In the Legislature: Work guidelines for 16- and 17-year-olds would be removed under a bill filed for the 60-day legislative session that begins Jan. 9. The laws for those students, which prohibit them from working more than eight hours on school nights and more than 30 hours a week during the school year, have been in the books for more than 100 years. Orlando Sentinel. Cities could file applications to convert public schools in their jurisdiction into charter schools under a bill filed by state Rep. Alex Andrade, R-Pensacola. Current law allows school districts, parents and teachers to apply to convert a public school into a charter school, but not municipalities. Pensacola News Journal. WEAR. A bill calling for a constitutional amendment has been filed that would extend the homestead exemption on real estate taxes to those levied by school districts. State Rep. Alina Garcia, R-Miami, the bill sponsor, said, “The school boards, I think they have enough funding. If they need any more funding, I think we can fund them directly from the state.” If it’s approved by the Legislature, it would go before voters in 2024 and would need 60 percent support to go into effect. WCJB. The Center Square.
Around the state: A classical education program is being considered for at least one Miami-Dade elementary school, Osceola county commissioners are continuing a program offering free tuition and fees to high school graduates to attend Valencia College or Osceola Technical College, a Volusia elementary school would be closed under a rezoning plan being proposed by district officials, several high-ranking administrators at the University of Florida are living and working outside the state, and a Leon County middle school physical science and Earth space science teacher has become an online sensation for her creative use of TikTok as a learning environment for her students. Here are details about those stories and others from the state’s districts, private schools, and colleges and universities:
Miami-Dade: A proposal to start a classical education curriculum in at least one elementary school next fall was discussed last week by the school board. The plan calls for selecting a school, recruiting students, choosing a curriculum and then training staff during this school year. The curriculum would then be implemented over the next three school years. Classical education focuses on Western civilization. “We’re in the planning and discovery stage and depending on what the feasibility determines, we may or may not need to go to the board for that,” said Superintendent Jose Dotres. “But we will provide follow-ups.” Miami Herald. A school bus driver was arrested last week for allegedly leaving a sleeping 4-year-old girl on the bus after dropping off 11 other children at Henry ES Reeves K-8 Center Primary Academy in Miami. Police said after Elizabeth María Carrero, 33, dropped off the students, she went to the bank, drove to a mechanic to have her air filter fixed and get gas, then went home to eat breakfast. That’s when Carrero’s neighbor saw a child drenched with sweat getting off the bus. Carrero works for a private company that supplies drivers to the district, according to school officials. WTVJ.
Duval: A proposal to name Riverside High School’s football stadium after longtime school employee, substitute teacher and volunteer Leon Barrett will be considered at Tuesday’s school board meeting. Riverside High was formerly known as Robert E. Lee High School. WJAX. Sean McMaster, a lieutenant with the school district’s police force, has been named acting chief while Gregory Burton recovers from an undisclosed personal health issue. WJAX.
Lee: Some Cape Coral parents are demanding answers from the school district after the school bus their children were on Friday was seen running through stop signs, driving in circles in neighborhoods with the hazard lights on, and stopping in the middle of a road without extending the bus’ stop signs. One parent finally pulled his car in front of the bus to stop it. He said children were crying, beating on the glass and vomiting in the aisles as the driver screamed at them. The parent, Steve Snyder, said he put a call into the school district but hasn’t heard back. WBBH.
Osceola: County commissioners said Friday that they will continue to provide free tuition and fees to Valencia College or Osceola Technical College for any county high school graduate next spring, including public, charter, private and even home-school students. It’s the third year for the program, which is expected to cost $8.3 million in 2024. In the first two years, 4,763 students benefited from the program, which is named Osceola Prosper. WMFE. WFTV.
Volusia: School board members are expected to consider a proposal at Tuesday’s meeting to close Read-Pattillo Elementary School as part of rezoning boundaries and because of safety concerns and needed repairs. The board’s agenda calls for the school’s students to be moved to Chisholm and Edgewater elementaries, and would push some Edgewater students to Indian River Elementary. “We’re just completely devastated that this has just been dropped on us,” said PTA president Danielle Sandhagen. WOFL.
