Tax initiatives: About a third of Florida residents face increased taxes if voters in seven counties approve initiatives Tuesday to raise money for their school districts. Officials in those districts say the state put them in the position of asking for voter help by underfunding mandates for school security. "The legislative mandates were substantially unfunded," says Alberto Carvalho, superintendent of the Miami-Dade County School District. "It has put significant fiscal pressure on the district." Bloomberg. In Miami-Dade, a four-year property tax hike would generate an extra $232 million a year, and 88 percent of the money generated would go for teacher raises. In Palm Beach County, a four-year increase in property taxes would bring in about $150 million more a year, and the district has pledged 50 percent of it to improve teacher pay. Miami Herald. Palm Beach Post.
Post-hurricane schedule: The Bay County School District's plan to make up the three-plus weeks of class time students lost to Hurricane Michael is approved by the Florida Department of Education. The district's schools will be 10 to 14 minutes longer every day and schools will be in session on four days that had been set aside as holidays or teacher work days. Already scheduled time off over Thanksgiving, Christmas and spring break will not change. Half the district's schools reopen today, and the district's goal is to have the rest open by Nov. 13. Panama City News Herald. New bus stop schedules are issued for Bay County students, many of whom may be attending a different school starting today. The district is also handing out reflective items for students who will now be going home in the dark. WMBB. Panama City News Herald. School officials in Calhoun and Jackson counties had to get creative to reopen schools last week. WFSU. Eighty Florida students displaced by the hurricane are attending southeastern Alabama schools. Associated Press. Gov. Rick Scott is asking the Florida Department of Education to send additional funds to districts so schools damaged by the hurricane can be rebuilt to withstand storms. Gradebook. (more…)
Another year for Stewart: The Florida Board of Education extends the contract of Education Commissioner Pam Stewart by a year to “help ensure Florida remains on this positive trajectory" of rising high school graduation rates, improved school grades and gains on national math and reading tests. She had been scheduled to leave the office she's held since 2013 on Jan. 7, Rick Scott's final day as governor. “Serving as education commissioner has been a highlight of my career, and I am honored to accept the state Board of Education’s invitation," Stewart said. News Service of Florida. Gradebook. Politico Florida. Capital Soup. The board selects 14 struggling schools as "Schools of Hope." Each receives an extra $2,000 per student to help improve student performance. Gradebook. Gary Chartrand concludes an eight-term term on the Florida Board of Education by praising the state's emphasis on parental choice of schools. "Choice is important," he said. "The more choice we have, the more freedom we have.” redefinED.
Evaluating evaluations: School principals say changes in teacher evaluations have overburdened them with work and hurt their relationships with teachers, according to a new study that focused on Hillsborough County and five other large U.S. school districts that underwent significant changes in the evaluation process. The biggest concern of principals is the time required for the evaluations. “I mean, honest to God. I just can’t do it by myself,” said one principal. “If I’m running my school, something’s going to lose out, either academics or your school because you’re just one person.” Another principal said just walking in a teacher's room creates tension. “I feel like every time I walk in, a teacher’s like automatically on pins and needles thinking I’m there in an evaluative capacity,” said the principal. Chalkbeat. (more…)
Schools of excellence: Eighty-eight more Florida schools may be added to the 630 already designated as "school of excellence" by the state Board of Education at its meeting Thursday. Those schools earn the label by being in the 80th percentile or higher in points for Florida's school grading system, then maintain it by getting an A or B grade the next year. Designated schools' principals are permitted greater autonomy, and the schools are exempt from daily minimum reading requirements and may calculate class size as a school average, among other benefits. Gradebook.
District's toll violations: The Broward County School District has been billed almost $10,000 for 34 toll violations by school buses on the Florida Turnpike dating back to 2009. If the violations had been paid on time, the bill would have been less than $50. A school spokeswoman says at least some of the violations are in error, and it's asking for clarification from SunPass. “I’m at a loss for words," says school board member Robin Bartleman. "That is unbelievable that this slipped through the cracks.” Sun-Sentinel.
Hurricane Michael: Hurricane Michael blasted ashore near Mexico Beach on Wednesday as a Category 4 storm with 155 mph winds, making it the strongest hurricane to hit the United States in nearly 50 years and the most powerful to hit the Panhandle since records have been kept. Schools in 21 Florida counties are closed again today while officials assess the damage, and five of those districts will be closed again Friday. Associated Press. News Service of Florida. GateHouse Media. Panama City News Herald. Pensacola News Journal. Northwest Florida Daily News. Citrus County Chronicle. Florida Department of Education. Tallahassee Democrat. Miami Herald. Tampa Bay Times. Orlando Sentinel. Palm Beach Post. WJCT. The Sarasota County School District cancels a digital town hall meeting because of the hurricane. Sarasota Herald-Tribune.
