Around the state: Communities across the state rally with school supply drives as students and teachers prepare to return to classes. WEAR.
Early voting in primary elections, including many school board and district superintendent races across the state, has begun. Central Florida Public Media.
Broward: Broward County Public Schools is on the hunt for new bus drivers ahead of the start of the school year. The county is hosting a job fair on Saturday, August 10 and Sunday, August 11 at four locations for their transportation department. The district offers a starting salary of $18 an hour, enrollment in the state’s retirement system, healthcare insurance, benefits, and a $1,000 sign-on bonus. WSVN.
Okaloosa: Multiple schools in Okaloosa County are getting some improvements and expansions. According to Okaloosa County School District Superintendent Marcus Chambers, a new K-8 school is coming to Crestview, the Baker School is getting an additional 10 classrooms, and Destin Elementary School’s 3-5 Center is getting 30 more classrooms. Chambers said these changes are all thanks to a half-cent sales tax approved by voters. He said these upgrades being made to schools across the county have been needed for years. While enrollment numbers have stayed consistent, many schools across the district have been over 80% capacity, meaning more space has been needed for students. WJHG.
Leon: Lawton Chiles High School’s principal responds to social media buzz about Gov. Ron DeSantis’s memoir being included in a suggested summer reading list. It was one of 13 memoirs for students to choose from. “That’s not our part to say, ‘here’s who you should like.’ We’re not trying to indoctrinate and get people to like the governor. We just give suggestions to look through,” Joe Burgess told the Tallahassee Democrat.
Burgess is running for district superintendent as a no-party candidate in a race against two Democrats, including incumbent Rocky Hanna, who are facing off in an August primary. Tallahassee Democrat.
Lee: The Lee County School District is altering the schedule of its middle schools from four classes every other day to seven classes every day. Leaders say the change will provide teachers and students with an additional 720 minutes of instruction per week. The same method has been applied to the high schools within Lee County to address the learning loss from the COVID-19 pandemic and the teacher shortage. By switching to seven classes instead of eight, the district will require fewer teachers, helping close learning gaps. Not everyone is on board with the decision. The most prominent voice is Lee County Teacher’s Union President Kevin Daly, who expressed his discontent with this approach as teachers will have less time to prepare and more classes to teach. WINK.
Hillsborough: Sheriff’s deputies arrested a prior Riverview High School teacher and coach for sexual battery and unlawful sexual activity with a minor on Friday. Authorities said that David Patrick Coffey, 34, was using social media apps to have inappropriate conversations with the victim. Detectives later learned that Coffey and the victim would meet up on “numerous separate occasions” for sexual interactions. Coffey was hired by Hillsborough County Public Schools in 2015 as a Social Studies teacher and coached athletes at different levels in football, flag football, golf, and wrestling since 2015. Coffey was arrested and charged with two counts of sexual battery, four counts of unlawful sexual activity with a minor, unlawful sexual activity with a minor (authority figure over a student), and unlawful use of a two-way communication device. WFTS.
Tampa Bay area: Leaders in Hillsborough and Pinellas school districts say they are dealing with fewer teacher shortages than last year as they prepare to welcome students next week. “We have 250 school sites,” Hillsborough Superintendent Van Ayres said. “So we’re talking an average of two per school. We are able to manage that. It’s about what we’re going to have to do, is just increase some class sizes to make sure we have a highly qualified teacher in front of every one of our students, but our schools are prepared and ready to go for that.” Pinellas Superintendent Kevin Hendrick said the district has only 60 teaching vacancies now and expect to be fully staffed by the time classes begin. Hendrick says the district is fully staffed with bus drivers, while Ayres said his district still needs 120, though that’s half of what was still open last year. 10 Tampa Bay.
Three Pasco schools get new principals. Tampa Bay Times.
Palm Beach: Palm Beach County schools will begin the year with metal detectors on every high school campus following a pilot program last year. The county’s chief sheriff’s deputy said they worked through the kinks and long lines on individual campuses last year. She said no guns were detected going through the detectors or found on campuses after the fact. WPTV.
Volusia: Schools in Volusia County have cut their teacher shortage by half compared to this time last year, Superintendent Carmen Balgobin says. She added that the district’s focus is no longer just about college readiness, but has a much bigger focus on workforce readiness, adding new career and technical education options for students this year. “If we create programs and we have programs in our school that really captures the interest of our students, then again, going back to, you know, the students sees the relevance of why they’re attending school,” Balgobin said. WFTV.
Flagler: A sentencing hearing is set Tuesday morning for a Flagler County high school student caught on video violently attacking a teacher’s aide last year. In October, Brendan Depa pleaded no contest to aggravated battery charges in the February 2023 attack at Matanzas High School. Depa kicked and punched the school employee after he became upset that his Nintendo Switch was taken away.A sentencing hearing was originally held in May, but the judge did not make a decision and said he needed to hear from more witnesses. The state argued Depa should face serious time behind bars. The woman in the attack also spoke in court and argued for jail time. Depa faces up to 30 years in prison. ClickOrlando.
Colleges and universities: State University System Chancellor Ray Rodrigues has ordered a review of courses for antisemitism and anti-Israel bias. Orlando Sentinel.
A would-be historic donation to Florida A&M this spring was too good to be true, according to a report published Monday following an independent investigation into the matter. Three months after a crowd at FAMU spring commencement erupted with applause following the surprise announcement of a major gift to the school, the report found the $237 million gift from Gregory Gerami to be “fraudulent.” Gerami and the Isaac Batterson Family 7th Trust were set to donate 14 million shares of private stock. They said the gift was worth hundreds of millions of dollars. WCTV. Politico Florida. Tallahassee Democrat.
Florida International University (FIU) made the announcement on Tuesday that it had made a deal with the Latin Grammy winning singer Pitbull that would rename the FIU Stadium to Pitbull Stadium, the first-ever athletics venue named after a music artist. Pitbull, whose real name is Armando Christian Pérez, is a Miami native. The singer and rapper also goes by “Mr. 305” in connection to Miami’s area code. 12 News.
Around the nation: A Midwesterner who taught high school social studies and coached football before he was elected to Congress and later as Minnesota’s governor will be Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate in the 2024 presidential campaign. Tim Walz, a Democrat serving his second term as the North Star State’s governor, is Harris’ pick, multiple national media outlets reported on Tuesday, Aug. 6. In his time as governor, he has negotiated increases to school funding and made Minnesota one of the handful of states with universal free school meals for students. In choosing Walz, Harris passed over a number of alternatives who also have extensive K-12 policy records. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat who has supported private school choice and drew objections from public school advocacy groups as a result, was another finalist. Education Week.
A former student at an Indiana high school gets a tattoo of a handwritten note from teacher who inspired him most. ABC7News.
Parents from across the political spectrum report greater confidence in their kids’ teachers and schools than they do in the national education system at large, with the overwhelming majority (82%) giving teachers an ‘A’ or ‘B’ for how they’ve handled education this year. The results come from a survey that polled 1,518 parents of K-12 public school students conducted by the National Parents Union between May 7-11. The majority of parents (72%) also expressed confidence in their kids’ principals and schools for meeting overall expectations. But, according to the survey — dubbed “The Parent Report Card” — as parents considered the outer echelons of the education system, their confidence began to wane. Just over half rated their superintendents and school boards favorably, a figure that continued to drop for state governors (45%), U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona (32%) and President Joe Biden (33%). The 74.
