Around the state: State school districts continue to struggle with budget problems even as the Legislature is providing more money in the K-12 education budget, Broward school board members will consider re-activating cameras in classrooms that have special-needs students, Volusia’s school board will vote next month on an updated student code of conduct, and University of Florida trustees are considering raising tuition 10% for out-of-state students. Here are details about those stories and others from the state’s districts, private schools, and colleges and universities:
Miami-Dade: Miami city commissioners delayed a vote Friday on whether to transfer ownership of the historic Olympia Theater from the city to the Sports Leadership Arts Management charter school. After the proposal was criticized at a commission meeting Thursday, City Manager Arthur Noriega suggested public hearings be held before the commission makes a decision July 24. Miami Herald. WPLG.
Broward: A proposal to re-activate cameras in special-needs classrooms is expected to be considered at the July 22 school board meeting. Cameras were set up in classrooms in 2021 by the state as part of a three-year program that was a response to parents who wanted to be able to review whether their children were being mistreated. The program ended after the 2023-2024 school year. About 300 cameras from the pilot program are still in place, but weren’t activated this past year. Another 1,000 would have to be bought to cover all classes that have special-needs students, which would cost the district at least $2 million. Sun Sentinel.
Hillsborough: School board members offered no official recognition for Pride Month, which ends today, after issuing proclamations recognizing it from 2021 to 2023, though several members expressed their support at a recent meeting. A district spokesperson gave no explanation for why no proclamations have been issued the past two years. Tampa Bay Times. For the first time in 10 years, the Diocese of St. Petersburg is building a new school. Mater Dei, a preK-8 school, is going up adjacent to the St. Anne Catholic Church in Ruskin. About 300 students are expected when it opens in 2027. The diocese has 47 other schools and early-education centers in Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco, Hernando and Citrus counties. Tampa Bay Times.
Palm Beach: A feared school budget deficit will not happen if Gov. Ron DeSantis makes no significant changes to the state budget, district officials now say. “We have successfully narrowed an initial projected shortfall of $41 million down to a more manageable $916,318,” a district spokesman said. The district will receive $18 million more in the next budget, though the district says those funds will disappear quickly due to increases in health-care premiums, teacher pay and rising operational costs. Palm Beach Post.
Duval: A former district math teacher who was found guilty of exposing himself at a Walt Disney World resort last year has been sentenced to a year’s probation and is losing his teaching license. Christopher Allen-Black, 54, was found guilty by an Orange County jury last week of the misdemeanor. He was a math teacher at Douglas Anderson School of the Arts. Jacksonville Today.
Polk: Lake Wales High School will join district schools by adding a metal detector in the fall. The charter high school will follow procedures in place for several years at other district schools, including using the detection system at different times and in different locations at the school. WFLA.
Volusia: A new student code of conduct has been proposed and will be voted on by the school board next month. It’s the first thorough update of the code in 10 years, said district officials. Four levels of disciplinary action for student misbehavior are spelled out in the code, with the fourth level starting with expulsion, and the new policy will also specify restrictions on cell phone use in schools to comply with state law. Daytona Beach News-Journal.
Collier: Companies controlled by Erika Donalds, the CEO of the Optima Education foundation that promotes school choice, a former Collier school board member and the wife of U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds, have pulled in millions of dollars in contracts from charter schools in the state, according to a review of materials filed with Florida’s auditor general. The foundation later lost several of those contracts, and two Jacksonville Classical Academies blamed “deficiencies” noted by auditors in their accounting for debts, textbooks, revenues, vendor invoices and county funds on Optima. Florida Bulldog.
Santa Rosa: School employees are using two-way communications devices using artificial intelligence to translate up to 138 languages in real time. Expected uses are to communicate with parents whose first language is not English and to help students understand their assignments and homework. One device will be available at each district school. WEAR.
Alachua: School district officials are launching a new website and messaging system today. The new website address is alachuaschools.net, and the new messaging platform will send e-mails, phone calls and text messages to parents. Mainstreet Daily News. Former school district superintendent Shane Andrew has been hired as the principal of the Academy of Science and Technology at Santa Fe College charter high school in Gainesville. Andrew was fired as superintendent last October on a 3-2 vote by the school board. Santa Fe College.
