Around the state: COVID-19 vaccinations were added to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's list of recommended childhood immunizations, teaching job openings reported in Palm Beach, a school supply drive in Bay and STEM program fun for kids in underserved communities. Here are details about those stories and other developments from the state's districts, private schools and colleges and universities.
Broward: An unusual path was forged to give $26 million to victims of the Parkland shooting: turning a negligence case into a civil rights dispute, according to newly released documents. South Florida Sun Sentinel.
Palm Beach: Officials here reported 418 open teaching jobs as of Oct. 1, which is up 70 from this time last year and more than 200 from the same time period before the pandemic. Two things seem to be fueling the shortage: fewer students studying to become educators, and teachers leaving or retiring early. Palm Beach Post.
Leon: A local charter school was closed on Thursday after alleging a man was arrested after receiving threats to campus safety. Leon County Sheriff's Office found that the threat was not related to Tallahassee Classical School. Tallahassee Democrat.
Marion: Marion County Sheriff Billy Woods wants to take over the school district's Safe Schools department, a five-member team that focuses on school security, such as electronic surveillance and fencing. Ocala Star Banner.
Citrus: A bus driver was suspended without pay for 10 days after it was alleged that she made disturbing comments during a rowdy route in late August. Citrus County Chronicle.
Lee: School board members toured schools heavily damaged here after Hurricane Ian slammed the state a few weeks ago. The district had the board visit Lexington Middle, Diplomat Middle, Hector A. Cafferata Elementary, Gulf Elementary and Gulf Middle schools. WINK.
Bay: The county's public transit system here is teaming up with Bay District Schools to help give back to local students and teachers in need. Bayway, formerly known as Bay Town Trolley, launched a school supply drive to help teachers and students restock some of the most needed school supplies. Donation boxes are spread throughout the county, and the drive runs through the end of the month. Panama City News Herald.
Vaccines for children: COVID-19 vaccines were added Thursday to the list of recommended childhood immunizations. WEAR. Miami Herald. But Gov. Ron DeSantis is still against COVID-19 vaccines for school children in the state of Florida, despite the latest guidance from a panel of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that recommends that coronavirus vaccines be added to the Vaccines for Children program. Florida Politics.
Parkland shooting: After a jury recommended a life sentence in lieu of the death penalty for Nikolas Cruz in connection to the Parkland school shooting in 2018, families wondered if this would send a message that there is no punishment for a mass shooting. An expert weighed in. WFSU.
Mental health for children: Students are struggling with mental health challenges that were worsened by the pandemic's disruption of their school routines. Miami Herald. Meanwhile, a small group of states quietly withdrew from the nation's largest public effort to track concerning behaviors in high school students. Chalkbeat.
STEM program fun: A Miami nonprofit is providing free educational programming to underserved neighborhoods in South Florida, which includes science, technology, engineering, art and math. The founder and CEO of Seeking Education Empowers Knowledge, or S.E.E.K., said life experiences prompted the start of the nonprofit a decade ago. Miami Herald.
Young voters sound off: A listening session with young voters on the St. Petersburg campus of the University of South Florida shared thoughts on the issues that matter to them. WUSF.
University and college news: The University of South Florida is going to the state Supreme Court in a dispute regarding fees collected from students for on-campus services that were not provided due to pandemic. The university breached a contract with a student and improperly kept fees for services that were not provided when the campus shut down in 2020 due to the pandemic, the potential class action lawsuit alleges. Tampa Bay Times.
Opinions on schools: If you want to give kids a roadmap for their futures, robotics is an extracurricular activity that is helping its participants see pathways to career success. Chris Moore, The 74th.
Immigrants and GED: The Miami-Dade County School Board has ordered a review of the way the district educates immigrant students. The review was approved about a month after newspaper reports detailed how arriving teens with limited English skills were often pushed into adult education programs, where they then prepared to get a high school diploma through the GED program. Critics of that process say those students are steered away from regular high schools because school officials think they'll have a negative impact on graduation rates. More than 1,000 of the 5,000 immigrant teens who arrived this year ended up in Spanish-language GED programs. Board members gave administrators until September to conduct the review and report back. Miami Herald. About 200 immigrant youths under the age of 19 who tried to enroll in Collier County schools were turned away and pushed toward a GED degree, online programs and workforce training sessions, according to a lawsuit filed on their behalf by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Here's the story of one, 17-year-old Nehemy Antoine, a Haitian immigrant who became a U.S. citizen. Teacher Project, Naples Daily News.
