Around the state: Hillsborough’s superintendent was authorized by the school board Tuesday to sue the county commission over its decision to delay a tax measure for teacher pay until 2026, a federal judge ruled that a 7-year-old must testify in a court case over the Escambia school district’s removals and restrictions of school library books, interim presidents are named for the University of Florida and Florida A&M University, Broward’s school board postpones a decision whether to fire an employee whose transgender daughter violated state law by playing with her girls high school volleyball team, a charter school company is suing the Lee County School Board for allegedly not sharing revenues from a local sales tax for schools, and the state proposes rules to enforce its age verification requirements for social media companies. Here are details about those stories and others from the state’s districts, private schools, and colleges and universities:
Broward: School board members postponed a scheduled vote Tuesday on firing a district employee whose transgender child played on the Monarch High School girls volleyball team. Jessica Norton is an information management specialist at Monarch High and was one of eight school employees investigated for breaking the law, but the only one facing punishment. Before deciding to postpone a decision, some board members discussed imposing a 10-day suspension on Norton instead of firing her. Miami Herald. Sun Sentinel. WPLG. WSVN. Restrictions on students’ use of cell phones during the school day were approved Tuesday by the school board. The new policy prevents most cell phone use in school, even during breaks, class changes and lunch. WFOR.
Hillsborough: School board members voted 4-3 Tuesday to authorize Superintendent Van Ayres to sue the county commission for its decision last week to place a 1-mill tax referendum for schools on the 2026 ballot instead of this November’s. School officials argue the commission does not have the authority to decide when a referendum is put before voters, and say they need the $177 million the tax would generate annually to improve teacher pay. Tampa Bay Times. WTSP. WTVT. Spectrum News 9. WFTS. WFLA. A new cell phone policy also was approved by school board members. The policy requires phones to be put away and placed on silent for younger students, and used only at lunch and between classes for older students. Exceptions are made when teachers want to use phones for instruction, or for students with medical needs. Tampa Bay Times. Three more schools are getting new principals: Angela Livingston at James Elementary, Gloria Waite at Foster Elementary, and Louis Murphy at Clair Mel Elementary. Tampa Bay Times.
Duval: District 3 is the only school board race with an incumbent in the primary Aug. 20. Cindy Pearson is running for a second term against Rebecca Nathanson. Pearson said she wants to focus on student achievement and budget issues if re-elected. Nathanson’s priorities are student literacy, school discipline, teacher retention and cutting what she calls wasteful spending. WJXT. Nathanson was a no-show at a community forum for District 3 candidates this week, leaving Pearson alone to take questions from the audience. Jacksonville Today. WJXT. WTLV.
Lee: A charter school company is suing the school board, alleging that it has refused to follow the law and share revenues from an extra half-cent sales tax approved by voters in 2018. Southwest Charter Foundation runs nine schools, six in Lee, two in Manatee and one in Collier. District officials said they don’t comment on pending litigation. WINK.
Pinellas: A candidate for the District 1 school board contended this week at a candidate forum that the book Gender Queer, which contains explicit sexual content, is inappropriate and unlawful and still in district school libraries. Danielle Marolf’s claim was quickly refuted by two school board members also in attendance, who said all copies of the book were removed in 2021 except one, which is in the administration office and is available only to teachers. Marolf is running against incumbent Laura Hine for the office. Tampa Bay Times.
Brevard: Redistricting of District 3’s boundaries put incumbent Jennifer Jenkins outside the district, and two newcomers will compete in the Aug. 20 primary for the seat. Amber Yantz is the mother of five students attending three public schools and has experience as a volunteer on a district parents leadership team and on school advisory councils. John Thomas has been a school dean and administrator, a police officer and is now chief executive officer at Space Coast Home Builders and Contractors Association. Both are advocates for early childhood education and technical education programs and offer slightly different approaches to supporting teachers. Florida Today.
Sarasota: District 2 school board incumbent Karen Rose is being challenged in the Aug. 20 primary by Liz Barker, a former school psychologist and school parent-teacher organization member. Rose declined to complete a questionnaire asking about her background but her campaign website says she wants the district to be rated the best in the state and for campuses to be kept safe. Barker said she wanted to put students over what she calls political chaos, make sure parental involvement works for all parents instead of a few, and promote better mental health support for students. Sarasota Herald-Tribune.
