Lee school year extended, five districts get state grants for recovery, dorm credits and more

Around the state: Lee County is extending the school year by two days and converting early-dismissal days to full days to make up classroom time lost to hurricanes Helene and Milton, education foundations in five west-central Florida counties are each receiving $100,000 from the Florida Disaster Fund to help with recovery from the hurricanes, 352 University of South Florida St. Petersburg students displaced when their dorm suffered water damage during Hurricane Milton will be given a partial credit toward future housing costs, nine Florida schools are affected by a national recall of meat and poultry products, and another $4.6 billion in federal student loans has been waived by the Biden administration. Here are details about those stories and others from the state’s districts, private schools, and colleges and universities:

Palm Beach: Schools were closed for three days when Hurricane Milton swept through the area last week, but district students won’t have to make up any of the instructional time lost. “The Palm Beach County School District’s academic calendars build in flexibility with more instructional minutes than required by the Florida Department of Education,” a district spokesperson said. “This additional time may be used for unexpected events, such as hurricanes or other emergencies.” Palm Beach Post. Two school board seats are on the ballot Nov. 5. In District 1, attorney Matthew Lane faces literacy coach Page Lewis to replace the retiring Barbara McQuinn. In District 5, substitute teacher Gloria Branch and longtime educator Mindy Koch are competing to replace Frank Barbieri, who held the seat for 16 years. Palm Beach Post.

Lee: Six early-dismissal days have been converted to full days, and three other days have been added to the school calendar to make up classroom time lost to hurricanes Helene and Milton. Oct. 28, Feb. 24, March 14, April 28, May 29 and May 30 will now be full days. Jan. 6 was added after Helene, and the school year will be extended by two more days, June 2 and 3, which will both be early-dismissal days. WINK. WFTX. WBBH.

Pinellas: A school crossing guard who was helping an adult across a busy street in Largo on Thursday morning was struck by a car and hospitalized with injuries that were described as nonlife-threatening. The driver was cited. WFLA. WTSP. WFTS.

Collier: A driver who tried to speed around a stopped school bus Thursday struck a student who was crossing the street to get on the bus. The student was taken to a hospital for treatment and later released. Deputies said the school bus was slowing to a stop with its yellow lights blinking when the driver switched lanes and accelerated, hitting the student who had walked off a median toward the bus. The driver was cited for reckless driving. Naples Daily News. WINK. WBBH.

Marion: County voters are being asked Nov. 5 to approve a half-cent sales tax for the next 10 years to help the school district build, replace and improve schools. If approved, the tax is projected to raise $330 million. Enrollment has gone up 11 percent in the last five years, to more than 46,000 students, and district officials said they need to money to help build three schools, four wings and replace Lake Weir Middle School in the next five years. A similar tax was in place from January 2005 through December 2009, raising $111 million that was used to build four schools. Ocala Star-Banner.

Sarasota: A school bus driver making a left turn Thursday clipped a stop sign that was leaning into the roadway after being pushed by Hurricane Milton’s winds last week, damaging six windows. One student and two adults were on the bus, and none were injured. Sarasota Herald-Tribune. WFLA. WTSP. WTVT. WFTS.

Okaloosa: A fire broke out Thursday in the girls locker room at Crestview High School. Two school resource officers were able to extinguish the blaze, and were taken to a hospital as a precaution. The cause of the fire is under investigation. Northwest Florida Daily News. WEAR.

Leon: School Superintendent Rocky Hanna and his Nov. 5 challenger, Chiles High School principal Joe Burgess, discuss their plans for hiring and retaining quality teachers and what they think is the single biggest issue facing the district. The two also appeared at a candidate forum Thursday. Tallahassee Democrat.

Colleges and universities: The University of South Florida St. Petersburg is offering a partial credit toward future housing costs to 352 students who were displaced when water intrusion from Hurricane Milton damaged their dorm. Pelican Apartments will be closed for two weeks. Tampa Bay Times. Florida Atlantic University is rebranding from the acronym FAU to the words Florida Atlantic. The change is being made to avoid confusing FAU in Boca Raton with FIU, Florida International University in Miami. WLRN. Power has been restored to all buildings on the Florida A&M University campus in Tallahassee, and classes will return to normal today. Classes were held virtually Tuesday. School officials said the outage was probably caused by a cable failure. WTXL. WCTV. Tallahassee Democrat.

School meat recalls: Nine schools from Florida are on a list of 200-plus that received nearly 12 million pounds of meat and poultry being recalled by BrucePac because of listeria concerns. The affected schools, which are mostly in central and south Florida, are not part of USDA’s school meals program. Miami Herald.

Funds for affected districts: Education foundations in Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco, Manatee and Sarasota counties are each receiving $100,000 from the Florida Disaster Fund to help with recovery efforts from Hurricane Milton. Gov. Ron DeSantis commended the districts Thursday for their quick turnaround from using schools as shelters to educating students. Sarasota Superintendent Terry Connor said it was “fantastic that we can help accelerate bringing back some normalcy to our community.” Sarasota Herald-Tribune. Charlotte Sun. WWSB. WINK. Florida Phoenix. WTVT. WTSP. While many applauded the push to reopen schools quickly after the storm, others felt the affected communities needed more time to recover. Tampa Bay Times.

Around the nation: Another $4.5 billion in student loans for 60,000 U.S.public service workers has been waived by the Biden administration, it announced Thursday. Since the forgiveness program began in 2021, about 55,000 public service workers in Florida have had $4.6 million in debt waived. Central Florida Public Media. USA Today Florida Network. Associated Press. Average scores for the SAT and ACT college admission tests declined slightly among 2024 high school graduates from the previous year. The average ACT score was 19.4, down from 19.5 in 2023, and the average SAT score dipped from 1028 in 2023 to 1024 in 2024. K-12 Dive. Nearly three out of four U.S. public school districts report they had trouble filling open teaching jobs for the current school year, according to a survey of 1,392 schools by the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics. K-12 Dive.


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BY NextSteps staff