Around the state: Miami-Dade swears in a new school board Tuesday amid questions of which constituency it serves, Broward’s new school board is likely to decide whether it’s interested in overturning last week’s firing of Superintendent Vickie Cartwright, Marion County’s sheriff has a proposal to take over the security operations for the school district, Hillsborough’s sheriff is creating a team of deputies to investigate school-based threats, enrollments are up in three Treasure Coast counties, Palm Beach County now offers 330 school choice programs, Brevard schools name the district’s employee of the year, and two high school bands are invited to march in holiday parades in New York City and London. Here are details about those stories and others from the state’s districts, private schools, and colleges and universities:
Miami-Dade: Is the mission of school board members to give parents what they want, or to represent the best interests of students in their decision-making? That question is front and center for the incoming school board, which adds two conservatives elected Nov. 8 and a third who will be appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis to replace Christi Fraga, who is running for the mayor’s office in Doral. That will shift the board majority from liberal to conservative and toward honoring parental rights. Miami Herald. School board meetings have become increasingly hostile, raising questions of how much disruption can be tolerated before members of the audience are removed by security. Miami Herald. Who will be elected to the key position of school board chair when the new board is sworn in Tuesday? Miami Herald.
Broward: Whern the new school board is sworn in Tuesday, the first question it could answer is whether it’s interested in rehiring Superintendent Vickie Cartwright, who was fired last week with the support of five board members appointed by Gov. DeSantis. Four of those five are being replaced with members elected Nov. 8. A returning board member, Debra Hixon, has been one of Cartwright’s most vocal supporters, but said she would not ask the new board to reconsider. “I believe it is up to the new board members to decide if they want the chance to vote on it,” she said. “One of them should bring it forward if they feel they should get a say.” One of the incoming board members, Brenda Fam, said she wouldn’t support rescinding last week’s vote. The other three, Jeff Holness, Allen Zeman and Rod Velez, either declined comment or couldn’t be reached. Sun-Sentinel. Miami Herald.
Hillsborough: Sheriff Chad Chronister said the department has put together a team of four deputies who will monitor and investigate threats at public, charter, and private schools in unincorporated areas of the county. Chronister said the team will have “intimate knowledge” of school procedures, which will allow them to respond to threats of any kind. “The deputies that make up the STAR squad will not just focus on investigating violent threats in our schools, but working in the best way possible with campus security, teachers, staff, and parents,” he said. WUSF. WTSP.
Palm Beach: The school district offers 330 choice programs in its 180 schools ranging from Spanish language immersion to civil air patrol to environmental studies. About 35,000 students apply for placement in one of the programs each year. Three schools were the most selective, accepting less than 30 percent of applicants. They are Palm Beach Central High, which has culinary arts, engineering and information technology programs; Morikami Park Elementary, which has an international baccalaureate program; and Dreyfoos School of the Arts, which is known for its dance, music, theatre and visual arts programs. The application window began Nov. 1 and ends Jan. 27. Palm Beach Post.
Pinellas: The 200-member Tarpon Springs High School marching band leaves today to take part in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade in New York City. It was initially accepted for the parade in 2019, but its performance was delayed by the pandemic. Band members raised more than $500,000 to make the trip. WTVT.
Brevard: Roderick Foster, an information technology associate at the Rodney McNair Magnet School, has been named the school district’s employee of the year. The other finalists were Ira Lightsey, an instructional assistant at Mims Elementary; school resource officer John Cruz of Astronaut High; Jacqueline Scislaw, a technology associate at Enterprise Elementary; Jamie Cabrera, a secretary at Audubon Elementary; and Lauren Dickens, an instructional assistant at Meadowlane Intermedia. Space Coast Daily. School officials are investigating a incident last week in which a school bus driver allegedly refused to take students home after they misbehaved. Students said the bus driver ordered standing riders to sit down, and when some repeatedly refused, the driver stopped the bus. “It’s (the investigation) ongoing right now, and it’s looking at the actions of the students, the actions of the bus driver and the actions of some adults who at least attempted to board the bus which is inappropriate and dangerous,” said district spokesman Russell Bruhn. WESH.
