It’s election day: School board seats, superintendent jobs, tax issues in 20 counties and a constitutional amendment that would require school board candidates to declare their party affiliation join the presidential and Senate races and more on the ballot today in Florida. Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., and from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. EST in 10 Panhandle counties in the Central Time Zone: Escambia, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa, Walton, Holmes, Washington, Bay, Jackson, Calhoun, and parts of Gulf.
Around the state: Duval school board members decided Monday to close three underenrolled schools next year and three more the following year as a cost-cutting move, Florida ranks third-highest nationally in 4th-grade reading achievement while being the third-lowest in spending, Florida is one of just eight states that had a higher student-to-teacher ratio after the pandemic, Alachua’s school board is negotiating a contract with the former leader of the Collier County school system to become the interim superintendent, some Hernando school board members are pushing to remove another book from schools, and a Parkland school shooting survivor has agreed to share control over the shooter’s name and likeness with other families of victims. Here are details about those stories and others from the state’s districts, private schools, and colleges and universities:
Broward, south Florida: A survivor of the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School has agreed to split the rights to control the use of the shooter’s name and likeness with other families of victims of the shooting. Earlier this year, Anthony Borges reached the agreement with shooter Nikolas Cruz. Families of other victims objected, and the issue was settled in court Monday. Sun Sentinel. WSVN. WFOR. WTVJ. Schools are closed for election day in Broward, Miami-Dade, Palm Beach and St. Lucie counties. WLRN. WPBF.
Duval: School board members approved a revised five-year plan to close six underenrolled elementary schools over the next two years to reduce operating and help the district close a $1.4 billion budget gap. Closing in the fall of 2025 are Annie R. Morgan Elementary, whose students will move to Biltmore; Kings Trail, with students to Beauclerc; and Susie Tolbert, with students to S.P. Livingston. Closing in the fall of 2026 will be Don Brewer, with students to Merrill Road; George Washington Carver, with students to Rufus E. Payne; and Hidden Oaks, with students to Cedar Hills. Board member Cindy Pearson said the delay was necessary because the decision felt rushed. “We need to keep moving, but we need more time to be thoughtful,” she said. Jacksonville Today. WTLV.
Polk: Officials of the first-year IDEA Public School Lakeland told Lakeland city commissioners Monday that they expect the charter school to grow from its current 410 K-8 students to 1,645 by 2026. IDEA is working with the city on a development agreement to address the transportation issues that growth will produce. Lakeland Now.
Pinellas: Five Azalea Middle School students were taken to a hospital for treatment Monday morning after the school bus they were on collided with an SUV in St. Petersburg. None were believed to be seriously injured, police said. The driver of the SUV was also take to a hospital for treatment. Tampa Bay Times. Spectrum News 9. WFLA. WTSP. WTVT.
Manatee: Voters are being asked today to renew a 1-mill property tax that will help raise teacher pay and improve school safety, early childhood education and athletic programs. The tax was first approved in 2018 and renewed in 2021. District officials credit the tax for improving the district’s school grades, with 24 of the 64 schools earning an A from the state. “We’ve really risen a lot since the millage,” said chief of staff Kevin Chapman. “When you look at last year’s school year, we ended up with the most A-rated schools ever in Manatee County. We actually had two Title I schools become A-rated schools.” Bradenton Herald.
Lake: Minneola Horizon Academy K-8 has been announced as the name for a new school that opens to students in the fall of 2025. School board members recently approved the name recommendation from principal Andrea Nelson, who based the choice on survey results from families of students who will be zoned for the school. The school’s curriculum will focus on science, technology, engineering, the arts and mathematics, said Nelson. Daily Commercial.
Santa Rosa: An employee in the district’s Office of Professional Learning who was investigated for alleged financial improprieties has resigned after being told they would be terminated, said a district spokesperson. The name of the employee and the amount reportedly taken was not disclosed. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigating. Pensacola News Journal.
