Parents’ rights suit on hold: Consideration of an appeal in the lawsuit filed against the state’s Parental Rights in Education law that restricts classroom discussions about sexual orientation and gender identity has been suspended while the plaintiffs and the state discuss a possible settlement. Three LGBTQ students, 11 parents and teachers from state school districts and the advocacy group Equality Florida brought the lawsuit, contending it violates the First Amendment, equal-protection rights and the federal Title IX law that prohibits discrimination based on sex in education programs. A U.S. district judge ruled for the state in February, writing that the plaintiffs had not established legal standing to challenge the law. An appeal that was filed in late May is now on hold during the settlement discussions. News Service of Florida.
Around the state: Automatic access for Osceola school district students to the county library system has been discontinued by the school board “in order to comply with Florida H.B. 1069 and H.B. 1467 recent legislation and in the spirit of parental choice,” Duval school board members vote to move ahead with a search for a new superintendent, Pinellas schools are joining other Florida districts in suing social media companies for their negative impact on students, a 9th-grader at a Broward school for intellectually disabled children has been charged with attempted murder after attacking a teacher with scissors, and school boards in Pinellas, Collier, Alachua, Citrus and Charlotte counties have approved budgets for the 2023-2024 fiscal year. Here are details about those stories and others from the state’s districts, private schools, and colleges and universities:
Miami-Dade: Joe Geller, a lawyer who was formerly a Democratic state representative and North Bay Village mayor, has announced he is running for the District 3 seat on the school board. That seat is being vacated in 2024 by Lucia Baez-Geller, who is no relation. Joe Geller said he’s running to make sure every child receives a quality education, to strengthen the school district’s bonds with parents and communities, champion teachers and improve facilities. The race has one other candidate so far: Gustavo Ortega, a special education teacher. Florida Politics.
Broward: A 14-year-old 9th-grader at a Deerfield Beach school for intellectually disabled children has been charged with attempted murder for chasing a teacher through the hallway on Tuesday with scissors and cutting her ear. The Bright Horizons Center teacher was treated and released from a hospital. “This student has had concerns there before and has committed some act of violence on another teacher, about one and a half years ago,” said Broward teachers union president Anna Fusco. “It’s very concerning that, I’m not sure what the exact attack was but now this is a serious violent attack.” WPLG. WSVN. WFOR. WTVJ. WPEC.
Hillsborough: District officials are working to fill 60 openings for special education teachers with the help of the new STEP program, which is an accelerated special education teacher preparation plan that doesn’t require a background in education. Enrollees in the program make progress toward getting their teaching certificate while working in the classroom, and they have three years to complete all the necessary requirements to become certified. Spectrum News 9.
Palm Beach: John I. Leonard High School is the largest of the 24 public high schools in the district, according to official enrollment counts taken on the 11th day of this academic year. Leonard has 3,261 students, nearly 200 more than the next-biggest, Jupiter High. The smallest are Glades Central High, with 877 students, and Pahokee Middle-Senior High with 889. Nearly 60,000 students attend high schools in the county. Enrollment counts will be updated in October. Palm Beach Post.
Duval: School board members decided Tuesday to move ahead with the search for a new superintendent. They made the decision after hearing a summary of comments from online surveys and five community meetings. “We feel like, given the community forums we’ve had, and the overwhelming response from the community survey, that we have good information to keep on our timeline,” said board chair Kelly Coker. Applications will open Friday and close Oct. 13, and the board expects to have a new superintendent in place by January. Jacksonville Today.
Pinellas: School board members voted Tuesday to join a dozen or so other Florida school districts in a class-action lawsuit against social media companies such as TikTok and Facebook, contending they are contributing to mental health problems for students and forcing districts to use resources to help those students. Representing the district are the same Kansas City lawyers who landed more than $4 million for the district from a similar class-action suit against an e-cigarette manufacturer. WTSP. WTVT. The board also approved a $1.77 billion budget that has a slightly lower tax rate but will still bring in more money because of increased property valuations. The budget includes $1.055 billion for general operations, such as salaries and benefits, supplies, transportation, library and textbooks, and $343 million for capital projects. Tampa Bay Times.
Osceola: Automatic access for district students to the Osceola County Library System has been discontinued by the school board “in order to comply with Florida H.B. 1069 and H.B. 1467 recent legislation and in the spirit of parental choice,” according to a district spokesperson. The OLL Access Pass program had “automatically opted-in all K-12 students in the district and provided them with direct access to all the books, materials, and resources housed in the public library through their school libraries.” WFTV. WKMG.
Manatee: A 14-year-old Southeast High School student was arrested Tuesday and accused of having a gun and ammunition on campus. A school administrator told police he walked into a boys restroom and saw the student showing the gun to three other boys. He confiscated it and four bullets. Bradenton Herald. Sarasota Herald-Tribune. WTVT. WWSB. WTSP.
