School security: A St. Petersburg Police Department spokeswoman says officers are being pulled off the street to comply with the new state law requiring a resource officer in every school. "I have no choice," says chief Tony Holloway. "Kids’ safety is first." Tampa Bay Times. WTSP. Lake County School Board member Bill Mathias suggests that a temporary increase of a half-cent in the sales tax should be considered to help pay for security upgrades at the county's public schools. He estimates the tax, which would have to be approved by voters, would raise about $15 million a year. Daily Commercial. The Sarasota and North Port police departments agree with the sheriff's office that the Sarasota County School District should pay the full cost for school resource officers. Sarasota Herald-Tribune. The Hendry County School Board says it wants further study and input from the community before deciding whether to go ahead with the Legislature's school security plan to arm school personnel. WBBH. Legislators and Brevard County residents clash at a town forum over the issue of arming school employees. Florida Today. A panel of students, teachers and activists discusses school shootings and security at a town meeting in Sarasota. Sarasota Herald-Tribune. Forty-three percent of all U.S. schools now have armed guards, up from 31 percent from 10 years ago, according to a survey conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics. Associated Press.
Community schools: The Leon County School District is moving ahead with a plan to turn Sable Palm Elementary into a community school, which combines academic, health and social services in an effort to boost student performance. Partners in the project are the school district, Florida State University, the Children’s Home Society and Florida A&M University’s College of Education. WFSU. Wilkinson Junior High School will become Clay County's first community school. The school district is collaborating with the Children's Home Society, St. Johns River State College and Baptist Health and Wolfson Children's Hospital. WOKV.
School safety bill: The Senate Rules Committee passes a $400 million school safety bill that would allow teachers to carry guns in schools, raise the legal age to purchase firearms to 21, require a three-day waiting period on gun purchases, bolster mental health treatment and increase the number of school resource officers. But the committee rejects an amendment that would ban all assault rifles. Sun-Sentinel. Miami Herald. Palm Beach Post. News Service of Florida. Politico Florida. GateHouse. The Broward County Commission wants to explore just how far it can go in regulating guns and ammunition at the county level. State law now says that local officials who try to impose stricter gun regulations than the state's can be fined and removed from office. Miami Herald.
Funding school safety: Florida politicians are pointing to improved mental health treatment and more police officers in schools as ways to address school security. But the state has traditionally underfunded both. In 2016, there was just one school psychologist for every 1,983 students in the state, according to 2016 data from the Florida Association of School Psychologists. The recommended ratio is between 500 and 700 students per psychologist. And while there are about 4,000 schools in Florida, there are just 1,518 armed school resource officers. Tampa Bay Times.
House inquiry: The Florida House House Public Integrity & Ethics Committee will launch an investigation into the actions of the Broward County Sheriff’s Office, the Broward County School Board, Broward County government, the Coral Springs Police Department and the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office before and during the Marjory Stoneman Douglas school shooting Feb. 14. It will be separate from the query the Florida Department of Law Enforcement will conduct at the request of Gov. Rick Scott. News Service of Florida. Scott is resisting calls to immediately suspend Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel, saying he will wait until the FDLE investigation is complete before making a decision. Fort Myers News-Press.
Students march: Survivors of the shootings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland on Valentine's Day lead a march of thousands to the state Capitol, then meet with state lawmakers to call for a ban on assault-style weapons. They say the response from legislators was discouraging, but they vow to continue to fight. Sun-Sentinel. Associated Press. Miami Herald. Palm Beach Post. Politico Florida. Gatehouse Media. Tallahassee Democrat. News Service of Florida. The 74. More than 40 survivors of the Parkland, Columbine and Sandy Hook school shootings and parents plead with President Donald Trump to make students safe during a meeting Wednesday. "How many children have to get shot?" asked Andrew Pollack, whose daughter Meadow was killed in Parkland. Trump vowed to bolster background checks and mental health screenings, and supported the idea of allowing teachers and staff to carry guns at schools. Associated Press. New York Times. Education Week. Politico Florida. Why arming teachers is highly unlikely to happen. Politico Florida. Parkland students have raised $3.5 million to finance a national gun-control movement. Miami Herald. Sun-Sentinel. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio is jeered at a town hall meeting held by CNN. Sun-Sentinel. Palm Beach Post. High school students around Florida walk out of classes and take part in marches Wednesday as a show of support for Douglas High students. Sun-Sentinel. Sun-Sentinel. Miami Herald. Orlando Sentinel. Palm Beach Post. Gradebook. WFTV. Fort Myers News-Press. WFTX. WESH. Florida Today. TCPalm. Naples Daily News. Sarasota Herald-Tribune. Key West Citizen. Associated Press.
