In the Legislature: The power to decide whether students should be held back a grade would pass from school officials to parents under a bill that’s been filed in the Florida Senate. S.B. 200 is sponsored by state Sen. Lori Berman, D-Boynton Beach, and she said it lines up with a statement made last spring by Gov. Ron DeSantis that “parents may, at their discretion, choose to keep their child in the same grade for the 2020-21 school year” if they have concerns about their child’s progress with online learning. Berman said, “We talk all the time in Tallahassee about how parents should have choices. This is just following through on that.” The bill would also allow parents to request their child be moved up a grade if the child has shown accelerated performance. If the bill is approved, parents would have to file a formal request to the district superintendent by June 1. Tampa Bay Times. Also introduced was a bill that would require public schools to provide free feminine hygiene products to students. S.B. 242 was introduced state Sen. Lauren Book, D-Plantation. News Service of Florida.
Around the state: A Brevard County teacher has died of complications from the coronavirus, a statewide grand jury is calling for changes in the way schools define crimes and said the state’s mental health system has “urgent problems,” Pinellas County teachers are asking the district for stricter safety precautions since more students will return to schools in the second semester, two Lee County teachers are accused of selling the contents of state tests used to evaluate and certify Florida teachers and principals, a man fleeing police ran through a Lee County high school before being detained, and Leon County has selected its teacher of the year. Here are details about those stories and other developments from the state’s districts and private schools, and colleges and universities:
Broward: A statewide grand jury investigating the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School said this week in its third report that Florida’s mental health system has “urgent problems” and should be overhauled. It also called for reforms in school policing and the reporting of crimes in schools. Specifically, the grand jury criticized the misreporting of crimes in schools and recommends that school officials defer to law enforcement in how to define crimes. Sun Sentinel. Lawyers defending the school district against negligence claims over the 2018 Parkland school shooting have withdrawn a request that families of the victims be ordered to turn over their Facebook posts for review. Attorney Eugene Petti said in court Thursday that the media had unfairly characterized their motion. Sun Sentinel. WTVJ.
Palm Beach, Treasure Coast: Rapid-results coronavirus tests are being welcomed in some area school districts and rejected in others. One hundred and fourteen Palm Beach County students and staff have been tested on campuses this week, and St. Lucie school officials expect to begin using the tests next week. Martin officials said they aren’t using the tests, and Okeechobee will send the tests it received to the health department to use for students and employees who are referred for testing. WPTV.
Duval: The KIPP charter school network is building a K-6 school in the northwest part of the city that is expected to be open next fall. The K-6 building will then house the KIPP Bold City High School, its first in the area. The city council recently approved $23 million in bond financing to build the $15 million school and refinance existing debt. redefinED.
Polk: District officials are preparing their spring education plan, and will be asking parents soon for a decision on how they want their children educated. In-person and online learning will continue to be offered, but only students working above their grade level will have the option of attending virtually. The plan also calls for the district to intervene with struggling online students, for closely monitoring student attendance, and continuing the professional development for teachers and staff. Lakeland Ledger.
Pinellas, Tampa Bay area: With more students expected to return to classrooms for the next semester, Pinellas teachers are negotiating with the district to improve working conditions. The first semester agreement is expiring soon, and teachers “have to know what kind of protections are going to be put in place,” said union president Nancy Velardi. “A mask (alone) is not going to cut it.” Tampa Bay Times. While Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco and Hernando district schools have lost about 4.6 percent of their students since last year, enrollment in charter schools in those counties is up more than 12 percent, according to September head counts. Education experts said charter schools can be attractive during a pandemic because they often offer in-person attendance, greater flexibility, are usually smaller and are in newer facilities with better ventilation. Tampa Bay Times. Both the Pinellas and Pasco school districts have shortened the time students and employees with the coronavirus must spend in quarantine from 14 days to 10. Tampa Bay Times. Reuben Hepburn, a former principal at Dunedin High School and Gibbs High in St. Petersburg, has died at the age of 49. For years he had battled Systemic Lupus Erythematosus, a recurring condition causing inflammation in the body that forced him to step down from Gibbs last May. Tampa Bay Times.
Lee: Two teachers from Fort Myers have been accused by federal prosecutors of stealing and selling the contests of tests used by the state to evaluate and certify teachers and principals. Earlier this month, a federal grand jury issued an indictment alleging racketeering conspiracy, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit theft of trade secrets and theft of trade secrets against Jeremy and Kathleen Jasper, who own a company called NavaEd, racketeering conspiracy, 108 counts of wire fraud, conspiracy to commit theft of trade secrets and three counts of theft of trade secrets. They allegedly registered for the tests, memorized the questions and answers and then sold them on the company website or through Amazon and Spotify. Miami Herald. A man who was fleeing from police ran through a building at Fort Myers High School on Thursday before being detained. The man was at Lee Memorial Hospital, which is adjacent to the school, awaiting a mental health evaluation when he ran off. “I know they have safety protocols in place, but it’s alarming that he got from the hospital and on the campus and onto the courtyard, which is right where they go to lunch,” said Whitney Wilcoxson, whose child attends the school. WINK. WFTX.
