Around the state: County school boards and charter schools must follow new requirements for notifying parents about bathroom and locker room policies under rules adopted by the state Board of Education, a book giveaway occurred in Escambia, Florida A&M University officials purchased an apartment complex to help student housing woes, school board races moved forward statewide and an analysis of swatting calls at schools. Here are details about those stories and other developments from the state's districts, private schools and colleges and universities:
Broward: Superintendent Vickie Cartwright has been on the job since February and has already faced evaluation from School Board members. School Board members voted to not support the "process" of the recent evaluation, saying it could be a precursor to the possibility Cartwright could be fired in coming weeks. WPLG. South Florida Sun Sentinel. A student at Cypress Bay High founded a club that has raised enough money to outfit every classroom in her high school with a medical Stop the Bleed kit. The idea was inspired by the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High in 2018. Miami Herald. The school district here is preparing for a recession. Staff requested for $7.7 million to be "realigned" from the general fund into the unassigned fund. South Florida Sun Sentinel. Parents are getting a say in next year's calendar. They have been emailed a survey link if they have a child enrolled in Broward's K-12 schools. South Florida Sun Sentinel.
Hillsborough: Some teachers move to charter schools — which are publicly funded but independently managed — after facing discipline elsewhere. But it's unclear how extensively charter schools review them. Tampa Bay Times. Meanwhile, an ongoing bus driver shortage issue is causing some parents frustration regarding when their children arrive late to school. WFLA.
Orange: Four candidates are vying in runoffs in the Orange County School Board election. In District 2, Heather Ashby is running against Maria Salamanca, and in District 3, Michael Daniels is running against Alicia Farrant.
Pinellas: Critics say candidate Dawn Peters, running for an at-large seat on the school board here, has a more extreme set of views than her campaign reveals. They have begun passing around screenshots from her social media accounts. Tampa Bay Times.
Lee: Education advocates have spoken out against a referendum here that would make the school superintendent position an election position. It has been an appointed position in Lee since 1974. WGCU.
Brevard: Two teachers will face off for the final Brevard School Board seat being contested this year. Florida Today.
Pasco: School Board hopeful Al Hernandez has suffered another legal blow in his fight to stay on the Nov. 8 ballot. After being declared ineligible for the general election by circuit court Judge Susan Barthle, Hernandez hired lawyers who wanted Barthle to put a stay on her order while he appealed, but Barthle refused. Tampa Bay Times. Students who attended Mittye P. Locke Elementary School in New Port Richey will attend different schools starting next fall. The school board on Tuesday unanimously agreed to shut down the school at the end of May and change it into a 10-classroom early education center that focuses on Head Start and prekindergarten. Tampa Bay Times.
Sarasota: At its first meeting since Hurricane Ian hit the southwest coast of the state, the School Board here convened to discuss damage from the storm along with other business. Sarasota Herald-Tribune.
Escambia: Students at Warrington Elementary received a gift Wednesday when "Two Men and a Truck" moving company partnered with "First Book" to give away books to students. WEAR.
Columbia: Two people were arrested after an incident that resulted in the lockdown of a Lake City area elementary school on Wednesday. Tyrese Bradley and Ja'Marion Terry were taken into custody by the Columbia County Sheriff's Office after fleeing on foot. First Coast News.
Rules adopted: The state Board of Education approved a wide array of rule changes on Wednesday that include a measure requiring school districts to inform parents about the presence of student bathrooms not separated by biological sex at birth. The Board also adopted a rule to prohibit lessons on sexual orientation or gender identity for students in kindergarten through third grade, and a rule regarding elementary school libraries. Teachers could lose their licenses for violating the rules. Orlando Sentinel. Tampa Bay Times. News 4 Jax. Florida Politics. Miami Herald. Pensacola News Journal.
Mental health: On the heels of a jury's recommendation last week to spare Nikolas Cruz the death penalty in connection to the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High, some wonder if mental health played into the killings. Florida Phoenix.
School refusal: Studies suggest that 1 to 2 percent of all students experience school refusal at some point in their school careers, and students with specific disabilities can be at particular risk in middle and high school. Education Week.
Student harassment: The majority of LBGTQ students who attended school in person during the 2020-21 academic year experienced some form of harassment or assault, according to a study. The 74th.
New preschool: The permitting phase is underway for construction to begin on a new preschool, which is slated to open in late spring 2023 in Ocala. The preschool is part of the new expansion program of the Florida Center for the Blind, and is funded by a $600,000 grant that was approved by the Marion County Commission in March of 2022 to purchase land. WUFT.
Swatting calls: At least 16 emergency calls across Florida on one day recently reported an active shooter at a school. Each call ended up being a hoax. Tampa Bay Times.
