Around the state: Duval County school district leaders seek to curb chronic absenteeism manage its budget ahead of anticipated shortfalls in 2025. Sarasota expects an enrollment decline as participation in education choice scholarship programs increases. An 11-year-old Virginia boy accused of making bomb threats at Flagler County schools won’t waive extradition.
Duval: After cutting 400 teaching jobs due to budget shortfalls, Duval School Board members are seeking to manage additional costs before school starts next month. Top administrators say the district’s financial situation will be fine this year, but they are concerned about next year. Florida Times-Union. Duval district officials are sounding the alarm over the fact that 34% of students have missed at least 20 days of school in the past year. They say that puts schools at risk of academic and behavioral issues in the short term and poverty and crime in the long term. Economically disadvantaged students make up most of those students the state classifies as chronically absent. The district is working with community organizations to develop a plan to address what leaders are calling “an attendance crisis.” News4Jax.
Sarasota: The school district’s annual budget is projected to be smaller than the previous year as federal COVID-19 relief funding ends and enrollment declines. The state of Florida projects the use of Family Empowerment Scholarships in the school district to grow from 2,944 in 2023-24 to 4,688 this year — a 59% increase. Meanwhile, enrollment in the district’s public schools is projected to decrease slightly, by 334 students compared to last year. With the decrease in enrollment and the loss of federal funding, Sarasota Schools’ budget is projected to be smaller than the previous year, at $1.35 billion compared to $1.5 billion last year. Superintendent Terry Connor told the Sarasota Herald-Tribune that as more students take education choice scholarships, the district’s response could be to offer more choices and advertise itself as the best option for parents. “It makes me think about how to be more innovative, more creative in our offerings so that we are truly attracting people to want to come to us,” he said. “Because ultimately, parents have the right to choose the best educational option for their students.” A final vote on the proposed budget is scheduled for Sept. 17. Sarasota Herald-Tribune.
Hillsborough. Lawyers for the district school board are fighting back in court against an effort by county commissioners to delay a property tax referendum. In a new legal brief, they argue county commissions don’t have the ability to shift the date of a planned referendum held by the local school board, and that the role of country commissioners is simply to forward plans for the upcoming vote to local elections officials, and that delaying the vote could deprive the district of two years’ worth of additional property tax revenue. Tampa Bay Times.
Palm Beach. Just months before he was arrested and charged for inappropriate sexual contact with students, a middle school teacher was investigated by the school district for allegedly allowing a female student to touch his beard and show him her undergarments in his classroom. He was arrested in June and charged for incidents involving two other female students during the previous school year. Palm Beach Post.
Broward: The Broward County School Board decided Tuesday to suspend an employee whose transgender daughter played girls’ high school volleyball in an alleged violation of state law. The board voted 5-4 to suspend Jessica Norton for 10 days instead of terminating her. The decision is a rejection of Superintendent Howard Hepburn’s recommendation that Norton be fired as a computer information specialist at Monarch High School, where her daughter played on the varsity team last year. The controversy arises after the state passed the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act in 2021. The law, which the Broward board lobbied against, bars trans students who were born male from participating in girls and women’s sports. NBC Miami
Brevard: Candidates for two school board seats discussed closing the achievement gap, the state’s guardian program, a new law allowing volunteer chaplains to serve in schools. The forum, hosted by the League of Women Voters of the Space Coast at the Suntree/Viera Public Library, drew a crowd of about 50. Candidates were asked 13 questions, submitted by audience members, on a variety of topics. The non-partisan election will be held during the Aug. 20 primary. Florida Today.
Lee: The school board has three of its seven seats on the ballot for Aug. 20. Joshua Molandes is one of three candidates seeking to represent District 7. He has worked as a waiter, bartender, welder, truck driver and carpenter before pursuing a career in law. Now retired from his role as a trial attorney, he operates as a business consultant and owner. He shared his platform in a recent Q and A. News-Press.
Escambia: The Florida Trust for Historic Preservation placed the John A. Gibson School building on its 2024 Florida’s 11 to Save, a list of the most threatened historic places in the state. The program is non-binding and does not guarantee that a building will be saved. The school, which was a school for Black students during segregation, was named for named for John A. Gibson, a Bahamas-born educator born in 1827. It opened in 1921, years after his death in Pensacola on Oct. 3, 1906. Pensacola News Journal.
Flagler: An 11-year-boy in Virginia charged with making phone threats that disrupted Flagler County Schools toward the end of the last academic year has declined to waive extradition, according to his lawyer. The boy, from Henrico, Virginia, admitted to making 21 threatening calls about a shooting or a bomb threat toward the end of the last academic year to Flagler County Schools between May 14 and May 22, according to the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office. He remains in a Virginia juvenile detention facility. Daytona Beach News-Journal.
Alachua: School Board Chair Diyonne McGraw, who is up for reelection next month, has removed nine endorsements from her campaign website after numerous groups said they did not endorse her. The removed endorsements included Alachua County Property Appraiser Ayesha Solomon, Human Rights Council of North Central Florida, Equality Florida Action PAC, Stonewall Democrats of Alachua County, Gainesville Citizens for Active Transportation, Sierra Club, Democratic Public Education Caucus of Florida, Florida LGBTQ+ Democratic Caucus and University of Florida College Democrats. McGraw, who represents District 2, said the endorsements were from the last time she ran in 2022. Gainesville Sun.
Polk: For the first time in 20 years, an election is guaranteed to produce a new member of the Polk County School Board in District 2. Two candidates are vying for the open seat: Travis Keyes and Marcus “M.J.” Wright Jr., both of Haines City. Lakeland Ledger.
Osceola: Former state lawmaker Mike Horner won’t face charges after an altercation with Osceola school board member and state Senate candidate Jon Arguello during a political fundraiser at Fat Boy’s Bar-B-Que. Florida Politics.
Colleges and universities: Gov. Ron DeSantis has appointed Monesia Brown to the Tallahassee State College board of trustees. Brown, an attorney and consultant, served on the Florida Board of Education from 2021-2024. TSC’s board now has seven trustees, with Brown filling the vacant seat left by Eric Grant when he resigned in 2022. Tallahassee Democrat. Florida Politics. The University of Florida prepares to embark on the search for a new president to serve as a permanent replacement for Ben Sasse. Tampa Bay Times.
Around the nation: Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board, which refused to end a contract with a Catholic charter school after the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional and ordered it to rescind the deal, voted Tuesday to appeal the state court’s decision to the U.S. Supreme Court. If allowed to open, the online St. Isidore Catholic Charter School would become the nation’s first religious charter school. The case has pitted top leaders of the Sooner State’s GOP against each other as well as divided the national charter school movement. Oklahoma Voice.
Education choice has emerged in the Democratic Veepstakes in the upcoming presidential election. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who is on the shortlist to be Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate, has drawn praise and criticism for his support in 2023 for a school choice scholarship program in the Keystone State. Shapiro, who expressed support for choice, vetoed a proposed $100 million scholarship program. Some national choice opponents have written a letter to Harris urging her to reject him, while other observers say he would appeal to independent and Republican voters. Wall Street Journal.