Hair policies protested: The NAACP Legal Defense Fund is asking the Florida Department of Education to review what it calls "racist" hair policies at private schools that receive money from state scholarship programs. Several students have been banned from schools recently for wearing dreadlocks, braids and other traditionally African-American hairstyles. “The forms of racial discrimination most commonly seen in education have evolved. It is now rare to find a policy that explicitly excludes potential students based on skin color,” says the letter. “However, subtle rules and restrictions based on racial stereotypes and proxies have the same force and effect.” Step Up For Students, which hosts this blog, helps administer four state scholarship programs. Huffington Post. (more…)
Schools closed for storm: Schools across north-central and northwest Florida are closing because of Hurricane Michael, which is forecast to become a major hurricane by the time it hits somewhere in the Florida Panhandle Wednesday. Schools in Leon, Franklin, Gulf and Wakulla counties are closed today through Friday, as are several charter schools and universities in the Tallahassee area. Dixie, Gadsden, Suwannee, Madison, Liberty, Calhoun, Holmes and Taylor county schools are closed today through Thursday. Okaloosa, Citrus, Jackson, Jefferson, Gilchrist, Walton and Bay county schools are closed today and Wednesday, and Levy Wednesday and Thursday. Madison County schools are closed today. Schools in Escambia, Santa Rosa and Washington counties release early today and are closed Wednesday. Associated Press. Florida Department of Education. Tallahassee Democrat. WFSU. Pensacola News Journal. Northwest Florida Daily News. Panama City News Herald. WEAR. Foster Folly News. WXSR. Citrus County Chronicle. Ocala Star-Banner. Gainesville Sun. WJHG. WTXL. NorthEscambia.com. WCJB. WMBB. The approach of Hurricane Michael prompts the cancellation of this week's scheduled meetings of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission. Stoneman Douglas resource officer Scot Peterson was scheduled to testify. The next meetings are scheduled for Nov. 14-15. Sun-Sentinel.
Medical marijuana rules: While several Florida school districts have adopted policies to allow students to get legally prescribed medical marijuana treatments at schools, a policy adviser for several districts is recommending against districts creating such rules because the Florida statute violates federal law. In a letter to his district clients, Neola president Dick Clapp, writes that "Neola is concerned that if a district adopts a policy in response to (the Florida law) and the federal government decides to strictly enforce existing federal law, the district would be in a position to lose federal grant funds." Gradebook.
Return to Stoneman Douglas: The first day of school at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland was bittersweet for students who lived through the massacre Feb. 14, with student emotions mixed with hope for the future but weighted by the grief of the past. “That’s something I’ve been wrestling with,” said 14-year-old sophomore Alexa Goel, who saw her first body on that dark day and had to run for her life. “Not wanting to let it go, but also moving forward with my life.” Security was tight, but even that wasn't reassuring for some students. “There’s literally no place that I am every day that I feel 100 percent safe and the thought doesn’t go through my head that someone could come in with a gun,” said 15-year-old Samantha Deitsch. Sun-Sentinel. Miami Herald. WLRN. Palm Beach Post. Associated Press.
School security problems: The Florida Legislature shortchanged the state's school districts by not providing enough money to pay for the security measures it mandated, says Damien Kelly, executive director of the Florida Department of Education’s Office of Safe Schools. “All 67 sheriffs are on the same page. They don’t think the funding is where it needs to be,” says Kelly. Orlando Sentinel. Fort Lauderdale police officers filled in to guard schools in the city on opening day Wednesday, just a day after the Broward County School District informed the city it was short of armed guards for 13 schools. Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis calls the district's last-minute plea for help "disappointing.” Sun-Sentinel. Despite the focus on school security, Broward County summer schools had no security presence. Miami Herald. Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs and Sheriff Jerry Demings trade accusations about who's at fault for a shortage of deputies to cover county schools on opening day. Orlando Sentinel. Safe Schools director Damien Kelly says the new app FortifyFL will be available in two weeks. It will allow people to anonymously report suspicious activities in schools. Associated Press. News Service of Florida. (more…)
