Around the state: Students returned to a Lee and a Pinellas school Monday for the first time since hurricanes caused damage in September and October, a bill is filed to provide free meals at all K-12 schools in the state, Manatee’s speed detection cameras in school zones issue about 9,300 tickets in the first month, Orlando’s speed detection cameras aren’t even in place and the city council is already considering adding more, an appeals court rules that dismissing a student with disabilities from Florida International University’s medical school for academic reasons did not violate a federal law, and Alachua’s school board changes administrative titles and a job description to comply with state-approved language. Here are details about those stories and others from the state’s districts, private schools, and colleges and universities:
Miami-Dade: Calvary Christian Academy in Opa-locka is being beautified by artists as part of Art Week. The Raw Project, which began in 2014, is an initiative in which artists from around the world paint murals on schools. Principal Kris Hughes said the project is connected to increased school spirit, test scores and class attendance. WPLG. WSVN.
Orange: Orlando’s City Council is considering expanding its proposal to place speed detection cameras in school zones. Council members voted in June to place cameras in 23 school zones. They have not yet been installed because the contract for them has not been put out for bid, but the council will vote Dec. 9 on a study that could lead to cameras also being put in 25 public and 28 charter and private school zones. Orlando Sentinel.
Lee: Students returned to the Sanibel School Monday for the first time since Hurricane Milton flooded the school in early October. Repairs will continue on the first floor while students have classes on the second floor. Students have been attending Heights Elementary, which is 15 miles to the east of the damaged school. WBBH. More than 1,000 residents of Bonita Springs have signed a petition urging the school district and city officials to find a way to save the century-old Bonita Springs Elementary School. School officials have announced plans to tear down most of the school while renovating parts of two buildings. Derrick Botana, chairman of the Bonita Springs Historical Society, is hoping to change that course and develop a plan, whether that’s “turning it into a museum or a welcome center or a welcome center, or even being part of the fabric in the new school.” WFTX.
Pinellas: Classes resumed Monday at the Madeira Beach Fundamental K-8 School for the first time since Hurricane Helene flooded the area in late September. Not all the repairs are done, so classes will be held on the second floor and in portable classrooms. Students have been taking classes 7 miles away at Osceola Fundamental High School. “As students got out of their cars today, to be able to talk to them, to hear their excitement, to be back to a place they are very familiar with, it’s very good,” said Dywayne Hinds, Area 3 superintendent. “It’s almost like a weight lifted off your shoulders.” Spectrum News 9. WFLA.
Manatee: In the month since speed detection cameras in two-dozen school zones began ticketing offenders going more than 10 mph over the posted limit during school hours, more than 9,300 citations for $100 apiece have been issued. The school district receives $12 from each ticket, which officials have said will go toward school safety, student transportation and crosswalk guards. Florida receives $23 and the county $65, from which it sends $19.80 to RedSpeed, the Maryland company that installed and operates the cameras. WFLA. WTSP. WTVT. WFTS. Bradenton Herald. WWSB.
St. Lucie, Martin, Indian River: Arrests on school campuses were down in St. Lucie County but up significantly in Martin and Indian River between the 2020-2021 and the 2022-2023 school years, according to the most recent state Department of Juvenile Justice delinquency in schools report. In Martin County, arrests increased from 48 to 73, a jump of 52 percent, and in Indian River, arrests went from 58 to 86, an increase of 48 percent. St. Lucie arrests declined from 255 to 219, down 13 percent. “I would say 10 years ago, we did not have students so concerned about their own safety that something really bad could happen. Now, if students see something, they say something,” said St. Lucie Superintendent Jon Prince. The most common offenses are possession of drugs and vaping, said Martin County Sheriff William Snyder. TCPalm.
Okaloosa: A fire last week damaged the interior of a portable classroom at Kenwood Elementary School in Fort Walton Beach. No one was injured. WEAR.
Alachua: School board members have approved changes to the titles of several administrative positions. A job description were also rewritten for one position to comply with state-approved language: The chief of equity, inclusion and community engagement is now the assistant superintendent of student support services, and requires knowledge of “eliminating educational barriers” instead of how to work with state, federal and local laws and regulations to “relate to educational equity.” Mainstreet Daily News. WCJB.
Hernando: New District 2 school board member Kayce Hawkins, who was unopposed in her bid to succeed Linda Prescott, says she wants to help the district hire and keep good teachers, prioritize school security, increase funding for extracurricular activities and enrichment programs, expand technical education programs and more. Hernando Sun.
Monroe: Wendy McPherson, the principal at the CFK Academy at the College of the Florida Keys in Key West, is leaving the charter school at the end of this week to care for her aging parents. She was the principal for nine years at Marathon High before opening CFK in August 2023. Florida Keys Weekly.
Colleges and universities: Dismissing a student with disabilities from Florida International University’s medical school for academic reasons in 2020 did not violate a federal law, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit ruled Monday. Elie Nehme didn’t qualify for protection under the Americans with Disabilities Act because he “could not meet the university’s minimum academic standards, even with reasonable accommodations for his disability,” the court wrote. Florida Phoenix.
Education bills filed: Bills have been filed for the next legislative session that would require school districts to offer free school breakfasts and lunches, and to increase the number of instructional hours required for all state prekindergarten programs to at least 1,440 hours. Both were filed by state Sen. Lori Berman, D-Boynton Beach. The 60-day session begins March 4 and is scheduled to conclude May 2. Florida’s Voice. Florida Politics.
Popular movie, banned book: The movie Wicked is wildly popular in movie theaters, but the book the movie is based on has been removed from many Florida school districts. Gregory Maguire’s 1995 novel, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, which was the basis for the Broadway play and the PG-rated movie, explores themes like morality, power and corruption but also includes drinking, drugs, rape, prostitution, crime and sex parties between humans and animals. USA Today Florida Network.
Around the nation: Parents rely on assessments from teachers more than grades as a dependable measure of how much their children are learning in school, according to a recent national survey. That finding surprises Bibb Hubbard, president of Learning Heroes, a nonprofit that helps parents understand student achievement data. “For the first time, grades are not the No. 1 factor,” she said. “Teachers really are on the front lines in terms of communicating to families about where their kids are.” The 74.
Opinions on schools: With a widely diverse reading list, and with most of the perpetrators and victims of the Gov. Ron DeSantis purge of New College still alive and unrepentant, the course titled “The ‘Woke’ Movement” sounds like a rare opportunity to learn from a cultural shift that’s still going on. Bill Cotterell, Tallahassee Democrat. Education is not supposed to make you comfortable; it’s not meant to reinforce what you think you already know. Education should challenge you, disturb you, and maybe even present possibilities you never knew existed. Diane Roberts, Florida Phoenix. Florida’s universities should offer a path to upward mobility. But fixating on short-term income metrics misses much of the value of higher education. Rodrigo Diaz, Sarasota Herald-Tribune.
