Education bills: The Florida Senate Budget Committee passes two broadly drawn Senate education bills. SB 524 deals with teacher bonuses, charter facilities financing, competency-based pilot programs and giving principals greater authority to make changes at struggling schools. SB 1166 would allow open enrollment for any student to attend any school with an opening, allow athletes to transfer and play immediately, and more closely define charter school accountability. An attempt to add an amendment requiring recess every day in elementary schools was withdrawn. Miami Herald. Politico Florida. News Service of Florida. WFSU.
Help for deaf: A Senate committee passes a bill that would help mainstream children who are deaf or hard of hearing into regular education. The bill would increase state funds for school programs that use hearing devices to aid spoken communication. Sarasota Herald-Tribune.
District, police split: The Pasco County School District and the Zephyrhills Police Department are ending their contract for resource officers at two schools. The relationship deteriorated when Zephyrhills High School fired football coach Reggie Roberts, who is a police sergeant. Pasco County deputies will take over the contract. Tampa Tribune. Gradebook.
Success story: Lake Wales High School has doubled students' college acceptance rate in five years, cut chronic absenteeism and has the highest graduation rate in Polk County. Much of the credit goes to Principal Donna Dunson, who has instituted new rules since starting at the school in 2010. Among them: An 8:30 a.m. start time, extending lunches from 23 minutes to an hour, requiring teachers to let students retake tests, and more. Lakeland Ledger. (more…)
School grades: After months of delays, the Department of Education releases Florida school grades for 2014-2015. The grades are similar to the projections issued in December, and will become the baseline for comparison to future grades. Twenty-two of the state's 67 districts received A grades. None received an F, and only two received a D. A grades were given to 1,169 of the state's 3,219 schools. B grades were given to 642 schools, while 859 got a C, 365 got a D and 184 got an F. The next round of Florida Standards Assessments testing is just two weeks away. Department of Education. Tampa Bay Times. Sunshine State News. WFSU. Miami Herald. Tampa Tribune. Orlando Sentinel. Sun-Sentinel. Palm Beach Post. Florida Times-Union. Pensacola News Journal. Florida Today. Fort Myers News-Press. TCPalm. Bradenton Herald. Naples Daily News. Sarasota Herald-Tribune. Gainesville Sun. Ocala Star Banner. Tallahassee Democrat. Daytona Beach News-Journal. Northwest Florida Daily News. Panama City News Herald. Daily Commercial. Lakeland Ledger. St. Augustine Record.
Fresen and charters: Florida Rep. Erik Fresen, R-Miami, has been pushing hard in the Legislature to limit public school capital spending and to force districts to share that money with charter schools. But he's also an executive for Civica, an architecture firm that builds charter schools. Civica has built many schools for Academica, charter school management company in Florida that employs Fresen’s brother-in-law and sister as executives. Fresen sees no conflicts. “Nothing in this bill has anything to do with anything that I do for a living,” he says. Miami Herald.
Charter investigation: A Wellington charter school paid $48,000 to a company owned by the school's chairman for a loan that was never made. Eagle Arts Academy's payments to Gregory James Blount even continued after the Palm Beach School Board began investigating. Palm Beach Post.
Superintendent resigns: Polk County School Superintendent Kathryn LeRoy resigns and leaves with a $230,000 severance package. LeRoy has been a target for school board members since an investigation into complaints lodged against her by an associate superintendent. Board members say if she hadn't resigned, she would have been fired. Lakeland Ledger.
One-room school: The last one-room school in Florida is likely to close at the end of the school year. The principal of Duette Elementary is retiring and won't ask the Manatee County School District to renew the school's contract. It has just 11 students this year. Bradenton Herald. (more…)
School recess: Supporters of daily recess for elementary students are worried that the bill they support still isn't getting a hearing in the Senate. They blame Sen. John Legg, R-Lutz, for the inactivity. Legg, chairman of the Senate Education Committee, says other issues have a higher priority. Gradebook.
Charters and construction: Today, the House Appropriations Committee will consider a bill that would place limits on the money school districts can spend on construction and share local capital projects tax revenue with charter schools. Gradebook. WFSU.
Elected commissioner: A website has been launched to help lobby for an elected education commissioner who will also be in the Cabinet. Fund Education Now created the page to push for an amendment to be decided by voters. Florida Politics.
New SAT concerns: Some experts worry that the new SAT, with its longer and harder reading passages and more words in math problems, will cause problems for some students. Testing begins in March. New York Times. New Boston Post. Should you take the new SAT or the ACT? Huffington Post.
Book removed: Seminole County school officials remove a book from three elementary school libraries after a parent's complaint. Mariko Tamaki's This One Summer contains sexual references and obscenities. WFTV. (more…)
