Schools of Hope operators: Two more charter schools companies are applying to the state to become Schools of Hope operators. KIPP New Jersey and Democracy Prep Public Schools are asking the Florida Board of Education to approve their applications at its meeting Wednesday. If approved, they would join Somerset Academy and IDEA Public Schools as Hope operators. The program is meant to encourage established, successful charter schools to open in neighborhoods with persistently struggling traditional public schools. No Schools of Hope have opened yet in the state. Gradebook. redefinED.
School security: The Legislature intended for school districts, not law enforcement, to be responsible for the expenses of guarding the state's schools, a lawyer for the Florida Sheriffs Association says in a legal opinion that has been distributed around the state. "It is apparent the act requires school districts to fund any general appropriations shortfall either through reallocating funds under their respective budgets or accessing their reserved funds or raising their millage rates," association general counsel Wayne Evans wrote. The reluctance of law enforcement agencies to help finance school security has pushed many school districts to consider hiring armed guards instead of sworn school resource officers. Gradebook. Sarasota Herald-Tribune. The Hillsborough County School District will hire armed security guards to be assigned to about 100 elementary schools that don't have a police presence now. The cost will be about $7 million the first year and $5.3 million a year after that, and the district will use $6 million from the state's guardian program to help cover the costs. Tampa Bay Times. WFLA. Monroe County School Superintendent Mark Porter promises anxious parents that security improvements will be made to schools this summer. Key West Citizen. Where northwest Florida counties stand on school security. WJHG. (more…)
School security: After Manatee County officials declined to provide more money to protect schools, the school district is now planning to hire 44 armed security guards to be stationed at county schools. Deputy superintendent Ron Ciranna says the district will tap into the state's fund for its guardian program to pay for the guards, and he expects to present the plan to the school board May 22. Bradenton Herald. Pinellas Park City Council members agree to provide money for resource officers at the five Pinellas County schools in the city, but only for the 2018-2019 school year. Gradebook. Cape Coral city officials vow to work with the Lee County School District to place resource officers in every city school. WBBH. The Citrus County School Board is offering the sheriff $954,500 to provide school resource officers at all 22 schools. If the sheriff declines, the board will consider creating its own police department. Citrus County Chronicle. More details on the Brevard County School District's plan to hire "security specialists," which came as a surprise to many residents because the possibility hadn't been mentioned previously. Florida Today. Eighty-three people have applied to run the Pasco County School District's security department. Gradebook.
Superintendent admits error: Hernando County School Superintendent Lori Romano signs a settlement agreement acknowledging that her decision to fire all 47 teachers at a troubled elementary school was a violation of the contract the district has with the teachers union. Romano was reprimanded by the school board, and three of the teachers wrongly dismissed were given their jobs back. Romano has maintained that she had to fire all the teachers to prevent Moton Elementary, which has received D grades from the state the last two years, from being taken over by the state. Tampa Bay Times. All but 10 of the Moton positions have already been filled, Romano says. Tampa Bay Times.
Unaffordable housing: A teacher making the $49,013 median salary in Miami-Dade County can afford to buy just 9 percent of the homes in the area, according to new data from the online residential real estate site Trulia. That's down 9.7 percentage points in just the past year. The median price for a home in the metro Miami area is now $450,000, up 12.8 percent in the past year. The numbers are better in Tampa, at 34 percent, and Orlando, at 20 percent. Affordability is defined as a monthly payment at or below 31 percent of monthly income. Miami Herald. (more…)
School security: The Duval County School Board approves a proposal to hire 103 armed safety assistants to guard elementary schools. The plan will cost the district about $4.18 million. WJXT. WJAX. The Pasco County School Board approves hiring armed guards to be stationed at the district's 47 elementary schools. Superintendent Kurt Browning says the program is a hybrid between the state's guardian program, which allows arming school employees, and hiring sworn school resource officers. The district will have to find the $550,000 to close the gap between the actual cost and money it gets from the state from the guardian program. Tampa Bay Times. Hernando County school officials are considering asking voters for a hike in property taxes or the sales tax to help pay for structural changes to make schools safer. Tampa Bay Times. The Flagler County sheriff tells the school board it must come up with the $88,000 still needed to put a deputy at every school. Flagler Live. Residents argue on both sides about arming school employees during a second town hall meeting in Brevard County. Florida Today. Veteran Florida Department of Law Enforcement special agent Damien Kelly is chosen to lead the Florida Department of Education's Office of Safe Schools. WKMG. Tampa Bay Times. Nearly two-thirds of the nation's secondary public schools have sworn officers on site, but most are not present all day, according to a report from the Bureau of Justice Statistics and the National Center for Education Statistics. Pew Research Center.
