Financial aid bill hearing postponed, guns in church bill advances, Monroe schools fully reopening March 29 and more

S.B. 86 sidetracked: A Senate committee hearing Tuesday for the bill that would change the way student college financial aid is awarded was abruptly postponed in the face of growing opposition. S.B. 86, sponsored by state Sen. Dennis Baxley, R-Ocala, would tie financial aid to a student’s choice of majors and make funding for Bright Future scholarships contingent on annual appropriations from the Legislature instead of being a fixed percentage of tuition. Both proposals have drawn intense criticism, especially from student groups. It was pulled from the  Senate Education Committee agenda less than 24 hours before it was due to get its first hearing. “He [Baxley] is aware of concerns from outside groups and some concerns Senate colleagues have expressed,” said Senate spokeswoman Katie Betta. “He wants to listen and talk to some more people before it’s heard in its first committee.” Baxley said, “We’re getting a lot of different inputs, and some of it looks interesting. I thought we should hit the brakes and check through some of this. There might be some things that we could make this a lot more understandable and appreciated by the folks affected.” News Service of Florida. Miami Herald and Tampa Bay Times. WWSB.

More from the Legislature: The Senate Criminal Justice Committee approved a bill that would allow people to carry guns in churches even if there’s a school on the property. It didn’t come without questions from some members of the committee and growing opposition to the bill from a variety of civic organizations. Florida Politics. Florida Phoenix. A bill that would change the way the Baker Act is used against students has been revised, with two key provisions removed. Gone are proposed requirements for school districts to report more data on students who are removed from campus under the law, and having mental health crisis intervention training for school safety officers. Politico Florida. A proposal has been filed to allow traffic cameras to be installed in school zones. News Service of Florida. Capitol News Service. Bills (S.B. 274 and H.B. 93) that would expand the number of minors who could have their criminal records expunged and speed the process are moving through the Legislature. Politico Florida.

Tilting against testing: A growing number of school boards, educators and advocacy groups are calling on the Legislature and Florida education officials to not use the results of state testing to grade schools, decide if students should be retained and evaluate teachers. The Alliance for Public Schools, made up of school boards from around the state, PTA members and other school advocates, is lobbying for the tests to be canceled. Both the Biden administration and Florida Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran have said the tests will go on so they can measure student progress, or lack of it. But if the tests can’t be canceled, the alliance wants students and schools held harmless by the results. Orlando Sentinel. Tampa Bay Times.

Around the state: Monroe County students can return to classrooms March 29 if they choose to, a cyber attack disables many of the Broward County School District’s computer programs, an Instagram post accuses Miami-Dade’s school superintendent of marriage infidelity, LGBTQ and face mask mandates continue to be sources of conflict in several districts, a push to hire a school equity officer has drawn criticism in Indian River County, Sarasota schools will have proms but they won’t include dancing, and the first day of St. Johns County’s school year has been pushed back six days to allow for a longer summer vacation. Here are details about those stories and other developments from the state’s districts, private schools, and colleges and universities:

Miami-Dade: Instagram posts with shirtless selfies of Miami-Dade County School District Superintendent Alberto Carvalho were made public Monday, along with allegations that he’s been unfaithful to his wife. The owner of the account has not been identified. Carvalho issued the following statement: “I am both disturbed and saddened to learn about the existence of a fake social media account, portraying illegitimately obtained images of me, that advances commentary of a personal nature meant to presumably damage character and hurt those around me.” Miami Herald.

Broward: Many of the school district’s computer software systems have been shut down by a cyber attack. The main online platform, Canvas, was recovered Monday but several other systems are expected to be inaccessible for most of this week. “In light of recently identified cyber security risks, these systems are currently undergoing urgent maintenance to improve their performance and reliability,” said an alert sent to employees. An employee said, “We were told this was a very serious attack,” and that it’s being investigated by law enforcement. Sun Sentinel.

