Around the state: Hillsborough County commissioners decide the school tax for teacher pay and retention will appear on the 2026 ballot instead of November’s, Palm Beach school board members vote to keep three challenged books in the library of a high school, Martin County School Board members approve a policy that could punish students who have cell phones out in class, the Atlantic Coast Conference avoids a court hearing by agreeing to provide a copy of its contracts with ESPN to Florida’s attorney general, future ACT exams will be shorter and the science portions will be optional, and several districts have scheduled back-to-school events offering free backpacks, school supplies and more. Here are details about those stories and others from the state’s districts, private schools, and colleges and universities:
Miami-Dade: Students can get free school supplies, vaccinations, information about after-school activities, entertainment and more at The Children’s Trust Family Expo events being held July 27 and Aug. 3. Trust officials have staged the giveaways for the past 16 years and are “designed to directly support families in Miami-Dade County by bringing a wealth of resources right to their neighborhoods,” said James R. Haj, president of The Children’s Trust. Miami Herald.
Hillsborough: In a 4-3 vote Wednesday, county commissioners decided not to place a school tax for teacher pay and retention on the November ballot. School Superintendent Van Ayres called the decision “puzzling,” and will ask school board members to take the issue to court. State law doesn’t allow commissioners to kill the tax entirely, but does give them the authority set the timing of the vote. Citing “the excoriating increases in the costs of inflation,” commissioners passed a proposal to move the referendum from 2024 to 2026. The tax is projected to bring in an estimated $177 million a year that the district would use to give bonuses of $6,000 to teachers and administrators and $3,000 to support staff. Tampa Bay Times. WFLA. WFTS. WTVT. WTSP. WUSF.
Central Florida: Free backpacks, school supplies and services such as haircuts and vaccinations, plus entertainment are being provided at several back-to-school giveaway events in Orange, Osceola, Polk, Seminole and Volusia counties. They begin Saturday, and continue each weekend through Aug. 10. WKMG. Osceola’s school district has released its school supplies lists for preschool, K-2, 3-5, 6-7-8 and high school students. WFTV.
Palm Beach: Books by Bill O’Reilley, Dean Koontz and Ayn Rand will remain in the library at Park Vista High School in Lake Worth, members of the school board decided Wednesday. The books had been challenged for sexual content by a county resident who said he didn’t want the books removed, but did want a label placed on them. The challenge had previously been denied by a school review committee, the principal and Superintendent Michael Burke. Remaining available are O’Reilley’s The O’Reilly Factor for Kids: A Survival Guide for America’s Families, Koontz’s The Taking and Rand’s The Fountainhead. Palm Beach Post.
Pinellas: School district officials and St. Petersburg College are partnering on a “grow your own” program offering free tuition to 29 district employees with associate’s degrees to work toward a bachelor’s degree in special education or primary pre-K education, and teacher certification. The apprentice teachers will also get $3 more per hour for the first year of the program and $5 an hour more for the second year, and teachers who mentor the apprentices will receive a $2,000 a year stipend. Tampa Bay Times.
Brevard: Free backpacks, school supplies and even haircuts will be available for district students at several back-to-school events around the county for the next four weekends. Classes resume Aug. 12. Florida Today.
Sarasota: A new policy governing comments from the public at school board meetings was approved this week by board members. Comments will be split up at meetings, with those about agenda items coming before board business and speakers being given three minutes each, while general comments will be after new business and be limited to two minutes. The board also voted to begin implementation of a policy permitting student-athletes to be paid for use of their names, images and likenesses, and approved the creation of a new Office of Strategic Improvement and Multilingual Learning to oversee federal funding and grants for students learning English. Sarasota Herald-Tribune. Charlotte Sun.
Escambia: Attorneys for the school board argued to a district judge this week that they should be permitted to take a deposition from a 7-year-old student in a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the board’s removal and restriction of library books. Testimony from the child’s mother won’t be adequate, they argued. News Service of Florida. In its second year as part of the Charter School USA, Warrington Preparatory Academy will have a new principal. Delvin Vick is replacing Erica Foster. After years of struggling with subpar grades from the state, Warrington Middle School was turned over to Charter Schools in May 2023. WEAR.