Alachua: Former Collier County school superintendent Kamela Patton is the school board’s unanimous choice to become the interim superintendent. Patton stepped down in Collier in December 2022 after nearly 12 years of running that district. Patton and the board will now try to come to an agreement on a contract. If a deal is reached, Patton will replace Shane Andrew, who was fired effective Nov. 15. Gainesville Sun. Mainstreet Daily News. WUFT. WCJB. Two Santa Fe High School administrators were placed on administrative leave with pay after a lawsuit was filed last week accusing them of failing to report a sexual harassment allegation against the school’s baseball coach, Travis Yeckring. Assistant principal Mac Rendek and athletic director Michele Faulk were named in the suit, as was former principal Timothy Wright, who retired last summer. District officials are investigating the complaint. WCJB.
Hernando: A member of the local conservative activist group Moms for Liberty is pushing the school board to ban the book What Girls Are Made Of, by Elana K. Arnold, because she says it contains explicit sex scenes. Superintendent Ray Pinder said he would review the book and report back to the board at its next meeting. Hernando Today.
Colleges and universities: The opening of the Republican-backed Hamilton Center for Classical and Civic Education at the University of Florida triggered a turf war with some College of Liberal Arts and Sciences professors. Then Ben Sasse, formerly UF’s president, stepped in. Chronicle of Higher Education. Florida State University can go forward with its lawsuit against the Atlantic Coast Conference over its bid to leave the league, a three-judge panel of an appeals court ruled Monday. The ACC wanted the FSU case put on hold while its challenge against FSU moved forward in a North Carolina court. News Service of Florida. The organizer of a planned symposium at the University of Florida on the Israeli war in Gaza said she went through channels and gotten the event approved. Then it was canceled by the school a day before it was about to begin when UF officials said it was not compliant with school policy. Malini Schueller called the cancellation a “clear violation of both the First Amendment and of academic freedom.” Tampa Bay Times. An unwillingness to sit in classes an extra four years and wariness about student loan debt are pushing more Florida high school graduates to consider careers in the trades. Enrollment in post-high school career and technical education programs was up 8 percent in the 2022-2023 school year, and the number of people in apprentice and pre-apprentice programs rose 14 percent, according to the Florida Department of Education. Florida Trend. New ratings issued Monday by the personal finance company WalletHub have the University of Florida as the 20th-best university in the United States and Florida State 51st. Patch.
Florida reading performance: Florida ranked third-highest nationally in 4th-grade reading achievement while being the third-lowest in spending, according to a recent American Enterprise Institute analysis of National Assessment of Educational Progress reading test results. The state’s 4th-grade reading scores were also the highest in the nation among students eligible for free lunches, and the drop in scores for those students after the pandemic was the second-lowest. “The emerging pattern of Florida’s economically disadvantaged performance is worthy of additional study, as it reflects success in the difficult and important work of closing the achievement gap,” wrote the study’s authors. NextSteps.
Florida teacher shortage: Florida was one of just eight states that had a higher student-to-teacher ratio after the pandemic, according to data from the National Center for Education Statistics. The state had 17.3 students per teacher before the pandemic, and 18.3 during the 2022-2023 school year. Student-teacher ratios dropped in most other states, a sign that teacher shortages are declining and may be concentrated in traditionally hard-to-staff areas such as special education, science or math, says Chad Aldeman, an independent researcher and author who analyzes teacher workforce data. K-12 Dive.
Around the nation: School board candidates who are endorsed by the local teachers union can get a boost of up to 20 percentage points among some voting groups and they overwhelmingly win their races, according to a study by researchers from Ohio State University and Boston College. “In American politics, it’s very hard to find a piece of information that moves votes as much as partisanship, so that’s a pretty shocking impact,” said Ohio State political scientist Vladimir Kogan. “Even for Republicans, it’s positive.” The 74.
Opinions on schools: In The Rational Optimist, author Matt Ridley builds a persuasive case that so long as people are out there developing new products and services and grinding on solutions for problems, the human condition continues to improve. Matthew Ladner, NextSteps.
