SPECIAL SESSION UPDATE Last Friday, Senate President Andy Gardiner and House Speaker Steve Crisafulli issued a Joint Proclamation setting the time frame and agenda for the Special Session. As expected, the Special Session will begin June 1 and end no later than June 20. This aligns with the Florida Constitution that limits the duration of a Special Session…
TALLAHASSEE — If the state government shuts down July 1, street lights will go dark, teachers will go unpaid and the state will stop monitoring privately owned prisons. At the request of Gov. Rick Scott, state agency heads spelled out some of the ways Floridians would be affected if lawmakers can’t agree on a budget…
Florida school districts that planned not to count state end-of-course algebra and geometry exams as 30 percent of students’ grades turned out to be prescient. Department of Education K-12 Chancellor Herschel Lyons informed districts on Monday that the results won’t be available in time, anyway. In a memo to superintendents, Lyons wrote that the state…
Circuit Judge George S. Reynolds III on Monday dismissed with prejudice the case that the Florida Education Association and others had brought against the state’s tax credit scholarship program. The plaintiffs did not have standing to bring the case, Reynolds stated in his order. “In this case, Plaintiffs object to tax credits extended to third…
TALLAHASSEE — In their first tangible sign of progress in weeks, legislative leaders Friday set the agenda for a June special session to include a budget, Medicaid expansion, tax cuts and several other issues. Senate President Andy Gardiner, R-Orlando, and House Speaker Steve Crisafulli, R-Merritt Island, issued a joint proclamation that specifies issues to be…
Growing up in St. Petersburg, Sally Henderson didn’t give a thought to becoming a teacher. She planned to be a lawyer. Seven years after taking a teaching job while raising money for law school, Henderson can’t imagine being anything else. The West Tampa Elementary third-grade team leader loves it so much that she became one…
The 2015 U.S. News Best High Schools rankings, released today, feature information on thousands of public schools in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The data show that it’s incredibly difficult to achieve a gold, silver or bronze medal under the U.S. News methodology. Of the more than 19,000 eligible schools, only 6,517 were awarded medals,…
TAVARES — Twenty-two Lake County schools have been recognized for volunteerism, the highest number the school district has had since it began tracking the award. The schools received the Golden School Award from the Florida Department of Education as part of its efforts to promote parent and community involvement in education, according to a press…
Students love him for his charisma and open-mindedness. Teachers say he’s a dedicated mentor. David Samore, who leads Okeeheelee Middle in Greenacres, now has another accolade: Florida’s Principal of the Year. The Palm Beach County school district announced Thursday that Samore was selected as the top principal for middle and high schools by the Florida…
The Legislature-mandated validity study of Florida’s new accountability tests is officially under way. It started Friday morning with a 90-minute conversation about how to pick a firm to review the exams, and what that firm should look for. The six key areas of the review, as listed on a draft scope of work, were test…