Hillsborough, Pinellas: Graduations in both the Hillsborough and Pinellas school districts will be in person this spring, district officials announced Tuesday. Hillsborough’s graduations will be held from May 24 to June 3 in the expo hall at the Florida State Fairgrounds. Each graduating student will get two tickets for guests. Pinellas also anticipates in-person graduations with each student getting four tickets for guests. The dates have not been set. Tampa Bay Times. A literacy audit of students commissioned at midyear by Hillsborough school officials showed discouraging but not unexpected results, according to deputy superintendent Terry Connor. Computer-based products are being used to try to prep students for the statewide tests. Tampa Bay Times. New principals have been appointed at two district schools. Donald Peek, an assistant principal at Bloomingdale High School, will take over at Turkey Creek Middle School, and Jennifer Dames, the assistant at Seminole Elementary, will assume control of Reddick Elementary. Both start their new jobs March 22. Tampa Bay Times.

Duval: The board of the first-year Cornerstone Classical Academy charter school in Jacksonville abruptly fired its principal Tuesday, four days after suspending her without pay. No explanation was given for the removal of Melanie Williams, who will be replaced on an interim basis by assistant principal Dawn Oehmann. Many parents voiced anger at the decision, saying Williams was well-liked. WJXT.

Pasco: Forty-three high schools for teens with substance abuse problems have been opened in 21 states, and a 44th is planned in Pasco County. Victory High is expecting to open later this year with up to 50 students between the ages of 14 and 19. Founder Tina Levene, who went through her own recovery from substance abuse to become a social worker, came up with the idea in 2017 while working for the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice. She said the relapse rate is less than half for students in a recovery high school than those who attend traditional schools. redefinED.

Brevard: Groups opposing and supporting school district rules that accommodate LGBTQ students and staff rallied outside Tuesday’s school board meeting, and some made it into the meeting where the guidelines were discussed. The rules were established in 2016, but became an issue when they were distributed to school leaders for reference last week. The document said that transgender students should be allowed to use the bathrooms of their choice, play sports on teams that adhere to their gender identity, dress as the gender they identify with, and be referred to by their preferred names and pronouns. WKMG. Florida Today. WOFL.

Collier: Anti-mask protesters were escorted out of Tuesday’s school board meeting for violating the rules mandating that face masks be worn. School board members asked health director Dr. Rebekah Bernard when the mandate could be lifted. “My gut feeling is that we will be wearing masks until we have reached some sort of vaccine herd immunity,” she said. “My best recommendation to all of us, is to see what the CDC says.” The board took no action. WFTX. WBBH.

St. Johns: School board members voted Tuesday to push back the first day of school from Aug. 10 to Aug. 16. Those days will be added to the end of the 2021-2022 school year, making June 2 the final day. Superintendent Tim Forson said the later start will give the district a little extra time to finish school construction projects and allow students a few extra days after a challenging school year that doesn’t end until June 10. WJXT. WJAX. Students’ parents lobbied school board members at Tuesday’s meeting to change their minds and allow high school proms. The effort drew no reaction from the board. St. Augustine Record.

Sarasota: District schools will have proms this year, but with a lot of safety rules because of the coronavirus pandemic. There will be no dancing, masks will be worn and social distancing will be observed, and student seating will be be grouped in pods so that if an attendee later tests positive, only the students in that pod would have to be quarantined. Some students question whether it’s worth it to even go. “If they are just going to ruin it, don’t have it,” said Robiel McArthur. “The no dancing part? It’s prom, so I think they should dance,” said Tamara Mayorga. Sarasota Herald-Tribune. Charlotte Sun. Mark Grossenbacher, who has been the principal at Englewood Elementary School for 11 years, has been named the principal at Woodland Middle School in North Port. Charlotte Sun.

Escambia, Santa Rosa: Free meals for students won’t be provided by the school district over spring break in Escambia County, which begins next week. Meals will be available through other organizations, such as Feeding the Gulf Coast. Santa Rosa school officials are working on a plan to provide curbside pickup, but haven’t finalized the details. Pensacola News Journal. The Better Business Bureau of northwest Florida is warning parents about a SAT test preparation scam. Typically, parents are called from someone claiming to be from the College Board, who asks for information about students, then requests a deposit for materials. Pensacola News Journal. A 12-year-old student may be charged for stealing a guinea pig from a classroom at Tree House Episcopal Church Montessori School in Santa Rosa Beach. The culprit was tracked down through a TikTok video. Northwest Florida Daily News.

