Bonus for private school: A Catholic school in St. Petersburg has announced it will take advantage of the state’s new universal school vouchers law to significantly raise its tuition costs, and its revenue, while collecting less money from the parents of children who enroll. “We decided that we need to take maximum advantage of this dramatically expanded funding source,” said Monsignor Robert Gibbons of the St. Paul Catholic School and Church. “Otherwise we would be negligent.” The school is raising tuition from $6,000 to $10,000 for children of parish members, and from $7,000 to $12,000 for nonparish members. Vouchers worth at least $8,000 a year will more than offset that increase and also raise school revenues by nearly $1 million, which the school will use to boost teacher pay and make capital improvements. To get there, Gibbons said, “every family in the school will need to apply for the voucher.” The school of about 300 students had 62 voucher recipients in the 2022-2023 academic year, according to Step Up For Students, an organization that helps administer Florida’s voucher programs and hosts this blog. Critics of universal school vouchers said they expect other private schools to also use the law to improve their bottom lines. Tampa Bay Times.
7 Florida spellers advance: Seven Florida students advanced past the three preliminary rounds of the Scripps National Spelling Bee on Tuesday to qualify for the semifinals tonight. Advancing after spelling two words and defining another correctly are Lizzy Beers, a 14-year-old 8th-grader from Lee County; Westin Martin, a 13-year-old 8th-grader from Duval; Dev Shah, a 14-year-old 8th-grader from Pinellas; Juan Rondeau, a 14-year-old 8th-grader from Miami-Dade; Luke Brown, a 14-year-old 8th-grader from Collier; Evander Turner, a 14-year-old 8th-grader from Lake; and Bruhat Soma, an 11-year-old 6th-grader from Hillsborough. They are among the 121 students still competing for the championship. Sumayya Ahmad, an 11-year-old 6th-grader from Escambia, was eliminated in Round 1 when she misspelled the word “batu” as battue and in Round 2, Lancaster Gramer, an 11-year-old 5th-grader from Miami-Dade, was knocked out when he defined the word “merino” as heavily veined marble native to Italy instead of the correct fine wool and cotton yarn used for knitwear. The semifinals are today from 8-10 p.m., and the finals from 8-10 p.m. Thursday. Both will be broadcast on the ION TV channel. Scripps National Spelling Bee. Spectrum News. WTSP.
Education bills signed: Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill Tuesday that expands a pilot program giving K-2 students greater opportunities for music instruction. About 2,000 students from 10 schools in Alachua, Marion and Miami-Dade counties took part in the pilot, which began during the 2021-2022 school year. It was set to expire, but the Legislature extended it through this year and made it available statewide. To participate, schools will have to offer the program for K-2 students, have certified music instructors, offer 30 consecutive minutes of music instruction two days per week and comply with class size laws. Schools that participate will receive $150 for every student enrolled. Florida Politics. Mainstreet Daily News. DeSantis also signed a bill late last week accepting teaching certifications of educators from other states to be able to teach in Florida without taking any additional coursework or exams. Florida becomes the sixth state to sign the Interstate Teacher Mobility Compact. Florida Politics.
Around the state: Broward’s school board selects three finalists for the superintendent’s job, a state audit is critical of the Miami-Dade school district compliance on some safety and security issues, a vote on requiring Broward students to have clear backpacks was postponed by the school board, Escambia’s school board appoints an interim superintendent, hundreds attend a contentious Hernando County School Board meeting, and Brevard’s school board is again considering revisions to its book review policy. Here are details about those stories and others from the state’s districts, private schools, and colleges and universities:
Miami-Dade: A recent state audit identifies several security and safety improvements the district must make before the next school year. Foremost is a finding that the district largely failed to comply with youth mental health awareness and assistance training requirements during the 2021-2022 fiscal year. Just 37 percent of the district’s employees completed the required mental health assistance training. The audit also disclosed that nearly 30 percent of sampled schools had resource officers who couldn’t document that they took the required 144-hour training program from a sheriff, and that district did not fully implement a panic alert system. Florida Politics. A school crossing guard working outside North Miami Senior High School has been arrested and accused of molesting a girl between the ages of 12 and 16 as he helped her cross an intersection on May 8. Police said Vanel Jean-Francois, 70, touched the girl’s breast for about 10 seconds, then grabbed her hand and walked her across the street. He was arrested Monday. WPLG. WFOR.