Student walkout: Students across the United States are expected to walk out of more than 300 schools today to show their support for the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The pro-gun rights event is called "Stand for the Second," and is scheduled to last 16 minutes. The 74. USA Today. Tallahassee Democrat.
Budget concerns: All major construction projects of the Martin County School District - including the plans to build a new administration center - are temporarily put on hold by the school board. The district is facing a tight budget, and decided to delay spending $25 million for several projects. The district is asking voters this fall to boost sales and property taxes to help pay for school construction, school security and teacher pay. TCPalm. Bay County commissioners approve placing a half-cent sales tax hike for schools on the Aug. 28 primary ballot. If approved, the tax will be used for construction and maintenance. Panama City News Herald. (more…)
Top court takes case: The Florida Supreme Court agrees to review a nearly 10-year-old lawsuit that claims the state has failed to meet its constitutional duty to provide a high-quality system of public schools. The case, brought by the group called Citizens for Strong Schools, has already been rejected by a Leon County circuit judge and the 1st District Court of Appeal, and the state had argued against the Supreme Court's involvement. When the suit was filed in 2009, it alleged that funding for schools was inadequate and that schools were hamstrung by regulations such as standardized testing. The suit was broadened in 2014 to argue that the state's school choice programs harm public education (Step Up For Students, which hosts this blog, helps administer two of those programs). The court ordered the plaintiffs to file legal briefs by May 21. News Service of Florida. redefinED.
Securing schools: School officials around Florida are struggling to find ways to comply with the new state law that requires armed security on every campus. Last school year there were about 1,500 school resource officers for about 3,800 state K-12 schools. "The biggest hurdle is not lack of willingness, it's not even an issue of funding," says Miami-Dade Superintendent Alberto Carvalho. "It's that everyone across the state … is going to be hiring law enforcement at the same time." Twenty-three of the state's 67 districts responded to a survey updating their progress at fulfilling the state requirement. Some are considering tax hikes. Some are working with law enforcement to share costs of officers. Some are considering arming school personnel. And some are hiring safety "assistants" who aren't sworn officers. Tampa Bay Times. The Duval County School Board is expected to vote today on a proposal to hire 103 armed safety assistants to guard elementary schools. WJCT. (more…)
Budget problems: A tiny increase in financial support from the state and more unfunded mandates have Florida school districts scrambling to cope. To make ends meet, some districts are asking voters to approve property and sales tax hikes, while others consider larger class sizes, trimming teaching staffs and making cuts in educational programs and bus services. And raises are out of the question in most districts. "It has become increasingly difficult to provide the level of service with the dwindling resources," says Martin County Superintendent Laurie Gaylord. Tampa Bay Times.
Open enrollment: It's the time of year when students can transfer from school to school under the state's open enrollment law, which allows such transfers to schools that have available slots. But as students are discovering, not all that many schools are accepting transfers. In Orange County, only 36 of the 187 traditional public schools are accepting students from outside their zones. In Seminole, just 15 of the 58 schools are, and in Lake only 6 of the 19 elementary schools are. Last year, only about 1,200 students of the more than 311,000 enrolled in Lake, Orange and Seminole public schools transferred. Orlando Sentinel.
School threat responses: The number of Florida children involuntarily committed for psychiatric observation skyrocketed after the Feb. 14 shootings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. On Feb. 27, 195 children were taken for observation under the Baker Act, the highest single-day total in at least five years, according to records kept by the University of South Florida. Between 2011 and 2016, the number of children hospitalized under the Baker Act rose by almost 50 percent. Sun-Sentinel. Volusia County has arrested 27 students for making threats against school since the Feb. 14 shootings at Stoneman Douglas High in Broward County, while Lake has arrested five, Osceola and Orange three apiece and Seminole none. Orlando Sentinel.
Charter school scarcity: A new report concludes that Florida has one of the highest number of charter school "deserts," which are defined as three or more contiguous census tracts with poverty rates above 20 percent and no charter elementary schools. The charter-friendly Thomas B. Fordham Institute identified about 20 such areas in and around Miami, Orlando and Tampa/St. Petersburg. "Despite the thousands of charter schools opened [nationally] over the past twenty-five years," the report concludes, "many more are needed if low-income students in every part of America are to have the options they need." Gradebook. redefinED.
H.B. 7069 lawsuit: Duval County School Board members vote against joining an appeal of the latest decision against 13 school boards that are challenging the constitutionality of the state's 2017 education law, H.B. 7069, saying they can't afford to continue. Lee and Bay county school boards have already committed to an appeal. School boards in Alachua, Broward, Clay, Hamilton, Orange, Pinellas, Polk, St. Lucie, Volusia and Wakulla counties have yet to decide. Florida Times-Union.
