Trump at Tampa school: President Trump talks about workforce development during a roundtable discussion at Tampa Bay Technical High School on Tuesday. Trump said the just-signed Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act would give states the freedom to issue up to $1 billion in grants to help students in high school career and technical programs and at community colleges and technical schools. “Now more than 11 million students and workers will have greater access to better training and more jobs,” Trump said. “When we invest in our workers, we are investing in our people.” WFTS. WFLA. WTSP. Tampa Bay Times. Education Week. PBS. YouTube. Washington Post.
Budget decisions: Polk County School Board members approve a budget of $890 million, almost $63 million higher than last year's. School officials attribute the hike to the additional 3,150 students it expects this year. Lakeland Ledger. The Sarasota County School Board approves an $828 million budget, about $40 million more than last year's, but is cutting its reserves back to 7.68 percent, the lowest percentage since 2002. Sarasota Herald-Tribune. The Broward County School Board approves a budget that includes $15 million in cuts in staffing and fuel costs. Sun-Sentinel. Northeast High School in Oakland Park will be renovated at a cost of $41.2 million, the Broward school board decides. When the project was approved in 2014, it was expected to cost $14.2 million. Sun-Sentinel. Pasco County School Board members are unhappy that the proposed budget does not include money for raises, and are challenging themselves and school officials to come up with ideas to find money for them. Gradebook.
Lead found in schools: Twenty-one of 50 Hillsborough County schools tested in the past year have lead in their water, according to district officials. Plumbing components that could have caused the contamination have been replaced. "We will continue testing the drinking water sources in our schools for lead until we have checked all 270 facilities in our district," parents and staff have been told in an email from the district. Tampa Bay Times. WFLA. (more…)
Scholarships review: Florida’s most disadvantaged students continue to make solid academic gains through use of the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship program, according to the latest annual evaluation of standardized test results released by the Florida Department of Education. Students on scholarships were "relatively more disadvantaged and lower-performing prior to entering the ... program," concluded the researchers from the Learning Systems Institute at Florida State University, yet once on the scholarship, the students “maintain his or her relative position in comparison with all students nationally in both reading and math.” Step Up For Students, which hosts this blog, helps administer the tax credit program, which is the largest in the country, as well as Gardiner, Hope and reading scholarship programs. redefinED.
Video ordered released: An appeals court rules that a surveillance video showing how law enforcement officers responded during the shootings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14 is a public record and should be released by the Broward County Sheriff's Office in the next 48 hours. News organizations argued for the release, while the Broward state attorney's office argued against it because it's part of an ongoing criminal investigation. “Parents have such a high stake in the ultimate decisions that they must have access to camera video footage here at issue and not blindly rely on school board experts to make decisions for them,” the 4th District Court of Appeal judges wrote. Associated Press. Sun-Sentinel. (more…)
Scott signs budget bill: Gov. Rick Scott signs the $88.7 billion state budget, dismissing pleas from Florida's school superintendents for a special legislative session to increase funding for schools. The budget includes new money for K-12 schools, mostly for school security and mental health counseling for students, and a boost in the amount Bright Futures scholars receive. Associated Press. News Service of Florida. Miami Herald. Orlando Sentinel. GateHouse. Capitolist. Gradebook. Politico Florida. Senate President Joe Negron, R-Stuart, says legislative leaders are considering allowing school districts that don't want to arm school personnel to use any money left over from the marshals program to hire resource officers. Associated Press. News Service of Florida. The new funding formula takes $56 million in state money that in the past would have gone to larger school districts and is redirecting it to smaller ones. Miami-Dade, for example, will receive $7 million less. Tampa Bay Times. House Speaker Richard Corcoran, R-Land O'Lakes, criticizes the state's school superintendents for complaining about the state's K-12 spending, saying those who are “grossly mismanaging their budgets” should resign. Bradenton Herald. Scott vetoed a $1 million item for Okaloosa County schools to buy buses that would help ease traffic congestion near Hurlburt Field, headquarters for the Air Force Special Operations Command. Here's a full list of the $64 million in projects that Scott vetoed. Northwest Florida Daily News.
School shooting developments: Mental health records show that Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School officials were worried about Nikolas Cruz's fascination with guns, and banned him from practicing his shooting with the Junior RTOC or carrying a backpack on campus 18 months before the massacre that killed 17 at the school. Sun-Sentinel. Associated Press. The Coconut Creek police officer who arrested Cruz describes his search and his shock when he found the accused school shooter. Sun-Sentinel. More than $4 million has been raised for the victims of the Parkland shooting and their families, and the Broward Education Foundation has appointed a steering committee to determine how to distribute the money and who will receive it. Sun-Sentinel. Deputies at Stoneman Douglas High are carrying AR-15 rifles at the school, but concealing them in backpacks so as not to alarm students. Sun-Sentinel. A Lighthouse Point man becomes the first person in Florida to have his firearms and ammunition seized under the state's new law addressing gun restrictions and school safety. Sun-Sentinel. The fiancee of a teacher killed in the shootings still struggles to comprehend what happened. Palm Beach Post. A sculptor is planning a 15-foot memorial to the shooting victims at the Parkland school. Sun-Sentinel. Five Stoneman Douglas High shooting survivors appear on 60 Minutes and give Florida lawmakers a C or C-minus grade for their response to the tragedy. Sun-Sentinel. Miami Herald. Three other survivors take their message for increasing gun regulation to the Global Education and Skills Forum in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Associated Press.
English-only tests: Florida is asking the U.S. Department of Education for a waiver from giving statewide assessments tests in any language other than English. The Every Student Succeeds Act requires states to make every effort to test students in their first language. About 12 percent of all K-12 students in Florida - almost 300,000 children - are considered English-learners. The waiver request points to the state constitution, which declares English as the state's official language. Education Week.
Board group's agenda: The Florida Coalition of School Board Members' agenda for the 2018 Legislature includes expanding school choice by creating a scholarship for bullied students to attend private schools, using paper and pencil testing through the 8th grade, allowing SAT and ACT scores to be used in place of state assessments as a requirement for high school graduation, and more. Gradebook.
Financial questions: How will the finances work for the company that is managing the first charter takeover of a public school district in Florida? Members of the House Education Appropriations Subcommittee have questions about Somerset Academy's ability pay the district's administrative overhead of about $421,000 when it's receiving just $254,000 to pay a superintendent, another employee and five elected Jefferson County School Board members, and still raise salaries for teachers significantly. Rep. Manny Diaz, R-Hialeah Gardens, says Somerset’s budget is still a “work in progress,” and says legislators are trying to get an accurate assessment of the district's assets. redefinED.