Alachua: Has the pandemic worsened the teacher shortage? Opinions are mixed in Alachua County. Carmen Ward, the president of the teachers union, said about 15 percent of district teachers left the profession before this school year. “We typically have about 11 percent that do not return, and we had 15 percent of our teaching force who did not return this year. That is a drastic increase.” But district spokeswoman Jackie Johnson said the departure rate isn’t radically different this year than it’s been in the past. “Our retention rate this year for teachers is about 84 percent,” she said. “The previous year it was 86 percent, and the year before that it was 83 percent.” Gainesville Sun.

Bay: A Deane Bozeman School teacher and coach who was accused of inappropriately touching a student and asking her for sex has resigned. William Mark Johnston, 57, was arrested in February and has been under suspension. WMBB.

Indian River: The school district’s decision to hire a chief equity and diversity officer has sparked some criticism in the community. They say the district should first identify what problem the hiring of the officer is supposed to fix. Superintendent David Moore proposed the creation of the position to help the district get released from a decades-old federal desegregation order. Moore pointed to the opposition to the job as a reason it is needed. TCPalm.

Highlands: A 13-year-old girl has been arrested for posting a social media threat against Lake Placid Middle School. More than 400 of the school’s students stayed home after the threat was posted. WOFL. WFTV.

Monroe: All Keys students may return fulltime to classrooms March 29 if they choose, Superintendent Theresa Axford announced Tuesday. Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran ordered the district to open schools for 5-day-a-week, face-to-face instruction or risk losing state funding. Because of the coronavirus, the district has been operating on a schedule with students in classes a couple days a week and learning remotely the other days. In making the announcement, Axford warned that maintaining social distancing would be difficult. “While we will do our best to make this a safe transition,” she said, “please be aware we may have difficulty ensuring students maintain a safe distance from one another while they are attending classes in-person.” Miami Herald. WLRN. Key West High School will offer an Advanced Placement Capstone Diploma program in the fall. The program consists of two year-long courses taken in sequence, AP Seminar and AP Research. Key West Citizen. High schools will have proms this year, probably in school courtyards, and outdoor graduation ceremonies are also being planned. Florida Keys Weekly.

Colleges and universities: The University of Central Florida will offer coronavirus vaccinations to all its employees, starting Thursday. Orlando Sentinel. Florida State University Panama City will hold an outdoor graduation April 24 at Tommy Oliver Stadium, while Gulf Coast State College will conduct a drive-through commencement at a time to be chosen. WMBB. A new accelerated program at USF Sarasota-Manatee will give students the option of earning a master’s degree in a hospitality-related field in a year. Bradenton Herald.

Opinions on schools: The Florida Legislature would rupture a sacred bond with families if it proceeds with imposing new eligibility restrictions on the popular Bright Futures scholarship program. The push to do so was not vetted before being sprung on an unsuspecting public and it has rightfully sparked outrage across the state. Sun Sentinel. Districts in other parts of the country that have moved high school start times later have seen better grades and fewer absences. And since virtually all the medical and brain experts say this is the best thing to do for teen learning, we owe it to our own teenage students to make it happen. Scott Maxwell, Orlando Sentinel. School districts that have been operating in-person tend to be running financial deficits. But they may be ahead of ones running surpluses because they can can start implementing policies to address learning gaps in the fall instead of battling with parents and school workers over reopening. Chad Aldeman, The 74. Facts about school choice, which are offered by such credible sources as the National Assessment of Educational Progress and by results from Florida, drown out the voices of those who contend that more school choice offers a future of failure to public schools. Jim Waters, Paducah (Ky.) Sun. The issue of closing schools has been a battle of character and courage against cowardice and corruption. Edward B. Harmon, Gainesville Sun.


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BY NextSteps staff