Book review process: The school board in Brevard spent nearly two weeks debating their public comment policy, prompted by concerns that parents may disregard the book review process to fast-track getting a book off school library shelves through a loophole created by a new law. No changes were made to the policy at Tuesday's meeting, but board members discovered that some challenged books had been banned due to the loophole. House Bill 1069, which dictates what can and cannot be taught in schools, says that parents must be allowed to read from challenged books. If a school board member stops them because the content is sexually explicit, the book must come out of all schools within five days. Florida Today. In Volusia, A total of 89 books were challenged in Volusia County Schools in the 2022-2023 school year, according to data released by the Florida Department of Education. Palm Coast Observer.
Unpaid school vouchers: Florida families are saying school vouchers have been unpaid. The first disbursements in the newly-expanded program were due on Sept. 1. Lawmakers lifted the eligibility requirements for the system, which led to a doubling of participation this fall to more than 400,000 children. The disruption appears to have affected thousands of students, leaving parents and school officials unable to get answers from those in charge of the voucher system.“This year it’s been the worst,” said Maria Preston, who runs Fort Lauderdale's Diverse Abilities Center. Tampa Bay Times.
Palm Beach: School Superintendent Mike Burke spoke about issues the school district is facing and priorities for the year in front of the League of Women Voters. Palm Beach County mother Monica Baber says knowing what’s going on with her children’s education is a big priority. That’s why she came to Mounts Botanical Garden to hear Burke talk Wednesday. “I want to know that they are getting taught to tackle further challenges that will come along in higher education, and I want to make sure they're going to be well rounded," said Baber. WPEC.
Brevard: The county school board moved toward a settlement in a lawsuit over a student with Down syndrome who came home with a mask tied to her face during a school mask mandate two years ago. The board prevailed earlier this year in a $100 million federal lawsuit filed by the family of then 7-year-old Sofia Bezerra, a special needs student at Ocean Breeze Elementary in Indian Harbour Beach. Florida Today.
Seminole: Moms for Liberty, the conservative group founded in Florida, aimed to get books pulled from Seminole County Public Schools libraries by reading aloud at a school board meeting this week passages they said amounted to pornography. The Seminole County School Board on Tuesday night listened without interruption as Moms for Liberty members and supporters read short book excerpts, in almost all cases without naming the book or the author. Orlando Sentinel.
Alachua: The school board here acknowledged at its meeting earlier this week that it is investigating a student club at Gainesville High School that limits participation to Black male students. Superintendent Shane Andrew disclosed that a parent of one of the students who attended the club submitted a complaint to the school district's human resources department. The parent's issue was with the information presented to students. WUFT. Gainesville Sun.
Veterans program: Over a year after the Florida Department of Education amended its teaching requirements to give military vets an easier pathway to become certified teachers, state figures show veteran participation hasn't been stellar. “It seems like there was a lot of fanfare around this program being a huge solution to a problem. Clearly, that's not the case,” said Andrew Spar, head of the Florida Education Association (FEA), the state’s largest teacher’s union. At the start of the school year, the FEA issued a press release saying the number of teacher vacancies in the state reached nearly 7,000, "the worst in state history." ABC Action News.
Advocacy for students: A small group of parents, students and residents voiced support for LBGTQ+ students earlier this week at a Hillsborough County School Board meeting. The message: Marginalized groups deserve respect and protection. A new program launched this year by Equality Florida called "Fall into Action" helped them share the message. Spokesperson Carlos Guillermo Smith said the initiative's goal is to give people the tools needed to sign up and speak out at local school board meetings in every district in the state. WUSF.
University and college news: Florida State University College of Medicine's Orlando regional campus is celebrating its 20th graduating class. WESH. Florida Atlantic University faculty want their interim president to become permanent amid a stalled search for president as the state investigates what it called "anomalies" in the search process. The hope is that interim President Dr. Stacy Volnick, who has been serving in the role since late last year, become's the university's permanent leader. WPTV. Ben Sasse, the new president at University of Florida, talked about ideas for changing campus culture and a possible tuition hike as he made the rounds on campus recently. Tampa Bay Times. Student and dads from Florida State University schools are participating in the Walking School Bus. WXTL.