School shooting defense: The Broward County School Board is trying to limit its liability by having a court label the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre as a single incident with many victims. The board's liability for each incident is $300,000. Seventeen were killed and 17 wounded on Feb. 14, and a lawyer for one of the wounded victims wants the court to declare each victim a separate incident. Sun-Sentinel. (more…)
School security: The Hendry and Suwannee county school boards adopt the state's guardian program and will have school employees carrying concealed weapons in all their schools next August. The school boards will decide who becomes a guardian, and the county sheriff's departments will provide the training. WBBH. Suwannee Democrat. The Pasco County School Board will be asked to approve a $2.8 million program to put armed safety officers instead of sworn school resource officers into county schools. Gradebook. Some Florida legislators predict the school safety act will be revised in the next legislative session. Florida Today. A majority of people responding to a Lake County School District survey say they do not want to arm school employees. Daily Commercial. Orlando Sentinel. A group of Duval County students share their safety concerns with legislators. WJCT. St. Johns County Superintendent Tim Forson talks about the financial challenges the district faces in adhering to the state mandate of having an armed person in every school. St. Augustine Record. Florida senators Bill Nelson and Marco Rubio introduce a bill to expand the Secret Service's National Threat Assessment Center as a way to protect students. Sun-Sentinel. Sunshine State News.
Education lawsuit appeal: School boards in Lee and Bay counties vote to appeal a judge's April 4 ruling that the 2017 state education law, H.B. 7069, is constitutional. The other 11 school boards in the suit - Alachua, Broward, Clay, Duval, Hamilton, Orange, Pinellas, Polk, St. Lucie, Volusia and Wakulla - have yet to decide whether they'll join the appeal. The plaintiffs say the law is unconstitutional because it takes power away from local school boards. Fort Myers News-Press. Panama City News Herald. WJHG. The ongoing legal fight reflects the tension between local school boards, which are given the authority to oversee all public schools in their counties, and the Legislature and Florida Department of Education, which have the power to regulate that authority. redefinED.
Private schools investigated: The Florida Department of Education will investigate three private schools that hired felons as teachers. Kingsway Christian Academy and Winners Primary School near Orlando and Southland Christian School near Kissimmee have been asked for records of the employees, including proof of their background checks. State law prohibits private schools that take scholarship money from hiring employees with certain convictions, but the state relies on the schools to conduct background checks. Orlando Sentinel. (more…)
School shooting query: The design of classrooms at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School contributed to the massacre Feb. 14, witnesses tell a state panel investigating the shooting. Doors couldn't be locked from the inside, and had small windows that confessed shooter Nikolas Cruz fired through to kill several people who were inside. Faulty 911 systems contributed to the chaos, and one report indicates that while Broward deputies took cover, at least one knew the location of Cruz. Witnesses also say Cruz studied the 1999 Columbine school shooting as he planned the attack. Associated Press. News Service of Florida. Sun-Sentinel. Miami Herald. Politico Florida. WLRN. A judge rules that Cruz is indigent and will continue to be represented by the Broward County Public Defender's Office. Miami Herald. Here's a list of the commission members. WPLG. Broward County School Board members want Superintendent Robert Runcie to create a page on the district's website to debunk false information and share the district's responses to events. Sun-Sentinel.
School security, budgets: The Polk County School Board approves a plan to hire 90 "safety specialists" to protect schools at a cost of about $3.72 million. Specialists will be trained and armed, but won't have the authority to make arrests. Lakeland Ledger. The Marion County School Board agrees to spend $224,000 to have 34 resource officers in elementary and charter schools for the rest of this school year. Ocala Star-Banner. Bay County School Board members approve a resolution to ask voters in August to extend the extra half-cent sales tax to help pay for school security and construction projects. The request has to be approved by county commissioners. Panama City News Herald. The Clay County School will ask voters to approve a property tax increase to raise money to hire 44 school resource officers so there's at least one in every county school, and county commissioners agree to provide $2.1 million to help. Florida Times-Union. WJXT. Brevard County residents split at a town hall meeting about whether to arm school employees. Florida Today. Citrus County commissioners tell school officials not to expect any financial help to hire school resource officers. Citrus County Chronicle. Martin County School Board members seem willing to make cuts in the district's content coordinators and administrators overseeing specific areas such as math or social studies to save money and help pay for school security, but are hesitant to consider scaling back art, music, extended child care programs or outsourcing custodial and technology services. TCPalm. (more…)