St. Johns: Three Creekside High School students have been arrested and accused of putting together a “lethal hit list” targeting multiple classmates. Deputies said the students, 15, 14 and 14, are part of a Russian chat group called “The United Boyopolis Socialist Republic.” They’ve been charged with written threats to kill or do bodily harm and unlawful use of a two-way communications device. “We are convinced that these young men were going to follow through with this lethal hit list with violence,” said Sheriff Robert Hardwick. Jacksonville Today. WJXT. WTLV.
Marion: School board member Allison Campbell has filed to run for re-election to her District 1 seat for a second term. She’s the first and only candidate so far for the 2024 election. The District 1 and 2 seats are up for election. WCJB. A 14-year-old student at Trinity Catholic High School in Ocala has been arrested for allegedly convincing an online friend in Germany to call in a fake school bomb threat. The boy in Germany told authorities that the county student asked him to make the call because he “did not feel like going to school that day.” WOFL.
Leon: A middle school physical science and Earth space science teacher at the Florida A&M University Developmental Research School in Tallahassee has become an online sensation for her creative use of TikTok as a learning environment for her students. Fourth-year teacher Yennifer Castillo has more than 100,000 followers and 4 million likes. Her posts include videos showing students skills such as cooking, sewing, table etiquette and balancing a checkbook. The 74.
Alachua: Revised school rezoning maps show that 14 district schools would still be overcrowded with zoned students if the plan is approved, according to parents who attended a meeting last week in Newberry. They lobbied the school board to not draw new lines that reach into the community and redistribute its students. For the first time, the latest rezoning information contains demographics and economic status data but doesn’t details how each school’s diversity would be affected. Gainesville Sun.
Citrus: School board members are expected to approve increases in health insurance deductibles for employees at Tuesday’s board meeting and consider naming the Crystal River High School gymnasium after Archie W. Dabney, a longtime district educator, coach and administrator who died in May. Citrus County Chronicle.
Okeechobee: A 19-year-old man has been arrested and accused of planning a mass shooting at Okeechobee High School. Palm Beach County deputies said Henry Horton IV, of Okeechobee, was pulled last month for having a burned-out headlight and they found handwritten pages with details about how he planned to kill everyone at his former school on Jan. 2, 2026. Deputies said Horton also told them he had done reconnaissance work at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Broward County. Sun-Sentinel. WPTV. WPEC.
Bradford: Schools in Starke reopen today after being closed Friday because of a citywide water outage. City officials said a mechanical malfunction drained the water plants and system tower. A boil water notice is in effect until officials determine the water is safe to drink. Students are being encouraged to bring bottled water to school today. WJXT. WCJB.
Colleges and universities: Several members of new University of Florida President Ben Sasse’s administrative team are living outside the state and have no immediate plans to move here. New vice president Penny Schwinn, tasked with implementing preK-12 education programs in schools around Florida, was formerly Tennessee’s education commissioner and plans to stay there for now. She will “travel regularly” to Gainesville, said UF spokeswoman Cynthia Roldan. Others include James Wegmann, vice president for communications, who lives and works out of D.C., and Raymond Sass, vice president for innovation and partnerships, who lives and works in Maryland. “This isn’t unusual for an enterprise of UF’s scope and stature,” Roldan said. Gainesville Sun.
Around the nation: Florida and other states have adopted laws putting restrictions on how and how much sex education is being taught in classrooms. Experts worry that the lack of accurate information will lead to greater reliance on less trustworthy sources, such as social media. “When we stop talking about these things or … try to push things under the rug, we just increase risk,” said Anne-Marie Amies Oelschlager, a pediatric and adolescent gynecologist at Seattle Children’s Hospital. Associated Press. More U.S. K-12 schools are stocking naloxone, the medication that can reverse an opioid overdose, but some are not because they fear being labeled as “bad schools” with drug problems. Health News Florida.
Opinions on schools: To reach the plateau of productivity, microschools are going to have to grapple with questions about financial stability and methods for reporting student outcomes. They’ll need to devise new ways to provide special education services, transportation and other essential infrastructure that ensures they’re accessible to all students. But I’m willing to bet that anyone who actually visited these learning environments would come away with their cynicism punctured and a belief that these bottom-up efforts are getting so much attention precisely because they’re positing novel solutions to countless different problems facing young people and the public education. Travis Pillow, reimaginED.
