Around the state: Broward schools adopt a wearable panic alert system, Orange schools’ fight with five cities over the cost of school resource officers escalates, the microschool movement is thriving in Miami-Dade County, an expansion of year-round schooling is proposed for an area of Brevard County, the number of Florida children committed under the Baker Act declined during the 2023-2024 school year, two Duval seventh graders save the life of a school custodian who was choking, and Lee County’s teacher of the year is announced. Here are details about those stories and others from the state’s districts, private schools, and colleges and universities:
Miami-Dade: A microschooling wave is emerging in South Florida as parents and their children are increasingly looking for smaller classroom sizes, more personal attention and an eclectic array of courses that more closely align with their interests. Miami Herald.
Broward: School board members have approved the implementation of a wearable panic alert system to notify law enforcement in case of an emergency. District staff will be issued a badge with a button that can be pressed to activate a response. The system will cost $5.1 million over the three-year contract. WFOR. WTVJ. Parkland News.
Orange: The school district’s fight with five municipalities over the cost of having sworn officers in schools escalated this week when the district sent an e-mail to parents at 30 schools saying it couldn’t afford what the cities want and urged them to contact those city officials with concerns. City officials responded angrily, accusing the district of exploiting the Wisconsin school shooting. School officials say they don’t have the extra $2 million the cities want to continue putting their sworn officers in schools and are considering switching to armed guardians. Negotiations resume in January. Orlando Sentinel.
Duval: Two seventh graders at the Cornerstone Classical Academy in Jacksonville have been honored for saving the life of a custodian who began choking while eating lunch earlier this month. Magda Nieto said a piece of steak got lodged in her throat. She managed to alert Silas Olson and Sadie Salvador, who tapped her back and then performed the Heimlich maneuver to dislodge the food. WJXT. WTLV. The upper school at the Bolles School San Jose campus will be free of cell phones and smartwatches during school hours, starting Jan. 6, officials at the private school told parents on Wednesday. WJAX.
Polk: The cost of screening school volunteers in Polk and all other state school districts is going from $25 to $100 on March 1 when a law requiring more intensive background checks goes into effect. Lakeland Ledger. A woman on her way to becoming a teacher in Davenport got rerouted during the pandemic into creating a successful mobile tutoring business. Valeria Oquendo’s path continues to evolve as one of the many educators creating their own options instead of becoming traditional public school teachers. NextSteps. A teacher at McLaughlin Middle School in Lake Wales has been arrested and accused of burglary with assault, false imprisonment and battery by strangulation. Deputies said Thomas Griffin, 51, assaulted another man at the home of his ex-girlfriend. Griffin has been placed on administrative leave. WWSB. WFLA.
Lee: The school district’s teacher of the year is Barbara Rebeor, a science teacher at Harns Marsh Middle School, school officials have announced. Rebeor is now eligible for the statewide award. WBBH. Cape Coral Breeze.
Brevard: School board member Megan Wright is pushing for the year-round schooling model now being tested at Challenger 7 Elementary School in Port St. John to be expanded to other schools in the area. Wright said she’d like year-round learning to be the standard in all district schools but understands the need to move cautiously. Other board members supported sending a survey to families in the Port St. John to neighborhood to gauge their reaction to the idea. WKMG.
Marion: January’s school board meetings are being moved to the Marion County Commission auditorium because of renovations being made to the MTI Auditorium. Five meetings are scheduled next month. Ocala Star-Banner.
Alachua: A tentative settlement has been reached in a defamation lawsuit filed in 2022 against the school board that involved former superintendent Carlee Simon and another district employee. Camp Crystal Lake director Scott Burton and his wife Holly Burton, then principal at Chester Shell Elementary School, contended in the lawsuit that Simon launched a fraud investigation against Scott Burton after Holly Burton publicly opposed Simon’s plan to replace Shell Elementary with a K-12 school. Mainstreet Daily News.
Bay: Teachers expecting raises and bonuses for their A-plus schools’ performance will have to wait at least until next month as the district deals with a slower-than-expected transition to a new financial system. “We’re disappointed, obviously, but most of us are not angry,” said teachers union president Alexis Underwood. “We know that folks in payroll are doing the very best they can.” WMBB.
Indian River: A school board textbook committee violated the state’s Sunshine Law during the process of making recommendations to the board, a three-judge panel of an appeals court has ruled, but a committee reviewing school library books for the board did not. The rulings came in the review of a lower court decision that cleared both committees of the allegations brought in a lawsuit by the Florida Citizens Alliance. The difference, the appeals court wrote, is that the textbook committee was granted some decision-making authority by the board while the library committee was not. News Service of Florida.
Walton: A student at the Paxton School in Laurel Hill was hospitalized with serious injuries after a school bus with 50 students aboard ran into a ditch in Gaskin. Four other students also were injured. The bus driver was cited with careless driving, according to sheriff’s deputies. WALA.
Holmes: The school board and the county Office of Emergency Management will share a $1.5 million state grant for emergency preparedness. Part of the money will be used to buy generators for the district administrative building and Bonifay K-8 School, with the current generator being repurposed, and to accommodate people with special needs during a severe weather events. WJHG.
Baker Act report: The number of Florida children who were involuntarily committed for a 72-hour psychiatric exam dropped from 33,685 during the 2022-2023 school year to 29,612 this past academic year, according to a report from USF’s Center for Baker Act Reporting. But the report also noted that 400 children under 18 years old were committed six to 10 times. WFTS.
Opinions on schools: Our Department of Education, complying with legislative edicts, is yielding to the Victorian prudery of pressure groups like Moms for Liberty. The department has decreed that sex-education curriculums in public schools should avoid, as much as possible, discussion of what used to be blushingly called “the facts of life.” Bill Cotterell, News Service of Florida. Gutless is the one word that comes to mind when describing the Sarasota school board’s decision to hold fewer monthly meetings, thereby cutting opportunities for parents, students, engaged citizens and others around the community to offer their input. Sarasota Herald-Tribune.