Leon: District 4 school board candidate Jeremy Rogers said his opponent, incumbent Laurie Lawson Cox, has received donations from conservative corporate political committees. Cox, who accused Rogers of injecting party politics into a nonpartisan race, has received $1,000 from a political committee connected to Republican state Sen. Corey Simon out of $69,000 raised. Rogers has also received $1,000 from a firefighters political committee. WFSU.
Alachua: A one-year contract with the Florida Virtual School was approved this week by school board members. FLVS supplies the curriculum for the district’s online K-12 school, called Alachua eSchool. Enrollment has declined sharply since the pandemic, from 223 elementary and 440 secondary students in May 2022 to 32 elementary and 162 secondary students this past May, said district spokeswoman Jackie Johnson. Superintendent Shane Andrew said a mid-year assessment will be made to determine if the online option should be continued for the 2025-2026 school year. Gainesville Sun. The board also rejected Andrew’s proposal to set 50 percent as the lowest grade a student could make on her or his work. “I don’t think there’s anywhere in society where you can get 50 percent for doing nothing,” said board member Kay Abbitt. “If you don’t come to work, they’re not going to pay you 50 percent of your salary.” Mainstreet Daily News.
Martin: Students could be disciplined for having their cell phones out during classes under an updated code of student conduct approved this week by school board members. The prolicy requires parents to pick up phones when there is a violation, and repeated offenses could result in a student being suspended. WPBF.
Monroe: District 2 school board candidates Zach Bentley and Yvette Mira-Talbott debated whether affordable housing for teachers was the best use of district property and Bentley’s decision to enroll his children in a private school at a candidate forum this week. The primary is Aug. 20. Key West Citizen.
Colleges and universities: The Atlantic Coast Conference has agreed to provide Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody with redacted copies of its contracts with ESPN. The deal ends Moody’s lawsuit against the ACC over Florida State University’s intended withdrawal from the conference just days before it was to be heard in court. Tallahassee Democrat. Gov. Ron DeSantis said Wednesday his “reforms” of the state’s universities could further extend Republicans’ 963,000-voter advantage over Democrats. Florida Politics. Eligible students at Santa Fe College in Gainesville can receive vouchers for two free Uber rides for trips that are within 15 miles of the campus, starting this month. College police say the Safe Santa Fe initiative is intended to support the on-campus safety of students and staff. WCJB. Mainstreet Daily News.
Florida substitute shortages: Schools have teacher and school bus driver shortages, and now one of the country’s largest staffing agencies is predicting substitute teacher shortages will worsen. Kelly Services said shortages will be acute in Florida and elsewhere in the country. Rajni Shankar-Brown, a professor at Stetson University, said a diminishing pool of substitutes are being asked to fill in because of a shortage of certified teachers, increasing the scarcity of subs. That, along with the average hourly pay of $14.81 an hour in Florida, is cutting the number of people interested. The hardest-hit schools are in lower socioeconomic neighborhoods, she said. Central Florida Public Media.
Around the nation: The ACT exam will be shortened from three hours to two and its science portion will be optional when the tests are given next spring for online participants and in 2026 for those who take the test in school. Forty-four questions will be deleted to cut the testing time, and the reading and English portions will have shorter passages. Higher Ed Dive.
Opinions on schools: Regulatory challenges must be successfully addressed if the Milton Friedman/Polly Williams model for achieving greater equality of opportunity through a more effective and efficient public education market is to succeed. Doug Tuthill, NextSteps. Even in regions where typical diversity, equity and inclusion efforts are non-starters, we’re seeing leaders embrace evidence-backed strategies to strengthen and diversify leadership because they deliver real results where it matters most — in schools, for all students. Harrison Peters, Chalkbeat. The arguments for and against partisan elections for school board elections. WUSF.