New rules: The Florida Board of Education approved several amendments during a meeting on Wednesday that will impact LBGTQ students. Three amendments and one new rule lay out guidelines to align with recently passed legislation regarding the usage of bathrooms, classroom instruction and admission of minors to adult performances. Two amendments address educators specifically, while two others detail guidelines for how districts must treat LBGTQ students who wish to go by a different name or use a bathroom that differs from their sex assigned at birth. Meanwhile, new academic standards were approved involving instruction about African American history after teachers statewide objected to the changes and asked the board to put the proposal on hold. Education Commissioner Manny Diaz Jr. pushed back on assertions by some groups that the standards “omit or rewrite key historical facts about the Black experience” and ignore state law about required instruction. State Rep. Anna Eskamani said the new standards were "inaccurate and a scary standard for us to establish.” Also, TikTok was formally banned in Florida schools. Florida Today. WUFT. Axios. WBBH. ABC Action News.
Palm Beach: The school district here will have to revisit its Baker Act policy after a federal court judgment. In a statement released by the Southern Poverty Law Center, it says the school district will consider the proposed revisions specifically for students who have disabilities. WPBF. Meanwhile, school leaders here decided to keep the Bible on public shelves. The discussion arose after Barry Silver, a civil rights advocate from Boynton Beach, formally objected in April to the Bible being on library shelves at Olympic Heights High in Boca Raton, where his son was a senior in the spring. The Palm Beach Post.
Manatee: As the first day of school approaches, the Bradenton Police Department will be hiring part-time crossing guards for the 2023-24 school year. Crossing guards will work two shifts daily with pay at $24 per hour. Requirements include frequent standing and walking, a valid Florida driver's license and passing a background investigation. Bay News 9.
Leon: A hearing officer picked by the county school district to make a recommendation on how to proceed with a challenge to the book "I am Billie Jean King" is telling school board members they should keep it on elementary school shelves. "It is my opinion that removing ‘I am Billie Jean King’ from elementary schools infringes on the rights of parents who want their children to learn about Ms. King and the many contributions she has made to our country," wrote that official, retired principal D.J. Wright, in her recommendation. The decision now goes to the school board, which will discuss the book challenge at its Monday meeting and vote on a decision Tuesday. The Florida Times-Union.
Flagler: The school board here gathered on Tuesday for a special meeting with members of the Florida School Board Association to discuss what it's looking for in a new superintendent. In April, the board chose not to renew former Superintendent Cathy Mittelstadt's contract in a 3-2 vote. Since then, the board has partnered with the FSBA to begin its search for the vacant position. The Daytona Beach News-Journal.
University and college news: State Sen. Randy Fine once floated the idea of a "shutdown" of University of Central Florida. But his next job might be as new president of Florida Atlantic University. Why Fine, who already announced a run for state Senate next year, would want to take the FAU president job is unclear. Orlando Sentinel. Eric Stewart, a Florida State University research professor of criminology, has been fired after an investigation into ongoing, questionable research allegations from the past four years. The decision was effective on July 13 and stated in a five-page termination letter to Stewart from James Clark, FSU's provost and executive vice president for academic affairs. Stewart held the position since 2007. “You demonstrated extreme negligence in basic data management, resulting in an unprecedented number of articles retracted, numerous other articles now in question, with the presence of no backup of the data for the publications in question,” Clark stated in the termination letter. Tallahassee Democrat.
Opinions on schools: Despite nearly $200 billion in emergency federal spending on K-12 schooling, students are doing worse than a decade ago, and lower-performing students are today less capable of doing math than they were 35 years ago. David Steiner, the 74th.
Around the state: The state board of education was scheduled to meet to discuss whether 10 school districts are violating new state laws and rules relating to the instruction of race, gender identity and sexual orientation, a new tool in Hillsborough will show parents what changes from an attendance boundary analysis could mean, members of the Volusia United Educators teachers union showed up in red to deliver educator wish lists to the school board and book controversy in Brevard. Here are details about those stories and others from the state’s districts, private schools, and colleges and universities:
Hillsborough: A new online tool from the school district here is showing parents what changes from an attendance boundary analysis could mean for their child's school. Some schools in this district have too few students while others have too many, so the district has a set of proposed plans to better utilize schools. But the impact of the plans vary for students. Any boundary changes, if approved, would take effect for the 2023-24 school year. "This is a very serious initiative," said Superintendent Addison Davis. ABC Action News.
