Around the state: State legislators approve a $115.1 billion budget 45 days after the legislative session was scheduled to end, Broward’s school board is considering a plan to build affordable housing for employees at the site of a closed school, more districts are removing books from school libraries without reviewing them, Lee’s superintendent details how the district plans to cut nearly $16 million out of next year’s budget, and Alachua changes its policy about allowing boys who identify as females from bunking in girls’ cabins at a district summer camp. Here are details about those stories and others from the state’s districts, private schools, and colleges and universities:
Broward: Affordable housing for school district teachers could be built at the Dave Thomas East Education Center in Pompano Beach, which closed in 2022 because of “significant” structural defects. The proposal is being pitched by the district as part of the city’s downtown redevelopment efforts. School board members want to lease the property to a developer, then apply the earnings from the lease to subsidize the rents. Sun Sentinel.
Lee: School Superintendent Denise Carlin said the district will cut $15.9 million from next year’s budget by reducing the district’s “top heavy bureaucracy” and investing the savings into classrooms, delaying technology upgrades, pausing school bus purchases, eliminating 28 unfilled bus driver positions, eliminating five unfilled social worker positions, and more. The specifics come three months after Carlin announced that 5% cuts would be imposed on every department in the district. WFTX.
Pinellas: School district officials and the state are asking a federal court to dismiss a lawsuit from a former transgender teacher who contended he was forced to resign because of a hostile workplace stemming from a 2023 law forbidding school employees from asking or requiring students use their preferred pronouns. Lawyers from the district said Toby Tobin resigned the summer the law took effect, and never worked under the law, and the state contends Tobin’s pronouns are not protected by the First Amendment. Tampa Bay Times. USA Today Florida Network.
Manatee: School board members have set a 10-week timeline to replace fired Superintendent Jason Wysong. Applications will be taken between July 10 and Aug. 2, with interviews and public meetings scheduled the week of Aug. 19 and a board vote to select the superintendent set Aug. 27. Sarasota Herald-Tribune.
Lake: District officials have cut $3 million in staff salaries to align the budget with anticipated state funding. Many of the cuts come from eliminating unfilled positions, with two-thirds coming from teaching, learning and leadership categories that include college and career readiness, exceptional student education and alternative education. WFTV.
Sarasota: A revised discrimination policy will be considered by the school board at today’s meeting. The changes scrub the document of specific terms such as “sexual orientation,” “gender identity and “gender expression,” in favor of a more generic description that prohibits “all forms of unlawful discrimination and harassment” against students, employees and “other persons” in the district as required by federal or state law. Charlotte Sun.
Leon: A 7,400-home development in the northeast part of the county scheduled for completion in 2027 is expected to push enrollment well over capacity at several schools. District leaders began discussions Monday about how they’re going to deal with the increase. “Not only is the development large but it’s being placed where the schools are at a higher capacity. Where will we put these students?” asked school board member Alva Swafford Smith. Tallahassee Democrat. WCTV. Tallahassee State College and Charter Schools USA are partnering to open the state’s first artificial intelligence-integrated middle school in August. Innovation Academy of Excellence will open to 100 to 125 students using a microschool format. Tallahassee Democrat.
Alachua: Children staying overnight at Camp Crystal Lake will be separated by their sex at birth, school Superintendent Kamela Patton announced Monday. The change was made after a complaint was filed notifying the state that 2nd-graders who were born male but identified as female were sleeping in a girls cabin at the camp. That violates state law, said Attorney General James Uthmeier, and he threatened the district with legal action unless it changed the policy. Gainesville Sun. WCJB.
State budget approved: The 60-day legislative session that stretched to 105 days finally ended late Monday when lawmakers approved a $115.1 billion state budget that includes $29.5 billion for K-12 education and $1.3 billion in tax cuts. “It’s easy to look and say, ‘OK, we’re at day 105 and we should have gotten it done on day 60,’ ” said state Senate President Ben Albritton. R-Wauchula. “But that’s the way the system’s supposed to work. I don’t view this on day 105 as a failure. I view it as … we dug in deep, and we had lots of conversation about government efficiency.” The budget now heads to Gov. Ron DeSantis’ desk. Politico Florida. USA Today Florida Network. News Service of Florida. Florida Phoenix. Associated Press. Florida Politics.
Charter help reborn: A part of a bill that didn’t get through the legislative process has been resurrected in the state’s education budget. Under it, Schools of Hope charter schools can be opened inside schools that are struggling with enrollment declines. The state would also redefine what constitutes a struggling school, doubling the current number. Politico Florida.
Battles over books: After seeing the state Board of Education’s recent admonition of Hillsborough’s superintendent for having “pornographic” books in school libraries, district leaders in Orange, Osceola and Escambia counties decided to remove, without review, several dozen books targeted by the state that were also take away in Hillsborough. “While I disagree with their determination that these books are pornographic as the law defines it … I think it would be perilous for this board to allow these books to remain on the shelves,” said Orange school board attorney John Palmerini. Tampa Bay Times. Orlando Sentinel. Pensacola News Journal.
Opinions on schools: The District of Columbia should follow Florida’s lead and create a robust education savings program for students with disabilities. Matthew Ladner, NextSteps. President Trump’s One Big, Beautiful Bill Act will have a profound effect on education by leveraging private capital to expand opportunity and entrusting families with the freedom to choose. Gregory Lyakhov, The Hill.
