Cold closing schools: A cold front is expected to bring freezing temperatures and icy conditions into north Florida today. The Walton, Escambia, Jackson, Holmes, Okaloosa and Santa Rosa school districts have closed all schools, and Bay County is limiting after-school activities. Northwest Florida Daily News. WMBB. WEAR. Pensacola News Journal. Destin Log. Panama City News Herald. The Leon County School District won't be closing schools because of the weather today. Earlier this month the district closed for two days when cold weather, snow and ice moved into the area. Tallahassee Democrat. WTXL.

Pension payments: Florida school districts will have to contribute an additional $54.4 million into the state pension fund this year, if a bill before the Legislature is approved. The state is forecasting a lower rate of return on the $160 billion pension fund, which would require school districts, colleges, universities, county governments and state agencies to pay a collective $178.5 million to ensure that there's enough money to pay retirement benefits. News Service of Florida.

Computer coding bill: A bill promoting computer coding in schools, by allowing students to use it to satisfy foreign language requirements, is amended to include a requirement that a set percentage of schools in each district offer computer science courses, and providing financial incentives for teachers to become certified in the field. The amended bill is approved by the Senate Education Committee and now moves to the appropriations committee. Gradebook.

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Education budget: In his budget proposal, Gov. Rick Scott wants local school boards to keep property taxes at their current levels so rising property values can produce extra funds for school districts. Florida Education Secretary Pam Stewart concurs, saying it's the only way districts can get the extra funds they need. But the Florida House balked at that suggestion last year, calling it a tax hike, and is expected to resist again when the Legislature convenes next month. Stewart says the districts need the extra money to supplement what they get from the state and help pay for the influx of students from Puerto Rico and other islands that were devastated by hurricanes. “We’d find ourselves unable to do that (get to the $7,497 per-student spending called for in Scott's budget) if we didn’t leave the RLE (required local effort) at the current level," she told members of a Senate education panel. News Service of Florida. WFSU. Florida Politics.

Puerto Rican migration: Quality education is one of the primary motivations for Puerto Rican families moving into Florida, and particularly central Florida, according to Orlando real estate consultant Jose Hoyos. "They say, 'I am here because these public schools are like the private schools in Puerto Rico,’ " he says. "They don't mind working here for $10 an hour because their children are getting a good education." The number of Puerto Ricans in five central Florida counties (Orange, Osceola, Hillsborough, Polk and Seminole) grew by more than 115,000 between 2010 and 2016, U.S. Census reports show. Orlando Sentinel.

Reporting sexual abuse: The Miami-Dade County School Board approves a program to help students at all grade levels to spot inappropriate sexual behavior, and how to report it, and to help parents spot signs of sexual abuse in their children. The board sets a February deadline for having a completed plan on classes and communication. Miami Herald.

Finding gifted students: Educators from Washington state are looking to the Miami-Dade School District as a model for increasing and diversifying the students who are accepted into gifted programs. Miami-Dade uses a two-tier system to determine gifted eligibility: middle-class and affluent students need IQ scores of at least 130, while low-income children or English-learners can get in with scores of 117 if they demonstrate creativity and academic achievement. Plan B was approved by the Florida Legislature in 1991, though not many districts use it because of the expense. Seattle Times.

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For years, Florida's top education officials have said the state needs to do more to recruit nationally recognized charter schools to the state's urban areas — especially in high-poverty neighborhoods where students struggle.

But today, some members of the state Board of Education said those efforts might require more money.

Florida is home to more than 650 charter schools, but only a few run by high-profile national networks with a reputation for raising achievement among low-income students.

The state is trying to change that with grants that set aside extra money to support collaboration between charters and school districts in Jacksonville and Miami. The goal is to attract more "high-impact" charter school networks, and beef up charter school authorizing in Duval and Miami-Dade Counties at the same time. (more…)

The Florida Board of Education sided today with three proposed charter schools in Indian River and St. Lucie Counties, overturning attempts by local school boards to stop them from opening.

After the decisions, one board member rebuked the school districts for creating roadblocks to new schools, which would replicate existing high-performing Somerset Academy charter schools.

"I think it is of benefit to our state for us to be as supportive and welcoming as possible to anyone — whether a traditional or charter school — that is doing great things for our students," Rebecca Fishman Lipsey told her fellow board members. Many of the objections to the proposed schools, she said, "seemed a lot like digging to find ways to potentially hold back someone from doing great things for kids."

The school boards in Indian River and St. Lucie Counties last fall rebuffed the charter school network, which is affiliated with the management company Academica.

Citing recent decisions by state appellate courts that blocked proposed replications of high-performing charter schools, the districts argued the proposed schools would not "substantially" replicate existing high-performing charters in Somerset's network.

Attorney Collette Papa said the proposed St. Lucie school and the Broward school it was trying to replicate shared the same "educational program design." The extant and future school would both serve middle-school grades, which wasn't true in the recent court cases.

Suzanne D'Agresta, an attorney for the Indian River school district, said she was concerned the proposed charters in her district would run afoul of a federal desegregation order, and did not offer detailed plans for recruiting black students.
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The Florida Board of Education today supported the appeal of one rejected charter school's application, and denied another, amid concerns about the ability of small, upstart charter schools to secure financial support.

Laura Pincus, an attorney representing the Palm Beach County School board, said it rejected an application from Lake Worth Classical Academy in part due to concerns about the school's proposed budget. Plans relied on competitive grant applications, parent fundraising and activities like a proposed distance run to support its operations in the early going.

The Palm Beach school district, home to one of Florida's largest charter school populations, had seen six charters shut down since July, Pincus said, including one that never opened and one that closed shortly after school started, due to financial problems.

"We cannot approve a charter school application when its financial viability depends on a 5k race," she said.

Nobody from the school appeared before the board, which voted to support the school board's rejection of the charter application during its meeting this morning in Tallahassee.
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