Around the state: Thousands of teacher position vacancies across the state, books discarded at New College of Florida, new principals are being appointed in Palm Beach County and University of Florida’s provost is headed back to the university. Here are details about those stories and other developments from the state’s districts, private schools, and colleges and universities:
Miami-Dade: Classes are back in session for more than 300,000 students in Miami-Dade County as they are welcomed into 522 different campuses across the district for their first day of school. Meanwhile, excitement was in the air at Miami Edison Senior High, since they have become an A-rated school for the first time in over 100 years since the school has been open. WSVN.
Palm Beach: School district leaders here approved another new principal on Wednesday, bringing the total number of schools with new leaders to 16 this year. The number of schools with new leadership at the start of an academic year is usual between 10-20 across more than 180 Palm Beach County district-operated schools. Changes in leadership are usually driven by a host of personnel matters that include retirements, departures and promotions. Palm Beach Post.
Pinellas: A Pinellas County School Board member seeking re-election alleges that Republican leaders crossed legal boundaries in campaign ads that endorse her challenger. Tampa Bay Times.
Volusia: ESE teachers in this county say they are exhausted, prompting the district to implement changes. The Daytona Beach News-Journal.
Teacher vacancies: About 10,000 teaching and education staff positions remain open in Florida, even as students headed back to school this week, according to data compiled by the Florida Education Association. The association said it found that almost every district in the state has open positions in elementary education, ESE and speech-language pathology with “no significant improvement” in the vacancies for education staff professionals. There is also a need for teachers aides for non-ESE students, bus drivers and substitute teachers. ABC Action News. WQCS.
School board candidate endorsements: Gov. Ron DeSantis has endorsed 23 school board candidates across 14 counties. The Associated Press. WUSF.
Colleges and universities: Joe Glover, a longtime University of Florida provost who stepped down in 2023 before taking the same position earlier this year at the University of Arizona, is coming back to Gainesville. University of Arizona spokesperson Mitch Zak said the school will be appointing an interim provost in the coming weeks. In an email to faculty and students on Tuesday, Glover said he would be returning to UF because interim president Kent Fuchs “asked me to lend my expertise in support of the university, where I spent over 15 years, and which is undergoing a major transition.” The Gainesville Sun. Main Street Daily News. Kathleen Amm, Tallahassee’s National High Magnetic Field Laboratory director, recently talked about her return to Florida State University. “Coming back 30 years later, I think FSU is just phenomenally poised right now to lead across a broad area of places that can have not just technological impact, and not just science impact, but a really great impact on the community here in North Florida,” said Amm. Tallahassee Democrat. Gov. Ron DeSantis and top state Republicans are putting pressure on the state university system’s Board of Governors to look further into the spending habits of former University of Florida President Ben Sasse after reports from a student-run newspaper that he spent millions in university funds on consulting contracts. Tampa Bay Times. Meanwhile, New College of Florida has discarded scores of books from its collection in what the university described as a “weeding” of its libraries. The university said its library was following its standard yearly procedures for updating its collection. University spokesperson Nathan March said in a statement that the process was conducted by “professional Librarians trained to assess the collection” and that state law prevents the university from selling, donating or transferring the books purchased with state funds. Tampa Bay Times. Sarasota Herald-Tribune. USA Today.
Opinions on schools: On a fairly regular basis, teachers and administrators in Florida’s public K-12 system will tell me that the colleges of education at the state’s public universities should work on graduating more science and math teachers. My usual response is something like this: They’ve tried, and it’s not working. Not even close. Paul Cottle, Bridge to Tomorrow.
