Eligibility for bonuses: Only teachers and principals who have a qualified job by June 2 and are fulltime employees will be eligible for $1,000 bonuses from the state, the Florida Department of Education has told school districts. The guidance infers that educators who recently retired or resigned will not be eligible, even though Gov. Ron DeSantis said in announcing the bonuses that they were being given to recognize teachers and principals who made it through the past year’s “unique set of circumstances.” Pinellas County teachers union president Nancy Velardi noted that the bonuses were not for the future, but “for what they did this past year. Just because someone retired at the end of this hard year, you’re not going to give them the bonus?” A DOE spokeswoman said she didn’t have information about how the rules would affect retiring educators. Tampa Bay Times. WTXL.
Scholarship applications up: More than 204,000 students have applied for Florida private school scholarships for the 2021-22 academic year, up 34 percent from the same time a year ago. That number is expected to surge even further as new, expanded eligibility requirements went into effect Thursday. The new law, H.B. 7045, increases the amount of money a family of four can make to nearly $100,000 a year and still qualify for scholarships and also relaxes some requirements for eligibility. The Legislature estimated that an extra 61,000 more students could be eligible to apply. Step Up For Students, which hosts this blog, helps administer the scholarships. redefinED.
Around the state: Some education experts who have been asked to help write or review the state’s new Holocaust education standards said they don’t meet the requirements of the original 1994 law or the 2020 expansion of the law, college athletes in Florida and around the country began cashing in on endorsement opportunities on the first day that new NCAA and state rules went into effect, even the Florida Virtual School teachers who have always taught remotely had lessons to learn during the pandemic, Seminole County’s new school superintendent has taken over, Duval schools want to hire 20 school safety assistants, and time is running short for students to get vaccinations shots that will be fully effective by the time school starts. Here are details about those stories and other developments from the state’s districts, private schools, and colleges and universities:
Miami-Dade: The 17-year-old founder of the nonprofit Helping Others and Giving Hope is among the volunteers who have been providing food and drinks to the first responders at the collapsed condominium in Surfside. Steven Ferreiro, who’s a rising senior at Miami Arts Studio 6-12 at Zelda Glazer, started the nonprofit in 2019. His organization has launched food drives for victims and first responders after several natural disasters. Miami Herald.
Duval: The school district is looking to hire 20 school safety assistants to replace Jacksonville sheriff’s deputies at elementary schools. Sheriff Mike Williams said he needs the deputies who are assigned to schools for other duties. The school safety officers would be paid between $18.27-$24.23 an hour, and undergo 770 hours of training. Florida Times-Union. The name of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee has been removed from signs at the Jacksonville high school that carried his name for years. By the time the school reopens Aug. 10, it will be Riverside High School. It’s one of six schools that are dropping the names of Confederate figures. WTLV. WJXT.
Pinellas: A former treasurer of the Seminole High School football team’s booster club has been arrested and accused of stealing $43,000 between February 2019 and April of this year. Deputies said Elise Minzer, 46, used a club debit card to buy tickets to the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans, airfare, liquor, car repairs, monthly car payments and more. Tampa Bay Times. WFLA.
Seminole: Serita Beamon has taken over as school superintendent with the retirement this week of Walt Griffin, who had worked in the district for 37 years. Beamon had been the school board attorney, and was hired for the top job in March. WKMG. A former Oviedo High School janitor has been found guilty of videotaping students with a cellphone hidden inside a bathroom stall in 2019. Derremy Jerrell Walker, 31, will be sentenced Sept. 21. Orlando Sentinel. WKMG.
Volusia, Flagler: Time is running short for students to receive COVID vaccination shots that become fully effective before school starts. The vaccinations for students 12 years old and up requires two shots, 21 days apart, and another two weeks to become fully effective. Volusia students would need to get their first shot by July 12, with school starting Aug. 16. Flagler schools begin Aug. 10, so students would need to get their first shot by Tuesday. Daytona Beach News-Journal.
Marion: The school district has launched a drive to provide school supplies, children’s clothing, shoes, personal hygiene items or money for homeless and needy students. In previous years, the drive has collected more than $500,000. WUFT.
Leon: Seven schools have received $1.3 million in grants for after school programs. WTXL. A recent graduate of Leon High School has been named one of the top three U.S. fund-raisers for the Children’s Miracle Network hospitals. Jamie Knox joined the school’s dance marathon team as a sophomore and became co-director her senior year, when the school raised $140,000. Tallahassee Democrat.
Alachua: David Shelnutt, who has been the principal at Gainesville High School for 10 years, is changing jobs. He’ll become the district’s executive director of human resources. His replacement has not yet been announced. Gainesville Sun.
Colleges and universities: College athletes began cashing in on endorsement opportunities on the first day that new NCAA and state rules went into effect. News Service of Florida. Politico Florida. Palm Beach Post. Florida Politics. Tallahassee Democrat. Bethune-Cookman University students with bachelor of science or bachelor of arts degrees with specified teaching certifications will be admitted into the University of Tampa’s master’s program for education as part of a collaboration between the schools. Daytona Beach News-Journal. University of Miami law professor Stephen J. Schnably has been named acting dean of the law school. School officials said Schnably will probably hold the job until the fall semester begins in August, when he’s replaced by an interim dean. The former dean, Anthony Varona, was fired by university President Julio Frenk in May. Miami Herald. Florida SouthWestern State College’s elementary education program has been ranked tops in the state by the Florida Department of Education. WFTX.
Holocaust teaching concerns: Some education experts who have been asked to help write or review the state’s new Holocaust education standards said the proposed standards don’t meet the requirements of the original 1994 law or the 2020 expansion of the law. Specifically, they said the lessons don’t show the horrors of the Holocaust as the “ramifications of prejudice, stereotyping and racism.” They’re also criticizing the state’s selection of the Tennessee evangelical Christian group Proclaiming Justice to the Nations to provide input. PJTN has been called an anti-Muslim hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, a charge the group denies. Orlando Sentinel.
Lessons for FLVS: Even for the teachers who had been teaching remotely for years, the pandemic offered lessons to be learned. Two teachers talk about their experiences, and how they had to adapt to best help their students. redefinED.
Opinions on schools: If passed, universal preschool will have to grapple with many questions of implementation — from how it influences private early childhood care providers to whether it can avoid replicating inequities in the current K-12 system. What is clear, however, is that the proposal has the potential to significantly change the landscape of preschool education much in the way that expansions of kindergarten did in decades prior. F. Chris Curran, Gainesville Sun. Early childhood education is beneficial for school readiness. It is not babysitting. Lorene Edmondson, Orlando Sentinel. Teaching critical race history is not ideological, but outlawing the teaching of it in classrooms is. Steven Lawson, Tampa Bay Times. Conservatives giving up on the university system would be a colossal mistake. College campuses remain the best place to reach and shape future generations of young Floridians. Yes, too many colleges are ideological echo chambers. But people who still believe in free speech and the free exchange of ideas can reform these institutions from the inside. Michael Andrews, Tampa Bay Times. What Gov. DeSantis’ critics fail to appreciate is that truth is most likely to emerge from the clash of ideas, which is why those ideas need to be preserved on college campuses. Scott Gerber, Tampa Bay Times. By remaining silent about state government attacks on public education, the Duval County School Board has been complicit. Chris Guerrieri, Florida Times-Union. The achievement gap between white and black students is rooted in the systematic racism of this country. Adia Jones, Gainesville Sun.
