Corcoran claims he had Duval teacher fired for BLM support, bias alleged in FSU search and more

Around the state: Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran said during a speech this month at a Michigan college that he had a Duval County teacher fired but district records show otherwise, a member of the state Board of Governors has accused an accreditation board of interfering with Florida State University’s search for a new president, the Citrus County School District has taken full control of the county’s police academy from the sheriff’s office, Lee County’s superintendent reflects on getting through the pandemic and its many challenges, more face mask protests, and three Seminole County schools are being added to the sites offering coronavirus vaccinations for students 12-15. Here are details about those stories and other developments from the state’s districts, private schools, and colleges and universities:

Duval: The employment status of a Lee High School teacher who had been suspended for refusing to remove a Black Lives Matter flag from outside her classroom is uncertain after Florida Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran said he had her fired. During a speech May 5 at Hillsdale College in Michigan, Corcoran said, “I’m getting sued right now in Duval County, which is in Jacksonville, because there was an entire classroom memorialized to Black Lives Matter. We made sure she (the teacher) was terminated and now we’re being sued by every one of the liberal left groups who say it’s a freedom of speech issue.” That teacher, Amy Donofrio, said she was “heartbroken” by Corcoran’s comments, which she saw on a YouTube video, but school district records show she’s still an active employee. “The employee is assigned to paid, non-teaching duties,” a spokeswoman said. State records also show that her teaching certificate is still valid and that she faces no disciplinary action from the Florida Department of Education. Florida Times-Union. WTLV. WJCT. WJAX.  Jacksonville philanthropist Delores Barr Weaver said she will donate $50,000 toward the renaming of nine county schools if $100,000 can be collected through community gifts. The estimated cost of renaming the schools is about $2 million. WJXT.

Pinellas: A barn at a technical high school that was destroyed by Hurricane Irma in 2017 has been rebuilt with added features. The barn and a new veterinary science center, which cost $4.6 million, were dedicated Monday at Richard O. Jacobson Technical High School. Students in the program work with horses, cattle, pigs, rabbits and birds, and can earn certification as a veterinary assistant. WTSP.

Lee: Superintendent Greg Adkins has been touring county schools to thank employees for overcoming the challenges they’ve faced since March 2020 because of the coronavirus. Adkins said the district had to change direction instantly and continue to react when circumstances changed, as they often have. “We were able to actually really pivot in a matter of a couple weeks and have a really good idea about how we were going to deliver instruction to kids, how we were going to deliver food to kids, how are we going to get computers in the hands of kids that didn’t have them,” Adkins said. “Everybody just pitched in and made it happen. I was amazed. I really was.” Adkins is retiring June 30. Fort Myers News-Press.

Seminole: Three district schools have been added as sites for students 12-15 years old to get coronavirus vaccination shots. Doses will be offered today from 3-7 p.m. at Seminole High School, Thursday from 3-7 p.m. at Lake Brantley High, and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Winter Springs. Shots continue to be available at Oviedo Mall, the North Branch Library in Sanford, and Eastmonte Park in Altamonte Springs. WOFL.

Manatee: A parent and student protest against the district’s face mask policy Monday was peaceful, with students who chose to come to school without masks being told to put a mask on or go home for the day. The school board is holding a public hearing May 25 and will vote on whether to make face masks optional for the 2021-2022 academic year. WFLA.

Sarasota: School board members meet today to consider what to do about the face mask requirement. Some board members would like the policy loosened. At least one, Bridget Ziegler, wants to immediately make face masks optional. “If there is a way we can lift it before the end of school, so be it, and let’s do it,” she said. “I am tired of hearing us say there is nothing we can do. It’s high time … that we talk about what we can do.” Sarasota Herald-Tribune. McHenry Lerebours, who has been the interim principal at McIntosh Middle School since February, has been given the permanent job. Before he was appointed to the interim role, he had been an assistant principal at the school since 2018. Lerebours was named the district’s 2021 assistant principal of the year. YourObserver.com.

Alachua: More than 140 students at Westwood Middle School in Gainesville received their first dose of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine Monday at the school. Shots will be given at Lincoln Middle School today. Clinics at schools around the county will administer shots through May 28. WGFL.

Citrus: The school district is taking full control of the county’s police academy from the sheriff’s office. School officials said they wanted the director of the Citrus County Public Safety Training Center at the Withlacoochee Technical College to be a district employee to clarify the chain of command. Sheriff Mike Prendergast said his office would also stop supplying a training coordinator. “It is better to have streamlined supervision amongst one entity instead of two,” said sheriff’s spokesman Sgt. Lee Carey. “The relationship between the school (district) and the sheriff’s office remains the same. We partner in the goal of providing the highest level of public safety to the community.” Citrus County Chronicle.

Nassau: A group of parents is organizing a protest against face mask mandates for the May 27 school board meeting. Nassau is one of the districts that has chosen to continue requiring face masks until the end of this school year. The district said it is still collecting information before it makes a decision whether to make masks optional for summer school and the 2021-2022 academic year. WJXT.

Colleges and universities: A member of the state Board of Governors has accused an accreditation board of interfering with Florida State University’s search for a new president. Alan Levine contends the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges improperly implied that FSU could lose its accreditation if its search committee seriously considered Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran for the position. “I now have reason to believe the integrity of this process has been compromised, which is unfair to the three finalists, and to those whom were not selected to move forward,” Levine wrote in an email to the leaders of the Board of Governors. Corcoran made the short list of nine candidates, but is not one of the three finalists. Politico Florida. Florida Politics. The three FSU finalists talk about their visions for the school. Tallahassee Democrat. College athletes in Florida can start getting paid on July 1 for the use of their names, images and likenesses. Tampa Bay Times. Henrietta Mays Smith, a teacher, librarian, scholar and storyteller who was the first black professor at the University of South Florida’s School of Information, died April 21 in Delray Beach at the age of 98. Palm Beach Post. New College student Toni Ginsberg-Klemmt has won an OZY Genius Award for her invention of a mobile solar-generating carport. WFLA.

Process for requiring vaccines: Florida schools require seven immunizations before children can enroll, and COVID-19 is not one of them. Before any vaccine can be required in the state’s schools, it must first be added to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s list of childhood vaccinations, then approved by the Legislature. WJAX.

Around the nation: Many school districts in Florida and around the country are ignoring CDC guidance and ending their face mask requirements. The 74. The use of testing for the coronavirus varies widely in schools across the United States, with some states embracing it as a way to safely open schools, while others have declined to test even students showing symptoms. Associated Press. The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear a case brought by a Florida A&M University law professor who claims she’s paid less than male professors. A federal jury in Tallahassee previously decided that the pay disparity was not gender-related. Reuters.

Opinions on schools: Micro-schools are schools, and schools require resources to operate. Micro-schools will continue to grow mostly as a form of education that is accessible only to the well-to-do unless lower-income families are able to access their public K-12 funds in education savings accounts. Matthew Ladner, redefinED. It’s time to challenge a status quo that’s failing to connect generations of students to careers they are passionate about while burying them under piles of debt. Anna Tyger, redefinED. Parents and law enforcement agencies should honor the work that our school resource officers perform on a daily basis by including them as much as possible in the activities, awards and other recognition events as everyone else. Julius Melendez, Orlando Sentinel.


Avatar photo

BY NextSteps staff