School security: A Palm Beach grand jury's suggestion that the school district dip into its reserves to pay for school resource officers is dismissed by school officials as a simplistic and unrealistic solution to a complicated problem. They say the reserve fund as a percentage of the annual budget is already lower than that of most Florida districts, and that reserves should not be used for everyday expenses like new employees and higher salaries. Palm Beach Post. While Sanibel, Fort Myers or Cape Coral city officials have agreed to contribute financially to place resource officers in schools in their cities, officials in Estero and Bonita Springs are still questioning whether it's their responsibility. They think school protection ought to fall under what they already pay the county for the sheriff to police their cities. Naples Daily News. Marion County Sheriff Billy Woods drops the cost to supply resource officers for schools, and if the city of Ocala can't do the same the school board is likely to contract with the sheriff. The board meets Monday to finalize its decision. Ocala Star-Banner. Officials from the St. Johns County School District and sheriff's office talk about how the county will comply with the state's school security mandate. St. Augustine Record. (more…)
Teacher wins a Tony: Melody Herzfeld, the one-person drama department at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School who saved 65 students during the shooting rampage at the school Feb. 14 by barricading them in a closet, wins a special Tony award for educators. The award is given annually to U.S. teachers who have "demonstrated monumental impact on the lives of students and who embodies the highest standards of the profession." She wins $10,000 and a pair of tickets to the Tony ceremony and gala. Sun-Sentinel. New York Times. Associated Press.
National spelling bee: Two Florida students spell their way into Thursday's finals at the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C, before being eliminated. Simone Kaplan, a 12-year-old 6th-grader from Davie who attends St. Bonaventure Catholic School in Broward County, was eliminated in the ninth round when she spelled the word carmagnole as carmagnol. Marisa Langley, a 14-year-old home-schooled 8th-grader from Tallahassee, was eliminated in the eighth round when she spelled the word hausen as housen. The champion is Karthik Nemmani of McKinney, Texas. The 519 spellers who started the competition included 31 students from Florida. Associated Press. Scripps Howard Spelling Bee. Miami Herald. Sun-Sentinel. Palm Beach Post. TCPalm. (more…)
Budget deal: The Florida Senate and House reach agreement on an $83 billion state budget. The agreement includes $200 million to attract specialized charter schools to the state to compete with persistently low-performing schools - the so-called "schools of hope" plan - and increases for teacher bonuses and higher education. But the Senate agreed to the House's demand not to allow higher property taxes to increase K-12 per-student spending. The budget must be completed by Tuesday for the session to end as scheduled May 5. Miami Herald. Naples Daily News. News Service of Florida. Gradebook. redefinED. redefinED.
School and cancer: After a briefing about the suspicions of a cancer cluster at the old Bayshore High School property, Manatee County commissioners agree to meet with school board members within the next 30 days to discuss the community's concerns. Bradenton Herald. Sarasota Herald-Tribune.
Financial situation dire: The financial outlook for the Hillsborough County School District is bleak, school officials tell school board members. Only about a quarter of the needed cuts have been made, while costs and enrollment are rising and public funds are increasingly scarce. Chief business officer Gretchen Saunders said the district may not even be able to honor its 2013 agreement with the teachers union to raise pay. Tampa Bay Times. The district is deficient in keeping its technology updated, according to a critique from its consultants. The student information system, for example, uses a computer language invented in 1959 and outdated hardware that costs about $1.5 million a year to maintain. Replacing technology will take years, says Patti Simmons, the district's supervisor of data analysis. Tampa Bay Times. The board approves new start times for the 2018-2019 school year. WFLA.
Smaller campuses: The Orange County Commission approves a plan to allow the school district to build schools on smaller sites. The new rules allow elementary schools to be built on 7 to 11 acres instead of 15; middle and K-8 schools on 12 to 16 acres instead of 25; and high schools on 40 to 50 acres instead of 65. Orlando Sentinel. (more…)