Broward: Three finalists for the school superintendent’s job were chosen from a list of seven semifinalists Tuesday by the school board. They are: Peter Licata, the south region superintendent in the neighboring Palm Beach County School District since 2019 and a Broward native; Luis Solano, deputy superintendent of labor and the chief operating officer of the Detroit Public Schools Community District since 2017 who also has worked in Miami-Dade and Collier counties; and Sito Narcisse, the superintendent of the East Baton Rouge Parish School System in Louisiana since 2021. The only internal candidate, school chief of staff Valerie Wanza, finished fourth in the voting. Two days of interviews will begin June 14, with school board members choosing a superintendent June 15. WLRN. Sun-Sentinel. Miami Herald. WSVN. WFOR. WPLG. WPTV. School board members have postponed a vote on requiring students to have clear backpacks and bags for the next school year after a parent pointed out a technicality that mandates a workshop be held if requested “by any affected person, unless the agency head explains in writing why a workshop is unnecessary.” The vote was pushed from June 13 to July 25. Schools reopen Aug. 21. Sun-Sentinel.
Brevard: School board members are considering revising the policy on book reviews again. The recently adopted policy allows anyone to anonymously file a complaint about a book. Tuesday, board member Katye Campbell said that point should be reconsidered to stop the potential “logjam” of complaints. Five community members appointed to a book review committee by the school board will begin meeting in June to establish, with the help of a school district media specialist, a process for reviewing challenged books. The media specialist will facilitate discussions but not vote on what happens to the challenged books. Thirty-two books have been pulled from school libraries as they await the fomal review provess. A list of another 300 or so have been submitted for an informal review that will determine if a formal review is warranted. Florida Today.
Collier: Conservative businessman Alfie Oakes has filed an amended request for an injunction to prevent the school board from entering into a contract with its choice for a new superintendent, Leslie Ricciardelli. Oakes contends that the school board violated the state’s Sunshine Law by allowing the search firm Hazard Young Atea Associates to select 10 candidates for the job out of 45 applicants privately, without public notice or public comment as required by law. Oakes’ amended complaint includes 13 pages of information he says was obtained through a public records request. WGCU.
Escambia: Assistant superintendent of human resources Keith Jordan has accepted a one-year appointment as interim superintendent of the district schools. He replaces Tim Smith, who was fired earlier this month, and will serve until June 30, 2024, unless his contract is terminated sooner. The contract will go before the board for approval in June. Pensacola News Journal. WEAR.
Alachua: Free meals will be available for children 18 and under at 70 schools and other locations this summer through the federally funded Summer Food Service Program. Most sites will be open by June 5 and provide meals through July 21. Gainesville Sun.
Hernando: Hundreds of people crowded into Tuesday’s school board meeting for a heated discussion about a teacher who was reported to the state for showing a PG-rated Disney movie to her 5th-graders without administrative approval, book bans, and the general discord among board members. Petitions have been launched calling for the removal of all but one school board member, and three state legislators are also calling for Superintendent John Stratton to resign. The board was expected to discuss the results of the state investigation into the teacher’s actions at Tuesday’s meeting, but never got to it. Board members were told that the teacher, Jenna Barbee, who worked at Winding Waters K-8 School, is one of 50 teachers resigning from the district. WTSP. WTVT. WFLA. Hernando Sun. Citrus County Chronicle. USA Today.
Colleges and universities: New College of Florida trustees will consider changing the school mascot at a meeting this week. The campus community was recently surveyed about possible options to replace the current mascot, the Null Set. News Service of Florida.
High school graduations: High schools around the state are holding graduation ceremonies. Here are reports and photos from some of them. Tampa Bay Times. Naples Daily News.
Around the nation: About 63 percent of Americans believe colleges should take race into consideration as part of the admissions process, but should not be the major role in making a decision on a student, according to a new poll by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Associated Press.
Opinions on schools: The United States is gripped by a baby bust that began in 2008. Starting round about next year, this cohort will age into the working-age population. Young people are not just an increasingly scarce resource, they are the future for their states. Matthew Ladner, reimaginED. Public education can encompass a lot of approaches, and it can be organized in many different ways. Rather than blindly insist that “defending public schooling” requires clinging to outdated policies from decades (or centuries) past, we would do better to clarify principles, examine particulars, and then debate proposals. Frederick Hess, Washington Examiner.