Collier: A routine vote on a school budget this week turned acrimonious when two board members decided to abstain from voting because they said they didn’t understand the intricacies of the budget. Jerry Rutherford and Tim Moshier at first said they wouldn’t vote. After being admonished by board chair Kelly Lichter and asked for suggestions on ways to cut the budget, which was set at 4.290 mills, a rate slightly lower than last year’s, Rutherford and Moshier offered none and voted against it. WGCU.
Marion: An outside company is being hired to recruit, screen, train and deploy substitute teachers for the school district. School board members approved paying up to $5 million a year to ESS Solutions for the services. Districts in Alachua, Columbia, Dixie, Putnam and Suwannee also use the company. WCJB.
Leon: The school district’s share of a settlement with e-cigarette manufacturer Juul Laboratory Inc. and its parent company, Altria Group, for marketing tactics that hooked young people on vaping totals $87,321. After paying legal fees, the district will collect $59,000 and has full discretion on how the money is spent. “Some of the things tobacco campaigns are using are very effective, so I’m hoping that with this extra bit of money, we’ll be able to really focus on hopefully youth led campaigns to educate our young people about the dangers of addiction,” said school board member Rosanne Wood. The most recent district report shows 269 tobacco and vaping-related instances during the 2021-2022 school year. Tallahassee Democrat.
Alachua: School board members unanimously approved a final $599 million budget this week after district officials made revisions that lowered it from the tentative $604 million budget the board approved in August. Chief of finance Keith Birkett said the changes are the result of the reshuffling of funds due to new accounting practices, a decline in the estimated insurance claims the district expects, and more. The budget is about $65 million higher than last year’s. Gainesville Sun. Main Street Daily News. Two community meetings about the proposed school rezoning plan were postponed by Hurricane Idalia, and have been rescheduled for Oct. 2 at Kanapaha Middle School and Oct. 12 at Santa Fe High. If approved by the school board, the rezonings would take effect in the fall of 2024. WCJB.
Bay: School board members agreed Tuesday to add funding to the $600,000 that had already been approved for the special education program at Surfside Academy in Panama City Beach. “Today the board voted to allocate well over a million dollars to help make sure Surfside Academy had the resources it needs as soon as possible to educate our ESE students,” said school board chair Steve Moss. The board also adjusted a policy allowing students to bring and use headache medication at school with parental permission, aligning it with provisions in a new state law. WJHG.
Charlotte: School board members approved the $512 million budget for the 2023-2024 fiscal year at their meeting Tuesday. A millage rate of $6.47 for every $1,000 in taxable property value was set, a slight decrease from last year’s $6.55, but increasing property values will mean higher taxes for most. Chief financial officer Greg Griner said about 79 percent of the general fund portion of the budget goes toward “competitive employee salaries and benefits.” Charlotte Sun.
Citrus: A budget of nearly $323 million was approved this week by the school board. The millage rate was set at 5.444, with 3.944 going for operations and 1.5 mill allocated for capital projects. Citrus County Chronicle.
Colleges and universities: U.S. Education Department officials said there is no connection between an investigation of New College’s alleged discrimination against disabled students and a civil rights complaint filed against the school leadership for its alleged discrimination against LGBTQ students that it may or may not investigate. Politico Florida. About 2.7 million Floridians will have to resume making payments on their federal student college loans in October. Many things about the program have changed in the 42 months since repayments were suspended. Tampa Bay Times. Florida Gulf Coast University is raising its student on-campus housing costs by 5 percent a year over the next four years. News Service of Florida. Valencia College in Orlando has expanded its campus pantry with a grant from the Florida Blue Foundation. Orlando Sentinel. Jacksonville University is planning a new amenity center that will include a new pool for casual swimming, and areas for cardio exercise and training. It will connect to expanded beach volleyball courts, a new clubhouse, and locker rooms for the school’s beach volleyball team, and is expected to be ready to use by the fall of 2024. WJXT.
Around the nation: Child poverty in the United States has more than doubled in the past year since pandemic benefits expired, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s annual report on poverty, income and health insurance. A year ago, the child poverty rate hit a record low of 5.2 percent. The most recent figures put the rate at 12.4 percent. NPR. Students who attended both KIPP middle and high schools showed vastly higher rates of college enrollment compared to another group of children who were not selected for enrollment in the network’s lottery system, according to a study by the research company Mathematica. “The magnitude of these impact estimates is large, and effects of this size have substantial policy relevance,” the researchers wrote. KIPP has an enrollment of 120,000 mostly black and Hispanic students from low-income communities students across 21 states, including Florida, and Washington, D.C. The 74.
Opinions on schools: The Carnegie Unit, or credit hour, once served the important purpose of standardizing an entirely unstandardized U.S. education system. Now it’s simply a relic that makes school something to endure instead of being engaging or inspiring, and that needs to change. Russlynn Ali and Timothy F.C. Knowles, The 74.
