Managing the boom: The Palm Beach County School Board will consider a plan to hire a company to manage the district’s building boom, at a cost of $26.4 million over 10 years. California-based AECOM would act as the program manager in exchange for a 2.2 percent cut of the $1.4 billion the district is spending to repair old schools and build new ones. Voters approved a sales tax initiative in November to raise the sales tax for school infrastructure. “I think, at 2.2 percent, that is a terrific deal for the district,” says Mike Burke, the district’s chief financial officer. Palm Beach Post.
Financial problems: Hillsborough County School Superintendent Jeff Eakins acknowledges at a budget workshop that the district’s financial problems are even worse than previously known. The district’s reserve account lost $83.6 million between 2014 and 2015, and that was after the district transferred $55 million into it, and was on track to lose $130 million or more the following year. School board members brainstormed cost-cutting ideas, but no decisions were reached. Tampa Bay Times. Budget cuts could put the brakes on a proposed technology upgrade for the Pasco County School District. Chief finance officer Olga Swinson is recommending the elimination of $724,000 budgeted for new televisions and projectors to help teachers with presentations. She also suggests not spending the previously budgeted $642,000 for telecommunications upgrades and maintenance, and $310,000 in computer hardware, servers and software. Gradebook. Pasco County Superintendent Kurt Browning has been pushing the state to return to paper-and-pencil standardized testing, but he’s recommending the district continue to use computer tests because doing so will save money. Gradebook.
Sharing with charters: Under the new state education law, the Duval County School District will be compelled to turn over $16 million from its capital fund in the next five years to charter schools. School officials say the first payment will be $2.4 million for the next school year. Florida Times-Union. In Sarasota County, charter schools’ share of capital funds will be $9.3 million, up from the $5.5 million the board allotted this past school year. Sarasota Herald-Tribune. The Flagler County School District will have to send $570,000 from its capital fund to the county’s two charter schools. Flagler Live.
School impact fees: Development is bring more children into Seminole County schools than expected, prompting the school board and county commissioners to review school impact fees. A record 65,801 students attended Seminole schools, up 2,303 students. That’s almost twice what the school district expected. Orlando Sentinel.
Education bill impact: The last restrictions on virtual education in Florida schools were lifted when Gov. Rick Scott signed H.B. 7069. That includes the elimination of geographic boundaries for virtual students, allows for open enrollment for virtual charter students, and removes the previous restrictions on who can take courses, fulltime or part-time, and from whom. redefinED. The signing of the education bill makes the University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee’s Center for the Partnership for Arts-Integrated Teaching the official resource for helping teachers integrate art into classroom lessons. Bradenton Herald.
Outsourcing finances: The Jefferson County School Board declines to vote on a proposal by Superintendent Marianne Arbulu and the State Department of Education to outsource the district’s finance department. The DOE wants the district to eliminate four workers and pay the Wakulla County School District $69,000 a year to handle the finances. Jefferson County has already turned over the operation of its schools to the Somerset charter company. Tallahassee Democrat.
Sales tax revenue up: The amount of money collected by the extra half-cent increase in the sales tax is bringing in more money than expected for the St. Johns County School District. But construction costs are also up, forcing district officials to adjust the budgets for the new schools and upgrades of existing ones. St. Augustine Record.
Prayer ruling appealed: Cambridge Christian School of Tampa will appeal a federal judge’s ruling that its free speech rights were not violated when it was denied use of a stadium loudspeaker to broadcast a prayer during a football game in 2015. News Service of Florida.
Contract negotiations: Teachers from the charter school network run by the city of Pembroke Pines have a negotiating session today with city officials. Teachers in the A-rated district want $3,000 raises, and the city is offering $1,000. Sun Sentinel.
New school: The state tentatively approves the Santa Rosa County School District’s plan to build a $37 million K-8 school in the south part of the county. The school board now will have to approve a survey, which would then send the plan back to the state for final approval. School officials say if everything goes smoothly, the school could be ready for students in two and a half years. Pensacola News Journal.
Upgrades delayed: The Martin County School Board delays a decision on improving the athletic facilities at South Fork High School. The board has four options, ranging in cost from $338,000 to $1.25 million. The school staff has recommended the $338,000 option, which would add a new weight room by January. But board members took Superintendent Laurie Gaylord’s advice to delay a decision until the district’s capital plan is discussed July 7. TCPalm.
School repurposed: The first school for black students in Pasco County is about to get new life as a community center. Moore-Mickens Education and Vocational Center is expected to open in August two years after closing as an education center, and has a 30-year lease. It’ll be run by a nonprofit coalition of civic, community and faith-based leaders. Gradebook.
Personnel moves: Two new principals are named by Flagler County School Superintendent James Tager. Anna Crawford, assistant principal at Flagler Palm Coast High School, is named principal at Wadsworth Elementary School, and Jeff Reaves, principal at Holly Hill High School in Volusia County, will become principal at Matanzas High School. Flagler Live.
Teacher training: Teachers in central Florida are receiving training on how to teach modeling and simulation in grade schools. The week-long training took place at Hagerty High School in Oviedo. WKMG.
Teacher’s sentence: A Broward County teacher should go to prison for eight years for tipping drug dealers that they were under investigation, a prosecutor argues. Porsha Session, 31, of Boynton Beach, says she was retaliating against her then-husband, a Lauderhill police detective who was involved in the investigation of those dealers, because he was cheating on her. Sentencing is June 28. Sun Sentinel.
No charges for teacher: Prosecutors won’t press criminal charges against Dunnellon High School teacher Chester Pacana, who was accused of inappropriate contact with a 15-year-old female student in February. Pacana, 35, remains on paid leave. Citrus County Chronicle.
Opinions on schools: My little third-grader thought she failed her Florida Standards Assessments test, and spent days crying over this. And for what? Why are we forcing our students to learn how to test? Why are our teachers forced to take hours every school day to teach kids how to properly answer standardized questions, in place of actually guiding them through understanding the objectives in a real-world context? What are we proving? Darlena Cunha, Washington Post. J.P. Krause did nothing wrong. To the contrary, he is a champion of the First Amendment, standing up for his right to speak when so many others would bow down. Vero Beach High School should be proud of its new senior class president. David Jadon, TCPalm. H.B. 7069 is a good example of how legislators violate the Florida Constitution’s “one bill, one topic” rule. Mark J. Castellano, Naples Daily News. Here’s the rest of the story about the challenge to a history textbook being used in Collier County. David Bolduc, Naples Daily News.
Student enrichment: Maya Moise, a 7th-grader at American Heritage School, places first in the National History Day Contest for her exhibit, “Service, Not Servitude.” Miami Herald. Kindergarten-readiness bags are being handed out to children from low-income families in Sarasota County. Sarasota Herald-Tribune.
