Preparatory Academy, a charter school in Orlando. Orange County Preparatory Academy.
New school: Students and teachers say goodbye to the old Pierson Elementary School in Volusia County. When they return in August, they’ll settle into a new school about a mile north of Pierson, which was built in 1926. Daytona Beach News-Journal.
Report cards delayed: High school and middle school students in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties may not receive their final report cards until later this month or early July, school officials say. Results from the state’s end-of-course exams are needed to calculate grades, says Escambia School Superintendent Malcolm Thomas, and those aren’t expected until later this month. Pensacola News Journal. WEAR.
District checking addresses: Pasco County school officials have begun verifying students’ addresses, and say they have not found enough discrepancies to cancel the need for rezoning for Mitchell High and Seven Springs Middle schools. Gradebook.
No more sharing sweets: Starting in August, Duval County students will no longer be allowed to bring in cakes, cupcakes, cookies and other sweets to share with classmates. The new policy is part of the school district’s push to improve student health and wellness. WJXT.
District sued over bus death: A mother is suing the Polk County School Board and Victory Ridge Academy after the death of her disabled daughter on a school bus Feb. 28. Terissa Gautney, 14, started having breathing difficulties on the bus at around 7:05 a.m. Neither the bus driver nor the aide were trained for CPR, and by the time the district made the emergency call and the paramedics arrived, 22 minutes had passed and Terissa died several days later. No charges were filed. Terissa’s mother, Denise Williams, says, “all she needed was help to get her head up or tilt her chair back or lay her on the floor. And they didn’t do anything.” Lakeland Ledger.
Troubled teachers: Three Escambia County teachers and one in Santa Rosa County have been disciplined by the state in the 2017-2018 school year. Pensacola News Journal.
School dean arrested: A Duval County school dean of students is arrested and charged with driving under the influence, exposure of sexual organs and resisting an officer without violence. Michael David Schletter, 35, dean of students at Southside Middle School in Jacksonville, has been removed from his job while the district investigates. Florida Times-Union. WTLV. WJXT. WJAX.
School threats arrests: A 14-year-old student is arrested and accused of threatening to “shoot up the school” after he was told he missed passing an alternative test to the state’s algebra 1 end-of-course exam by a single point. Students must pass one of the tests to graduate high school. The student is a freshman at Somerset Academy High School in Pembroke Pines. Miami Herald. WPLG. A 19-year-old former student at Spanish River Community High School is arrested and accused of making social media threats to schools in Palm Beach County. WPEC. Palm Beach Post.
Racial incident investigated: Bay County School District officials say a student at Moseley High School has been disciplined for putting a noose around the neck of a black student in school last week. Parents and local organizations say it’s just the latest in a string of racially charged incidents in the community. Panama City News Herald.
Opinions on schools: Florida House Republicans are fighting back against the perception that the Legislature shortchanged education, saying it’s a “myth” that “per-student funding only rose by 47 cents this year,” as educators are saying. But that “myth” claim is overstated and ruled Mostly False because the unrestricted, per-student increase is just 47 cents, according to the Florida Department of Education’s own 2018-19 document about education financing. PolitiFact Florida. Florida and its institutions failed Nikolas Cruz – and the rest of us. Miami Herald. The Seminole County School District’s focus on aviation will help fill a need in the community. Seminole School Superintendent Walt Griffin, Orlando Sentinel. Don’t Hillsborough County School Board members have better things to do than snipe and scheme against each other? Sue Carlton, Tampa Bay Times. The state attorney erred in not pursuing charges against the Marion County teacher who drowned two raccoons and an opossum during a high school class. Dewie Brewton certainly did not deserve jail time, but he should have faced some punishment, community service. What happened in his class was not humane euthanasia of a nuisance animal; it was cruelty. Ocala Star-Banner.
Student enrichment: South Florida teacher Samantha Pratt is designing an app, called Klickengage, that would help students deal with stress and also alert teachers about the students’ mental states on any given day. WLRN. Six Osceola high schools make U.S. News & World Report’s list of best U.S. high schools. Osceola County School for the Arts was the highest-rated at 34th in Florida and 467th in the nation. Osceola News-Gazette. Students at the i3 Academy at Flagler Palm Coast High School practice their creative writing skills by creating back stories for three escape rooms. Daytona Beach News-Journal.
