Around the state: Primary election voting for superintendent and school board races in Florida is today from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., about 1.9 million Floridians have already voted, an appeals court sides with the Hillsborough County School Board on placing a tax request for teacher pay on the Nov. 5 ballot, the state and its largest teachers union have different counts on how many teaching positions are currently open, New College of Florida President Richard Corcoran says the media “sensationalized” the routine culling of books from the school library even as the school placed the library dean on leave for not following state rules on the proper disposal of books, and a list of items that parents can buy with school voucher money from the state has been issued. Here are details about those stories and others from the state’s districts, private schools, and colleges and universities:
Hillsborough: An appeals court decided Monday that the Nov. 5 ballot will include a tax request from the school district to hike property taxes to boost teacher pay. County commissioners, who must approve all such measures for the ballot, voted this summer to place the school request on the 2026 ballot. School officials sued, and a circuit judge ordered the commission to approve the tax request for the budget. Commissioners appealed, but the 2nd District Court of Appeal disagreed that the commission had the discretion to move the tax question. Tampa Bay Times. WTVT. WFTS. WFLA. WTSP. Spectrum News 9. News Service of Florida. School district officials are creating a center outside Alexander Park in the Town ‘N Country neighborhood to help immigrant families and their children. Social workers, nurses and others to help streamline the school registration process for children, give vaccinations and provide counseling. Tampa Bay Times.
Orange: District 6 school board candidate Jeni Grieger failed to file her campaign finance reports on time and faces hundreds of dollars in fines, according to the Supervisor of Elections office. Grieger claimed she filed the reports that were due July 26 and Aug. 16 and got receipts. But a spokesman for the elections supervisor said the office just received the information that was due Aug. 16, and that Grieger was fined $150. The report due in July is still missing, the spokesman said. Grieger is running against Stephanie Vanos in today’s primary. Orlando Sentinel. Air-conditioning problems at Timber Lakes Elementary School have some parents considering keeping their children home. School officials said a chiller isn’t operating at capacity and they’re working to fix it as quickly as possible. WFTV.
Polk: Along with the start of a new school year comes stricter enforcement of traffic violations around schools, said Lakeland police. Officers have been issuing tickets to drivers who make improper left turns and exceed the speed limit. Cameras have also been placed on school buses that take photos of vehicles that illegally pass stopped buses that have their stop sign extended, and warnings are being issued to those violators. Lakeland Now.
Pinellas: Even though a state law prohibiting candidates in nonpartisan elections from identifying themselves by party is on the books, a District 4 school board candidate has discovered that it cannot be enforced because a federal judge has ruled it is unconstitutional. Incumbent Eileen Long filed a complaint with the Florida Elections Commission against opponent Erika Picard after an organization described Picard as a Republican in a campaign mailer. Picard said she did not approve the mailer. Tampa Bay Times.
Volusia: Sheriff’s officials have put out a call for volunteers to help students get safely to and from school. Sheriff Mike Chitwood and others went to Parent Teachers Associations before the school year began, asking for volunteers. “We thought this would be great and we will get great participation. Well, a lot of people don’t think that because we’ve had one person who volunteered,” he said. “You don’t have to do it every day of the week but if you get five or six parents and someone takes mornings and somebody takes afternoons.” A push for safety improvement was started in May after 10-year-old ShaoLan Kamaly was struck and killed by a driver while riding her bike to Sugar Mill Elementary School in Port Orange. WESH. WKMG.
Leon: District officials said Monday that problems with fueling school buses that use natural gas have been resolved, but they are going ahead with a plan to diversify the fleet by purchasing diesel buses. About 10 percent of the district’s routes were affected last week when one natural gas station and pumps at a second station both went offline. WCTV.
Bay: A Rutherford High School teacher has been suspended without pay while she’s being investigated for allegedly abusing a child in a Panama City store. Police said Chelarishi Rivera put the child in a headlock after being asked a question. Panama City News Herald.
Colleges and universities: In his first public comments since New College of Florida disposed of hundreds of books, including those with LGBTQ+ themes from the now-defunct Gender and Diversity Center, college President Richard Corcoran said the media “sensationalized” what was a normal and necessary weeding of materials. But on Monday, dean of the library Shannon Hausinger was placed on administrative leave for not following “all of the state administrative requirements while conducting the routine disposition of materials,” said school spokesman Nathan March. Sarasota Herald-Tribune. WWSB. Students are moving into the first residence hall on the campus of the University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee. The Atala Residence Hall, which includes a student center with a dining hall, will house 200 students. WWSB. An old cigar factory in West Tampa has been renovated into housing for students at the University of Tampa. The Bustillo Brothers y Diaz Cigar Factory is now Cigar Lofts, and has 22 apartments with 66 bedrooms. An adjacent building has 10 townhomes with 44 bedrooms. Tampa Bay Times.
Teacher vacancies down: The number of teaching positions open in the state is down 13.3 percent from the first day of school last year, officials from the Florida Department of Education said Monday. The announcement follows the recent report from the Florida Education Association that indicated the number of open teaching positions this year is about 5,000. The difference between the two reports is about 900. DOE officials say its figures come directly from the districts, while the FEA’s estimates are based on advertised vacancies on district websites. “While the naysayers use the same tactics year after year to discredit Florida’s success in education, once again the numbers speak for themselves,” said Education Commissioner Manny Diaz Jr. “It should not be lost on anyone that right now nearly 5,000 classrooms do not have a professionally trained teacher, impacting potentially over 100,000 students,” said FEA president Andrew Spar. Florida Phoenix. Florida Department of Education. WJXT. Hillsborough County is reporting the most teaching vacancies in the state, with 742. WTSP.
Allowable scholarship spending: A list of allowable purchases with state scholarship money has been published by Step Up For Students, which helps administer the voucher programs and hosts this blog. After news stories revealed that voucher recipients were using funding for such things as large televisions, tickets to theme parks, gym memberships and more, a bill was introduced in the Legislature earlier this year that would have put restrictions on purchases. The bill failed, though, and the list is largely unchanged this year. “When the Florida Legislature proposed restrictions on (education savings account) spending in the 2024 session, many families contacted their lawmakers or testified at committee hearings opposing the changes, arguing they would limit their ability to provide arts and other enrichment opportunities to their children,” said Scott Kent, Step Up’s communications director. “Lawmakers listened, and the proposals failed to pass.” Florida Phoenix.
DeSantis picks on ballot: Some of the school board races on today’s ballot have become proxy wars between Republicans and Democrats. Gov. Ron DeSantis has endorsed 23 board candidates and targeted eight incumbents for defeat, and the Florida Democratic has endorsed 11 board candidates. This year’s races could be last of the nonpartisan era; voters are being asked in November to consider a constitutional amendment that, if approved by more than 60 percent of the electorate, would require school board candidates to be identified on ballots with party labels, starting in 2026. Politico Florida. Florida Politics.
Opinions on schools: The deep failure of our education system to equip boys with the habits and knowledge necessary for success exacerbates all of society’s problems. Matthew Ladner, NextSteps. The expanding number of states making flexible spending accounts accessible to their public education students is accelerating the transition from school choice to education choice. Doug Tuthill, NextSteps. Florida Republicans’ attacks on academe are hollowing out its universities. Diane Roberts, Florida Phoenix. Since the University of Florida’s plans to build a graduate campus in downtown Jacksonville were announced in 2023, there has been a remarkably slapdash feel to the project. Nate Monroe, Florida Times-Union. Debunking the conventional wisdom about STEM education for K-12 and post-secondary students. Paul Cottle, Bridge to Tomorrow.