Brevard: A Lyndon B. Johnson Middle School teacher has died of complications related to the coronavirus. School district officials said reading teacher Elizabeth Toro is the first known county teacher to die after contracting the coronavirus. “Ms. Toro was best known for her dedication and immense passion for helping her students succeed,” the district said in a statement. Grief counselors will be at the school today. Florida Today. A former science and math teacher at Melbourne High School is one of 18 people chosen for NASA’s Artemis program and could be picked for a flight landing on the moon between 2024 and 2028. Joe Acaba, who has been an astronaut since 2004, has already flown on the space shuttle and on a Russian spacecraft for a stay on the International Space Station. “To actually walk on the moon, for me to have that as a possibility is just incredible,” Acaba said. No humans have walked on the moon since 1972. Orlando Sentinel.
Seminole: Seven people at Lake Mary High School have tested positive for the coronavirus after a wrestling tournament last weekend in Orange City, and nearly 100 students are being advised to quarantine. The Lake Mary, Lake Brantley and Hagerty wrestling programs are also shutting down temporarily. WKMG. WFTV.
Collier: About 3,500 struggling students who are learning online should return to classrooms next semester, the district is recommending to parents. That’s 44 percent of the students who are in the Classroom Connect remote learning model. District officials said those students are not making “adequate progress,” which is defined as earning at least C grades in all classes and attending at least 90 percent of classes. About 2,700 of those students have already indicated they will be returning to schools. Naples Daily News.
Lake: School officials have reduced the quarantine period for students and employees who contract the coronavirus from 14 days to 10. Those who become infected can now return to school after 10 days if they’ve been fever-free for 24 hours without medication, and if symptoms such as coughing and shortness of breath have lessened. Students and employees who were exposed to someone with the virus have to wait six days to take a rapid-results test. If the test is negative, they can end the quarantine after seven days. Daily Commercial.
Marion: The Kiwanis Club of Ocala and the Early Learning Coalition of Marion County have purchased 2,600 clear face masks that will be distributed to preschool teachers in 160 early learning centers. Wearing conventional face masks makes it more difficult to teach sounds and words, said Faye Goring, owner of Toddler Town Academy in Ocala. WKMG.
Escambia, Santa Rosa: School superintendents in both Escambia and Santa Rosa counties said students learning online are struggling and falling behind, and increasingly are asking to switch to in-person instruction. “The unfortunate trade-off of keeping kids at home is that, for a number of our students — but certainly not all — there is a regression in their learning,” said Escambia Superintendent Tim Smith. “Engagement can be hard with kids at home, sitting on the computer for hours and hours, and there are just different circumstances there. We’re having a significant number of kids who are falling way behind on the remote platform.” Santa Rosa Superintendent Karen Barber said 200 families have switched from virtual to in-person learning in the past week, while just 27 went from remote to face-to-face. She called that a “renewed appreciation for the importance of education,” and said the benefit of face-to-face learning is hard to replicate online. Pensacola News Journal.
Leon: Althea Valle, a teacher at Amos P. Godby High School in Tallahassee, has been named the school district’s teacher of the year. Valle teaches English through ESOL (English speakers of other languages) and developing language ESOL classes. Tallahassee Democrat. WTXL. WCTV. The number of coronaviruses cases is spiking in Leon County, but district officials said there’s no evidence schools are contributing to the increase. “We are spiked a little in the numbers because we’re coming back from Thanksgiving, but we are not what you see around the country. That just hasn’t hit us,” assistant superintendent Alan Cox told school board members this week. But not all the news is good. “One troubling trend we’ve seen in recent months is an increase in teen suicide attempts and suicide-related deaths,” said Dr. Thomas Truman, a pediatric intensivist at Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare. Tallahassee Democrat.
Bay: A coronavirus outbreak is sending high school students at the Deane Bozeman School in Panama City to online-only learning until after the Christmas holidays, Bay County School District officials said Thursday. “At this time, given that approximately one-third of the high school student population at Deane Bozeman is under quarantine, we have made the difficult decision to close the high school section (grades 9-12) effective today through the end of the Christmas holidays,” read the press release from the district. All sports, clubs and other extracurricular activities are canceled. WMBB. WJHG. Panama City News Herald.
More on the coronavirus: An advisory panel recommended Thursday that the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine be approved by the Food and Drug Administration for immediate distribution. Florida is expected to receive 179,400 doses next week, Gov. DeSantis announced. Hospitals will get 97,500 doses for health-care workers, while CVS and Walgreens will get 60,450 and county health departments 21,450 to distribute in long-term elderly care facilities. Orlando Sentinel. Florida Phoenix. Florida Politics. Associated Press. New York Times.
Opinions on schools: What’s most striking about the results of Advanced Placement testing in math and science subjects in Florida this past May is how much they look like the state’s results in any other year. Paul Cottle, Bridge to Tomorrow.