Citrus: School board members are grappling with a $3.5 million budget deficit. A hiring “pause” has been initiated, said Superintendent Scott Hebert, and other adjustments are being made. He doesn’t anticipate dipping into the district’s reserves to balance the budget, but it is a possibility. Citrus County Chronicle. Cory Collins, an art teacher at Lecanto Primary School for 34 years and a football, track and wrestling coach, died June 6 at the age of 70. Citrus County Chronicle.
Colleges and universities: University of Florida trustees will vote in July whether to raise tuition rates by 10% for out-of-state students. Gainesville Sun. Independent Florida Alligator. Higher education systems in six states, including Florida, are collaborating to create a new accreditation agency, the Commission for Public Higher Education. Colleges in those states had been accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges. Florida has been feuding with that agency since 2021 when it investigated UF for not allowing professors to testify as experts in cases against the state. Politico Florida. Sun Sentinel. Palm Beach Post. WOFL. Ginger Robinson, a Madison County woman who was found guilty of stealing $200,000 from North Florida College between March 2022 and February 2024, has been sentenced to a year and a day in prison and ordered to pay restitution. WCTV.
Charters and scholarships initiative: Charter Schools USA and Step Up For Students, which hosts this blog, are partnering to give state K-12 scholarship students access to individual classes at 62 charter school campuses. “Working with charter schools in a united movement expands access to flexible, quality learning options for Florida families,” said Gretchen Schoenhaar, CEO of Step Up For Students, which helps administer scholarships for the state. NextSteps.
State education spending: The proposed state K-12 education budget of $29.5 billion is $945 million higher than the current year’s spending. But local school districts are facing budget deficits and cutting spending by millions. Why? About $655 million of that new spending is going to universal school choice, which provides state scholarships for students to be educated outside the public school system, federal education spending is declining and there are still inflationary pressures. “Everyone here is in favor of choice,” Orange County Superintendent Maria Vazquez said recently. “All that we ask is that it’s not funded on the backs of public schools, because we’re expected to continue to provide all those supports and services with less money.” Republican legislators dispute that. “There’s sufficient funds for the districts to be able to operate,” said House education budget chief Jenna Persons-Mulicka, R-Fort Myers. Politico Florida.
More on state assessments: Florida school districts are reporting on how students did on the latest state progress assessments tests. Miami-Dade. Broward. Palm Beach. Orange, Osceola, Lake, Seminole. Polk. Pinellas. Collier. Brevard. Volusia. Flagler. Martin. Indian River. Leon. Walton. Duval, St. Johns, Nassau, Clay, Alachua, Columbia, Union, Baker, Bradford, Putnam. Escambia, Santa Rosa. Bay, Calhoun, Franklin, Gulf, Holmes, Jackson, Liberty, Okaloosa, Washington.
Around the nation: Parents may cite religious reasons to opt their children out of school lessons that include LGBTQ-themed storybooks, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Friday. “The (school board) should be ordered to notify them (parents) in advance whenever one of the books in question or any other similar book is to be used in any way and to allow them to have their children excused from that instruction,” the majority opinion said in the case brought in Maryland. Politico. Florida Phoenix. NPR. The 74. Education Week. Critics in Congress are lining up to oppose the Trump administration’s budget proposal to cut almost $1,700 from the maximum Pell grants, which help low-income students pay for college. Florida Phoenix. Three months ago, the U.S. Department of Education froze pandemic funds granted to school districts a year before they expired. Last week, it restored the original funding deadline. The reversal was prompted by a recent court ruling that states suing the DOE could continue spending the money while districts that didn’t were still restricted. “The ongoing litigation has created basic fairness and uniformity problems,” said DOE Secretary Linda McMahon. Education Week.
Opinions on schools: Recent developments in Texas, New Hampshire and Florida give parents throughout our country reason to hope for their children’s future. School choice is coming soon to a neighborhood near you, and millions of American schoolchildren will be reaping the benefits. William Mattox, The Hill. Our findings suggest that banning phones in schools may not be an easy fix for students’ mental health problems, poor academic performance or cyberbullying. Justin D. Martin and Chighaf Bakour, Tampa Bay Times. While economic disadvantage and educational achievement level are important factors in determining how many students succeed in Algebra 1 in middle school in a given district, it is clear that district culture plays a major role as well. That’s important for district leaders who want to improve math achievement to keep in mind and to act on. Paul Cottle, Bridge to Tomorrow.