University and college news: Florida A&M University bought the 118-bed Light House at Brooklyn Yard apartment complex on Eugenia Street in an effort to assist with higher demand for on-campus housing. Aging residence halls are scheduled for demolition, and the university is planning to add up to 2,000 on-campus beds in the next few years. WFSU. The Florida Department of Juvenile Justice announced the appointment of Angela Garcia Falconetti, president of Polk State College, to the Juvenile Justice Delinquency Prevention State Advisory Group. Lakeland Ledger.
Opinions on schools: The state's secretive new university presidential search law is a colossal failure and a greater insult to the public than expected. South Florida Sun Sentinel.
Starting next month, Florida will open a new avenue for charter school organizations with a track record of lifting achievement for disadvantaged students.
Under a rule approved unanimously by the state Board of Education, charter organizations will be able to apply to become Hope Operators. They'll then be able to start entering performance-based contracts with school districts with persistently low-performing schools, with a streamlined application process. We outlined that process here.
Approved charters will then be able to start applying for state grants and facilities loans through the $140 million Schools of Hope program.
Parts of the Schools of Hope program still face a legal challenge brought by 13 Florida school districts. A separate lawsuit, now pending before Leon County circuit court, takes aim at the entire statute authorizing the program. (more…)
Last week, the Florida Board of Education decided two charter school appeal cases from Palm Beach County.
The two sides' arguments in one of the cases highlight the tensions between charter school networks that say they cater to parent demand, districts that operate most of Florida's public schools, and competing claims about which providers best meet the needs of a community. Palm Beach County is currently taking the state to court, arguing it has the right to deny charter applications for schools it feels won't be sufficiently "innovative."
First, attorney Stephanie Alexander spoke for the proposed Renaissance Charter High School of Palm Beach, a non-profit responsible for schools run by Charter Schools USA. She noted the same group had successfully applied to open seven charter schools in the district, six of which are now operating, but none of which is a high school. (more…)
On the heels of a brief-but-intense discussion of charter school facilities, the state Board of Education is set to take up a draft spending plan that would restore some funding lost this year.
The state board will take up its legislative budget request today as it meets in Gainesville.
The request seeks to boost charter school facilities funding to $70 million — $20 million more than the current state budget, but less than the previous year's. It also seeks $70 million for building maintenance at district-run schools.
Funding for charter school buildings has stagnated even as the number of schools has grown, which means many of the state's oldest charters have seen their funding erode. Over the past two years, the state's Charter School Capital Outlay shrunk from $100 million to $50 million. (more…)
Two Florida appeals courts recently decided two cases involving the same charter school operator and came to the same conclusion: There are “deficiencies” in the state’s charter school statutes.
The courts indicated that when the state Board of Education overrules school boards on charter school applications, it should be required to spell out its reasoning in greater detail. They also found other "shortcomings" in the state's standards for high-performing charter school appeals.
The state board can hear appeals from charter schools whose applications are rejected by local school boards. It often overturns their decisions, especially in cases involving "high-performing" charters like Renaissance Charter School, Inc., which was rebuffed in two separate efforts to bring its South Florida schools to Central Florida.
State law only allows high-performing charter schools to replicate once per year. If a school board rejects a high-performing charter's application to replicate one of its schools, the school board has to show "clear and convincing" evidence the application failed to meet certain standards spelled out in state law.
In the two recent cases, one in Seminole County and one in Polk, the state board decided the districts did not prove their case. The districts disagreed, and appealed the cases to state courts. Three-judge panels for the Fifth and Second Courts of Appeals both sided with the districts and overturned the state board’s decisions. And in both rulings, the latest of which was issued earlier this month, the courts criticized the state laws that spell out the process for charter school appeals.
The two cases, both decided 3-0, were broadly similar.
T. Willard Fair, the chairman of the Florida State Board of Education, has resigned to protest Gov. Rick Scott's move to force Education Commissioner Eric J. Smith out of office, The Associated Press is reporting.
Fair, who was term limited, said a move to conduct a national search to replace Smith was bogus. In his letter of resignation, Fair wrote that a national search "flies in the face of reality that Governor Scott will choose his new commissioner.
As the AP notes, Fair was term limited but stayed on because Scott has not yet appointed his successor. Fair also complained that the governor didn't tell the board that he wanted a change in education commissioners until two days after Smith announced his pending resignation. In his letter to the board, Smith said his resignation would be effective June 10. "The time has come," Smith wrote, "to allow our newly elected Governor to have input through the State Board of Education on the type of leader to pursue his goals for education."
The Florida Department of Education just sent out a press release announcing the resignation of Florida Education Commissioner Eric J. Smith. Below is a statement from Commissioner Smith, in which he makes clear his intention to "allow our newly elected Governor to have input through the State Board of Education on the type of leader to pursue his goals for education":
This past weekend, I informed the members of the State Board of Education of my intention to resign as Florida’s Commissioner of Education effective June 10, 2011, the last day of this school year. It has been my privilege to serve as Commissioner during a period in which Florida demonstrated bold national leadership in the field of education. The time has come, however, to allow our newly elected Governor to have input through the State Board of Education on the type of leader to pursue his goals for education. (more…)