Volusia: University High School’s 158-member marching band has accepted an invitation to play in the 2024 London New Year’s Day parade. “The favorite thing for our audience … are the marching bands from the United States of America,”said Bob Bone, co-founder and chairman of the parade, during a visit to the school last week. “We don’t have anything as good, as spectacular, as exciting as your style of marching band in the United Kingdom.” Fund-raising has begun; the expected cost of the trip is more than $120,000. Daytona Beach News-Journal.
Collier: School board members are considering a plan to establish new school boundaries next year to zone students into a new school in the northern part of the county, Aubrey Rogers High. The changes would affect students at Gulf Coast, Palmetto Ridge and Barron Collier high schools, and also send some students from Corkscrew Middle School to Oakridge Middle. Public hearings will precede the school board’s vote scheduled Dec. 15. WFTX.
Marion: The Sheriff’s Office is proposing to take over security in the district’s schools. Its 14-page proposal calls for the department to assume all responsibilities for safe schools and establish and hire school safety specialists with training and certifications from the sheriff at a cost of $37,562.72 a month to the district. School board chair Eric Cummings is asking county residents to complete a survey about the proposal. “I want the community to become aware of it, to read it for themselves, to ask the tough questions,” he said. The survey is active through Dec. 2, and the school board is expected to respond to the proposal at its Dec. 15 meeting. WKMG.
St. Lucie, Martin, Indian River: Enrollment is up in all three Treasure Coast school districts for the first time since the pandemic. St. Lucie schools added 2,104 students, an increase of 4.5 percent. Indian Rivers added 704 students, or 4.7 percent, and Martin grew 1.9 percent, by 376 students. TCPalm. A student at South Fork High School in Martin County is being investigated for allegedly saying he was bringing a gun to school in a guitar case. School officials said while the student does not face criminal charges, he could be be disciplined. The student said he was joking. TCPalm.
Leon: Laurie Cox, who was elected Nov. 8 and will be sworn in Tuesday as the school board’s newest member, said one of her first priorities is to close the learning gap that developed during the pandemic. She said she also wants to make “sure that we have transparency and good communication between all of our stakeholders — all our admin, support staff, the teachers, the community members, the parents and the families, making sure that we all get on the same page, trying to make Leon County Schools the best it can be in the state of Florida.” WFSU.
Charlotte: A 7th-grade teacher at St. Charles Catholic School has apologized for telling a student to speak a racial slur while the class was reading Mark Twain’s book Tom Sawyer. School officials said the teacher was frustrated by the “consistent poor and immature behavior exhibited by many 7th-grade students” and told the class “to just say the word and get it out of their systems.” She later acknowledged “the situation could have been handled differently.” WBBH.
Hernando: A video has been released that shows the vice chair of the school board removing political signs on election day critical of a board colleague. Linda Prescott acknowledged taking signs that said “Liberal Democrat Susan Duval Voted to MASK Your Child,” but said she was taking them to the office of the supervisor of elections because they didn’t have a disclaimer saying who paid for them. State Rep. Blaise Ingolgia, R-Spring Hill, who released the video, said the signs weren’t technically political ads and therefore didn’t require the disclaimers. Duval won the election by defeating Monty Floyd, who was supported by Ingoglia. Hernando Sun.
Colleges and universities: Justin Roth, a one-time chief of staff for then-U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis who is now a partner at LINK Public Affairs in Washington, D.C., which advises clients on public affairs matters, has been named to the Florida State University board of trustees. Florida Politics.
Around the nation: For many black parents, pods and microschools offer an alternative to traditional schools where their children have struggled. “Our motivation for building outside of the system is because we saw our system crumbling in the midst of the pandemic,” said Lakisha Young, founder and CEO of the Oakland Reach in California. The 74.
Opinions on schools: Gov. DeSantis chose the old Broward County School Board. Voters chose the new one. Broward’s new board chairman should report to the public — not the governor. Sun-Sentinel. The farther along the pipeline to math-intensive STEM careers Florida’s black students get, the tougher it is. But it’s an effort the state’s school districts and universities should be making. Paul Cottle, Bridge to Tomorrow.
