Florida School Boards Association
Rhonda Combs had finished storing her photo albums and scrapbooks in big plastic bags. There was nothing left to do but go stir crazy, waiting for Hurricane Irma.So she drove to McKitrick Elementary School, where she teaches kindergarten, and saw volunteers escorting families to the classrooms where they would seek shelter. Combs found those assigned…
By 1 p.m. Monday, as Hurricane Irma’s ferocity weakened and the storm continued its northward march, just 50 people were left at the shelter inside Boca Raton High School. It was a dramatic change from just a day earlier, when 1,700 evacuees had sought shelter at the high school in the Palm Beach County school…
How do you fix struggling schools? One idea: Pay teachers more. Teacher bonuses are among several ideas the Miami-Dade and Broward school districts have proposed as they compete for additional funding through a controversial new state program designed to rehabilitate Florida’s lowest performing schools while potentially supplanting them with privately run charters. Read More
Last week the Orange County School Board voted unanimously to join numerous other Florida school districts in petitioning the courts to declare recently enacted House Bill 7069 unconstitutional. The decision to join the litigation was not made lightly, and was made only after concluding that constitutional principles of a uniform, high-quality education and local control…
The Florida Department of Education says it will be up to each of the state’s 67 county school districts to determine which of their local teachers is eligible for the state “Best and Brightest” bonus program that lawmakers revamped as part of a massive education law that took effect this summer. Hershel Lyons, Florida’s chancellor…
Miami-Dade joined a growing number of school districts challenging the constitutionality of Florida’s sweeping new education law. At a School Board meeting on Wednesday, board members voted 8 to 1 to join litigation seeking to overturn portions of a bill some critics say was designed to boost the fortunes of the politically powerful charter school…
A legal motion the Department of Education filed yesterday could have big ramifications for half a million teachers, social workers, police officers and other public servants. The motion asserts that there has been no final decision on whether these people will have their student debt forgiven, as they had believed. Read More
A new education law that has inspired lawsuits from school districts and derision from teachers’ unions nearly fell victim to an intra-party feud in the Republican-led state Senate, as detailed in a series of text messages exchanged by legislators and their staff during the hectic final days of the 2017 legislative session. Read More
The Sarasota County School Board voted unanimously not to join in a lawsuit against the state for passing legislation that will direct tax dollars to charter schools, among other changes, though some board members were quick to explain they still don’t support the bill. Read More
This school year, children who rely on medical marijuana for a variety of ailments may be allowed to use the drug at school. On June 23, Gov. Rick Scott signed legislation that established the framework for medical marijuana in Florida. In addition to legalizing cannabis oils, pills and edibles for eligible patients, the law allows…