Escambia: A federal judge ruled this week that a 7-year-old student will have to testify in a lawsuit against the school board for removing and restricting school library books. The child and her mother are plaintiffs in the case, and the attorneys for the school board had lobbied the judge to allow them to question the child. Magistrate Judge Zachary C. Bolitho said the girl, referred to in the lawsuit as J.N., is the only one who can ” testify as to her thoughts, interests, desires, and efforts to access the books at issue in this case. And those issues are critical ones in this case, especially as it relates to J.N.’s standing to bring this lawsuit.” Bolitho said questioning of the child will be limited to 90 minutes. Politico Florida. USA Today Florida Network.
Okaloosa: The appointments of Kristin Gilmore as principal of Silver Sands School and Craig Miller as assistant principal at Niceville High were approved this week by the school board. Okaloosa County School District.
Bay: An executive director will be hired to oversee the district’s special education program, school board members decided Tuesday. A review of the district’s special education program recommended creating the position. WJHG.
Hernando: District 4 school board candidates Mark Cioffi, Michelle Bonczek and Gregg Laskoski answer questions about the top issues facing the school district, the projects that are most important for the district, whether the current system to challenge books is effective, and more. Suncoast News.
Flagler: District 5 school board candidate Vincent Sullivan talks about his background and preparation to be a board member, his plans for improving the state grade for the district to an A from its current B, his vision for public education, and more. His opponent in the Aug. 20 primary is Lauren Ramirez. Flagler Live.
Nassau: Attorneys defending the school board over its removal and restriction of school library books are arguing that those decisions are protected by the First Amendment, which it is accused of violating in the lawsuit. USA Today Florida Network.
Columbia: School board members approved a proposal to spend $5.7 million over the next 10 years for a dedicated “wide area” computer network. The plan will connect all district schools to the same fiber optic network, which district officials say will give a better connection at a lower cost. WCJB.
Colleges and universities: Former University of Florida president Kent Fuchs has agreed to become the school’s interim president replacing Ben Sasse, who announced last week he was stepping down to help care for his wife. Fuchs was the school’s leader from 2015 to 2023, when he resigned to return to teaching electrical engineering. Gainesville Sun. News Service of Florida. Tampa Bay Times. Florida A&M University trustees voted Tuesday to hire retired Pasco-Hernando State College president Tim Beard as the interim president to replace Larry Robinson, who announced earlier this month he would step down Aug. 4. News Service of Florida. Associated Press. Tallahassee Democrat. Tampa Bay Times. Florida and several other states have authorized the creation of university centers that focus on civics and “classical liberal education.” The University of Florida’s Hamilton Center for Classical and Civics Education is the biggest, and has been controversial since it was approved by the Legislature in 2022. Inside Higher Ed. A state audit of New College of Florida operations in 2022 disclosed overpayments to faculty and administrators, paying vendors more than once for the same work, and failing to collect more than $160,000 in delinquent student payments. Tampa Bay Times.
Social media rules: Attorney General Ashley Moody is proposing three rules Tuesday detailing how the state would enforce the age verification provision of a new law intended to limit children’s access to social media. One states that willful “disregard of a person’s age constitutes a knowing or reckless violation” of the law, and another sets the parameters for what would not be “willful disregard.” The other proposed rule defines reasonable parental verification as “any method that is reasonably calculated at determining that a person is a parent of a child that also verifies the age and identity of that parent by commercially reasonable means.” The law goes into effect Jan. 1. News Service of Florida. Political Florida.
Help for microschools: A recently enacted Florida rule relaxing zoning and land-use restrictions to allows schools to set up in libraries, movie theaters, churches and more could benefit the microschool movement in the state and elsewhere. “This is the silent friction point that has existed for years that no one could figure out how to solve,” said Ryan Delk, CEO and founder of the microschooling company Primer, which has 23 schools in Florida and Arizona and pushed for the law. Politico Florida.
Florida school rating: Florida’s K-12 school system ranks as the 11th best in the country, according to the personal finance company WalletHub, which uses 32 metrics to compile the rankings. Florida ranks 8th in school safety, but is in the bottom five for SAT scores and teacher-to-pupil ratios. USA Today Network.
