FSBA Session Spotlight — February 20-24, 2017

This was the last week of Interim Legislative Committee Meetings prior to the beginning of the Regular 2017 Legislative Session on Tuesday, March 7.  The most significant meeting this week was the Senate Education Committee meeting.  Senators considered several bills of special interest to school board members including one that is a priority in the…

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Plasencia: ‘No one actively lobbying against’ daily recess mandate

State Rep. Rene Plasencia, R-Orlando, told reporters Thursday that “there’s no one that’s actively lobbying against” efforts to require mandatory daily recess in Florida’s public elementary schools.  There has so far been no obvious or outspoken public opposition to the measure, but district administrators quietly have voiced concerns about requiring all schools to have recess —…

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Corcoran concedes ‘we’ll get there’ on a joint rule with Senate over budget

House Speaker Richard Corcoran said Wednesday that he is open to compromise with the state Senate on his hardline new rules aimed at increasing transparency and accountability in the budget process.  Senate President Joe Negron has resisted Corcoran’s rules, last week even threatening to sue the House over what he considers an unconstitutional attempt to…

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Senators seek solution on school construction

Half of a two-part effort to bridge differences between charter schools and traditional public schools over construction funding was approved Tuesday by a Senate committee — but the other measure was left to an uncertain future.  The Senate Education Committee voted 6-2 to advance legislation (SB 376) that would require school districts to share construction…

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Most Florida teachers continue to get strong evaluation ratings

Nearly all of Florida’s evaluated public school teachers continued to receive strong reviews in 2015-16, according to newly released data from the state Department of Education. As in previous years, about 98 percent of teachers statewide rated either “highly effective” (42.9%) or “effective” (52.0%), with a tiny 0.2 percent receiving “unsatisfactory” marks, 0.7 percent as…

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