Around the state: A $115 billion budget agreement reached Friday by state legislators could be voted on today, a bill that would have changed the way the state tracks K-12 scholarship funding did not survive the legislative process, Florida’s attorney general is warning Alachua school officials about allowing boys to sleep in girls’ cabins at a district-owned summer camp, Marion school board members are considering ways to tackle a projected $64.3 million budget deficit for the 2025-2026 school year, and school superintendents in Madison and Jefferson counties are proposing to share three administrative positions to save money. Here are details about those stories and others from the state’s districts, private schools, and colleges and universities:
Polk: District 3 school board member Rick Nolte has missed five consecutive board meetings, and a school district spokesman said Nolte is on medical leave. No further information was announced. Nolte is a retired physical education teacher and owner of a custom golf club business who was elected in 2022. His term ends in November 2026, and he has yet to say if he’ll run for re-election. Lakeland Ledger.
Brevard: Richard Blake, a teacher and coach who helped integrate the county’s public school system and later became the district’s first black principal, died earlier this month at the age of 91. Florida Today.
Marion: School board members are considering a variety of cost-cutting moves to address a projected 2025-2026 budget deficit of $64.3 million. Among the proposals are cutting 157 teaching positions and 56 instructional aides, and reducing school days from seven periods to six at three schools. No decisions have been made. Spectrum News 13.
Clay: A teacher from Calvary Christian Academy in Middleburg was arrested last week and accused of using a computer to solicit a child and traveling to meet a minor for unlawful sexual conduct. Joshua Dice, 35, has been fired, school officials said. WJAX. WJXT. Jacksonville Today. WTLV.
Leon: Students must register with the school district if they want to ride the bus this fall. The change will help the district streamline bus routes and avoid delays, said spokesman Chris Petley. WCTV.
Santa Rosa: Children’s Home Society of Florida has announced it intends to collaborate with the school system to help make W.H. Rhodes Elementary School in Milton the first in the district to become a community partnership school. Other partners would be the University of West Florida and Community Health of Northwest Florida. Community partnership schools offer mentoring, after-school programs, continuing education and health services to students, their families, teachers and residents. Pensacola News Journal.
Alachua: School officials have been threatened with legal action if they allow “biological boys” to sleep in 2nd-grade girls’ cabins at the district-owned Camp Crystal Lake. State Attorney General James Uthmeier said he had “no reason to doubt” the complaint that was filed with the Office of Parental Rights, and said the situation “violates the camp’s policy, the school board’s policy, and Florida law.” District officials said campers’ parents have to agree to their child being in the same cabin as a child who no longer identifies as their assigned gender at birth. Gainesville Sun. Independent Florida Alligator. WCJB. Alachua Chronicle. A political consultant who helped lead the drive to turn Newberry’s three public schools into charters was sentenced to 10 years in prison after pleading no contest to soliciting a 15-year-old boy for sex. Joel Bruce Searby, 44, was a board member for Education First for Newberry, the charter school conversion initiative that has since dissolved after successfully converting one of the schools. Gainesville Sun. Mainstreet Daily News.
Flagler: Jim Guines, a longtime educator who was elected to the first of four school board terms in 1996 before stepping away in 2007, died Sunday at the age of 93. Flagler Live.
Putnam: Two new schools are being built and three existing ones are being refurbished as part of the district’s $300 million bond referendum. Opening in the fall are the new schools, Palatka Intermediate School and Palatka Primary. Middleton Burney Elementary, Crescent City Junior-Senior High and Melrose Elementary are getting upgrades and will welcome students back in the fall of 2026. WUFT.
Monroe: A three-year contract for incoming superintendent Ed Tierney was approved last week by the school board. He’ll receive an annual salary of $199,500, with yearly increases at the same percentage as the rest of staff, $5,000 annually for civic organizations and activities, an $850 monthly vehicle allowance, and county medical and retirement plans. He succeeds Theresa Axford, who is retiring after 40 years with the district. Florida Keys Weekly.
Gilchrist: David Biddle, chair of the county’s Republican party and a certified operator of the McCall Pest & Wildlife Service of Gainesville, has been appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis to the District 1 seat on the county school board. Biddle replaces Christie McElroy, who was named the district’s assistant superintendent. Florida Politics. WCJB. Office of the Governor.
Madison, Jefferson: Superintendents from two of the smallest school districts in the state are proposing to share three administrative positions as a way to save money. Karen Pickles, superintendent in Madison County, and counterpart Jackie Pons in Jefferson say they can save $150,000 a year by having one director overseeing the exceptional student education, transportation and human resources departments in both counties. “We’re trying to do more with less dollars,” said Pickles. Madison’s school board has approved the arrangement, and Jefferson’s will vote June 23. Tallahassee Democrat.
Colleges and universities: A budget proposal in the U.S. House would tighten eligibility for federal Pell grants, with as many as two-thirds of current students who receive those grants losing some or all of their aid. Tampa Bay Times. Florida Gulf Coast University has received a donation of $22 million, the largest in the history of the school. It was given by the Elaine Nicpon Marieb Charitable Foundation, and will be used to develop technology in health-care fields. Naples Daily News. The historic Hastings High School in St. Johns County will be renovated and reopened in the fall of 2026 as a satellite campus of First Coast Technical College in St. Augustine. Jacksonville Today.
State budget agreement: House and Senate budget negotiators announced Friday that they had reached an agreement on a $115.1 billion state budget that includes $29.5 billion for K-12 education, a modest increase in funding for teachers’ raises, a back-to-school tax holiday and no reduction in property taxes or the state sales tax. A vote is expected to take place today. If the proposal is approved, it would mark an end to the legislative session that was originally scheduled to conclude May 2. Politico Florida. USA Today Florida Network. Florida Phoenix. News Service of Florida. Tampa Bay Times and Miami Herald. WUSF. Florida Politics. Included in the budget is more than $277 million in projects for state colleges and universities. Politico Florida. Florida Politics.
In the Legislature: Efforts to make changes in the way the state funds education spending and the $3.9 billion universal school voucher program did not get the approval of the Legislature. Republicans rejected ideas to better track state funding so the money followed the students. State Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Crestview, who proposed changes in the funding system, said on any given day there are 23,000 students whose school situation isn’t known by the Florida Department of Education. Politico Florida. Gov. DeSantis signed a bill last week that would allow charter schools to ask the DOE directly for workforce development grants. Florida Politics.
Around the nation: A U.S. Supreme Court ruling last week is expected to make it easier for students with disabilities to sue schools over educational access. Associated Press. The 74. Education Week.
Opinions on schools: Education choice is the “new normal” in Florida. And millions of Florida students — including those finding success in their neighborhood schools — are reaping the benefits of Florida’s flourishing K-12 marketplace. William Mattox, Orlando Sentinel. Teacher certification exam results for middle school and elementary school math sharply improved in 2024. It is certainly possible that the individuals taking these exams for the first time in 2024 were dramatically stronger mathematically than those who took the exams for the first time in 2023. But it seems more likely that the 2024 exams were made less challenging or that the cut scores for passing on the exam were relaxed. Paul Cottle, Bridge to Tomorrow.