Returning to Douglas: Broward County school officials detail the plan to reintroduce students to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Counselors and an added police presence will greet the students when they return Tuesday for a half-day of classes. Sunday, the school will hold a "voluntary campus orientation" with a variety of support services available. Miami Herald.
Schools as shelters: A bill is filed that would require any K-12 school that receives construction funding from the state to be available as an emergency shelter or, if it doesn't meet the requirements to be a shelter, for any other use officials think is necessary. That requirement would include charter schools. H.B. 779 was filed by state Rep. Janet Cruz, D-Tampa. No companion bill has yet been filed in the Senate. Gradebook.
School choice growth: New research suggests that the growth of Florida's tax credit scholarship program has not led to a corresponding increase in the number of schools that perform poorly academically. Urban Institute researchers conclude: "This analysis indicates that participation in the [tax credit scholarship] program has not shifted toward schools with weaker track records of improving student outcomes, as measured by two broad categorizations. But it provides less guidance on the ideal level of government regulation in private school choice programs." Step Up For Students, which hosts this blog, helps administer the tax credit scholarship program. The program has grown from 50,000 low-income students receiving scholarships in 2012 to more than 100,000 this year. redefinED.
District consultant: The Duval County School Board will spend $480,000 for a consultant to help turn around eight struggling schools. Turnaround Solutions Inc. was founded by James Young, a former Duval principal with experience in turning around failing schools. Three of the schools have less than a year to boost their grades from the state, while the others have until the end of the 2018-2019 school year. If they don't improve to at least a C grade, state law requires the district to close the schools or allow them to be taken over. Florida Times-Union.
Panel: Turn over school: An oversight committee at Oscar Patterson Elementary School is recommending that the struggling school be turned over to an outside manager. The Bay County school has gotten poor grades from the state the past two years, and under state law the district has to contract with an outside entity to manage the school, close it and transfer the students, or close it and reopen it as a charter school. The recommendation now goes to Superintendent Bill Husfelt. If he agrees with the recommendation, the district must have a signed contract with a management company by Jan. 31, 2018. Panama City News Herald.
Charter school support: Support for the charter school movement is declining in America, according to a recent survey by Education Next, a journal published by Harvard’s Kennedy School and Stanford University. Only 39 percent of of those polled favor opening more "charters - schools that are funded by public money, but usually operated independently of school districts.” That's down from 51 percent last year. Associated Press.
Back to school: More from districts around Florida that have returned to school or will soon. Florida Times-Union. Palm Beach Post. Sun-Sentinel. Orlando Sentinel. Sarasota Herald-Tribune. Gainesville Sun. Tallahassee Democrat. Daytona Beach News-Journal. About a quarter of Osceola Magnet School's students stayed home on the first day of the new school year after the disclosure of a mold problem at the school. School officials are still waiting for the results of air quality tests. TCPalm. WPTV. Ten tips for young teachers from a veteran educator. Palm Beach Post.
School funding protest: The Lake County School Board approves a resolution urging the state to “halt the transfer of education funding from poorer school districts to wealthier school districts.” That district cost differential portion of the school funding formula has shortchanged the district by $57 million since 2004, board members say. “You have 14 counties in the state benefiting from this. The 53 other counties are paying for it,” says board member Bill Mathias. Senate President Joe Negron, R-Stuart, recently approved a legislative study of the differential. Daily Commercial.
