Education

Florida education news: School Board pay, teacher pay, student exams and more

BEAUTIFUL MUSIC: John Hopkins Middle School's orchestra earns the highest ratings under the direction of its new, young conductor. See, not everything is bad at the magnet school. (Times photo, Melissa Lyttle) IT TAKES A VILLAGE: Suspensions are down in Pinellas County schools, but some — Read More

29 John Hopkins staffers send letter to Janssen, school board

Staffers at John Hopkins Middle School asked the school board and Superintendent Julie Janssen for help for months to deal with a growing group of chronically disruptive students, according to a letter signed by 29 members of the "John Hopkins Middle Family" and delivered to Janssen Read More

Florida gets more cash from the feds

The Obama Administration has released another $728.9 million in federal stimulus funds for Florida. The amount comes on top of $3.7 billion the state has already received for education programs. One chunk comes from the education stabilization fund, which was new this year and will run out after Read More

Tired of arguments about school tests and teacher pay? How about condoms?

Here's an interesting story about an education battle that we haven't had in Florida for a while. From the AP:  "The decision by a Rome high school to install condom vending machines has set off a storm in Italy, with the Catholic Church charging the move will Read More

New John Hopkins AP wins over crowd

If first impressions mean anything, Barry Brown, the new assistant principal at discipline-challenged John Hopkins Middle School in St. Petersburg, is going to be a hit. Not long after he was introduced at last night's SAC meeting by Superintendent Julie Janssen – who worked with Read More

Hillsborough School Board member Faliero vows to fight effort to cut board salaries

Hillsborough School Board member Jennifer Faliero is mad as heck, and she's not going to take it anymore. Last year, Faliero sat quietly as Senate Education Appropriations chairman Steve Wise pushed through school board pay cuts. "We were advised not to raise a big stink when it came Read More

Poll: Teacher pay and student tests

How much should student test results count when setting teacher pay? Nothing – you can't control who's in your class 50 percent – that leaves room for other factors 100 percent – if kids aren't learning … Some other amount

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Key lawmakers consider watering down Florida pre-kindergarten program

Advocates had such high hopes when Floridians approved a universal, high-quality prekindergarten program for all 4-year-olds back in 2002. It's been downhill ever since. You just had to know things wouldn't meet expectations as soon as the bureaucrats removed the "universal" Read More