Suit targets guardian program: Arming school safety assistants will make Duval County elementary schools more dangerous, according to a lawsuit filed this week that aims to stop the program. Three parents and four students, backed by the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, the Southern Poverty Law Center and two law firms, claim the assistants are inadequately trained and arming them puts students at risk. Duval and several other counties hired safety guardians to comply with state law because they say they couldn't afford sworn law enforcement officers for every school. Florida Times-Union. WJXT. WJAX. Gradebook. Florida Phoenix. WJCT. Associated Press. Politico Florida. Education Week. Southern Poverty Law Center.
Bill aims at lead in schools: A bill is filed in the Florida Senate that would require Florida schools built before 1986 to install water filters to reduce lead in drinking water. S.B. 66 was filed by Sen. Lauren Book, D-Plantation. Several Florida districts have installed filters after reports of lead contamination in drinking water in schools, but most districts do not even test for lead. WFTS. (more…)
After the storm: Fifteen Bay County schools reopened Monday, more than three weeks after Hurricane Michael devastated the county and surrounding areas. A school district spokeswoman said about 90 percent of the teachers reported for work, but the district won't have a good count of students until later in the week. Students face a lack of supplies, no Internet service, damaged gymnasiums and split schedules. But the operative phrase of the day, according to Moseley High School principal Brian Bullock, was "we'll figure it out." Other Bay schools are scheduled to open later this week or next week. Panama City News Herald. Associated Press. WJHG.
Election day: More than 5.1 million Floridians voted before today, election day, according to state officials. That's 38.7 percent of the state's 13.27 million registered voters. On the ballot are the governor's race, a U.S. Senate race, 12 constitutional amendments, local ballot initiatives and school board elections. Polls are open until 7 p.m. News Service of Florida. Associated Press. Hillsborough County is asking voters to approve an extra half-cent on the sales tax to raise money to pay for replacing and repairing faulty air-conditioners, make capital improvements and build schools, and harden schools for security. The tax would raise about $138 million a year and be collected for 10 years. Gradebook. State law bars school districts from spending money on political advertisements. But it doesn't stop school districts from using existing resources to communicate factual information about issues, such as a tax referendum. And so it is that every public school in Miami-Dade County has rotating messages on their school marquees drawing attention to the tax measure on today's ballot, #362, which would raise money for teacher pay and school security. Miami Herald. Previewing the races for district 1, 2 and 5 seats on the Brevard County School Board. Florida Today. (more…)
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…)