Help for gifted students: Students at 16 high schools in Pinellas, Hillsborough and Pasco who are struggling in Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate programs will get help from a program developed by two academics to support students who they think are often "taken for granted." The Advancing Coping and Engagement program will provide students with weekly lessons on developing time management skills and connecting with teachers. Tampa Bay Times.
Bob Luddy is a longtime businessman who's become an education entrepreneur.
A libertarian businessman known for his group of private nonprofit Pre-K-12 schools in North Carolina is considering opening two similar schools in Central Florida.
Bob Luddy is the owner of CaptiveAire, one of the nation’s leading manufacturer of commercial kitchen ventilation systems.
Luddy told Reason magazine he became interested in education when he learned at many of his hires at CaptiveAire did not have the basic science and math skills to succeed on the job.
He is also the founder of Thales Academy, a network of low-cost private schools.
The network has six schools but Luddy said he wants it to grow. He said he is in the early stages of discussions about a potential private school in Groveland.
“It is a growing area,” he said in an interview. “We have a manufacturing plant in Groveland in Lake County and found that to be a nice area down there.”
School district officials across Central Florida are grappling with a growing student population. Nearly half of Lake County's schools are at capacity. Future projections do not look much better. Officials estimate 17 out of 42 schools will be over capacity by 2022. Neighboring districts are growing, too.
Luddy said he is also looking at opening a school in Orlando. Discussions on the schools are preliminary, but he said he hopes to open one of them in 2018 or 2019.
Lake County School Board member Bill Mathias said he has worked with Luddy in business relations for the past 30 years.
“I know of his personal integrity and commitment to education,” he said.
Expanding educational opportunities
The idea for a network of nonprofit schools, known as Thales Academy, originated in 2006 when a group of parents approached Luddy asking for better educational options for their children. (more…)
Opt-out ruling overturned: An appeals court overturns a ruling that some state school districts improperly retained third-graders who had opted out of the Florida Standards Assessment language arts test. The appeals court concluded that lawsuits against the state over the retention policy should have been heard in local courts instead of a circuit court in Tallahassee. In August, the Leon County judge ruled largely in favor of 14 parents from several districts who refused to let their children take the tests, then sued districts that held back those students. “The test can only achieve that laudable purpose (assessing reading skills to determine promotions) if the student meaningfully takes part in the test by attempting to answer all of its questions to the best of the student’s ability," the appeals judges wrote in their opinion. "Anything less is a disservice to the student — and the public.” Orlando Sentinel. Tampa Bay Times. News Service of Florida. WUSF. Associated Press.
State of the state: In his State of the State address to open the 2017 legislative session, Gov. Rick Scott urges lawmakers to approve his increase in education funding for K-12 schools and colleges and universities while also cutting taxes. Sunshine State News. Florida Politics. Associated Press. The transcript of the speech. News Service of Florida.
Leaders' priorities: Senate President Joe Negron, R-Stuart, expands his priorities for the Legislature's session to include the bill that protects students' religious expression in schools. “I think it’s very important that students of any faith or no faith” have a right to free speech, Negron said in his speech on the opening day of the 60-day legislative session. Miami Herald. Negron also says charter schools should get a fair share of state funding for construction and maintenance. Politico Florida. House Speaker Richard Corcoran, R-Land O'Lakes, says his top budget priority for the legislative session is to put an end to the state's so-called "failure factories," or underperforming public schools. While Corcoran has not detailed how he'd do that, he's hinted that adding charter schools is part of the solution. Politico Florida.
Scholarships expansion: A Florida House education subcommittee approves a bill that expands scholarship programs for low-income and disabled students. The amount available for disabled students under the Gardiner and McKay scholarships would jump from $73 million to $200 million, and the number of disabilities covered would be expanded. The bill also increases the per-pupil amount for low-income students who qualify for the tax credit scholarship program. Step Up For Students, which hosts this blog, helps administer the Gardiner and tax credit scholarship programs. Orlando Sentinel. redefinED. (more…)