Orange: The school system here is once again listed as the eighth largest school district for the 2022-23 school year. Based on an official count from the month of October, Orange County Public Schools reported 208,788 students. This figure is the highest number of students since before the pandemic began in 2020, when 212,401 students were reported for the 2019-20 school year. WFTV.
Brevard: The school board here wants books challenged in the district to be taken off library shelves and held behind the counter like adult magazines. But a policy needs to change before that occurs, and the district has begun the process of updating the policy. The board also narrowed down its top three candidates for interim superintendent who will take over on Jan. 1 from outgoing Superintendent Mark Mullins and begin work on reversing a controversial public speaking policy. Florida Today.
Volusia: Over 50 members of the Volusia United Educators teachers union, which represents about 3,500 district employees, showed up in red earlier this week to deliver educator wish lists to the school board. Requests included being paid what they were worth, proper time to take care of their mental health, paid maternity and paternity leave for staff and curriculum changes. Union president Elizabeth Albert wrote in an email that the employees were showing up "to send a message to the board that they are overwhelmed, exhausted, and that things need to change now." The Daytona Beach News-Journal. Meanwhile, families in this county's school district are demanding justice after groping and choking incidents. The Daytona Beach News-Journal.
Citrus: At a regular school board meeting earlier this week, members approved the final 2022-23 five-year work plan for the district as well as discussing the possibility of buying iPad insurance to save money on damage costs incurred. A main takeaway from the work plan: how the district is planning to compensate for student population growth at the elementary level in the next decade. Citrus County Chronicle.
Librarian guidelines: A state panel writing new guidelines for school librarians to follow when selecting books and other materials was supposed to meet earlier this week to finish recommendations. Instead, the session was canceled, sparking controversy. Tampa Bay Times.
LBGTQ policies: The state board of education was scheduled to meet Wednesday to discuss whether 10 school districts are violation new state laws and rules relating to the instruction of race, gender identity and sexual orientation. Letters were sent to each of the districts warning that their policies on matters such as pronoun use and restroom rules should be revised and are under scrutiny. Tampa Bay Times. Bradenton Herald. Some districts, which include Broward and Miami-Dade, have already learned they were in violation of the parental rights in education law. The Miami Herald. Many of these districts have a tumultuous history with state education officials on recent years when mask mandate disagreements during the pandemic led to administrative challenges, federal involvement and the withholding of certain school board salaries. “We’re not here to enforce anything, we’re here to listen to Chancellor (Jacob) Oliva as he makes his presentation,” Board Chair Tom Grady said in conference call meeting Wednesday. Florida Phoenix.
Superintendent shuffle: In the wake of election season, Florida school boards have booted out superintendents in districts across the state. Tallahassee Democrat. Lakeland Ledger. TC Palm.
Sandy Hook victims: The victims of this tragedy were remembered this week nationwide. NPR.
COVID-19 data: Charts were compiled to help better understand the impact COVID-19 had on teachers, students and schools. The 74th.
Lottery news: The state's lottery education contribution has reached $43 billion. Since its inception in 1988, public schools in Florida have received more than $23 billion, colleges and universities have received a total of more than $11 billion and more than $8 billion has been used to fund the Bright Futures Scholarship Program. WKMG.
Opinions on schools: It's been three years since the pandemic began and life is going back to pre-pandemic times, with the exception of one area: Education. Parents got a chance to get a close view into the education their children were being provided. One of those options is education savings accounts. Trish Wilger, reimaginED. When Oklahoma legislators approved a new K-12 open enrollment law last year, school choice advocates celebrated the reform. Despite its strong open enrollment law, Oklahoma is dealing with a problem facing other states with robust student transfer policies: how to ensure districts aren't arbitrarily defining capacity to keep neighboring students out. Christian Barnard, the 74th. Vickie Cartwright is superintendent of Broward County Schools until Jan. 24, and the district will continue looking for another superintendent. But this isn't a way to run the nation's sixth-largest school district. South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
