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Flagler, Florida and Beyond
FlaglerLive | March 13, 2012
A seven-hour hearing ended in the Flagler County School Board voting 4-1 to uphold its decision to close Heritage Academy, whose CEO, Doug Jackson, and own board members were no-shows, leaving the school’s defense in the hands of its dean of students.
FlaglerLive | March 13, 2012
Shannon Diamond, a full-time employee of the school district, is a role model to the 80-some students who use the Youth Center daily, his employers say. A decision on his status hadn’t been reached Tuesday. He was due at work.
FlaglerLive | March 12, 2012
After recriminations and a particularly insulting whistle from the district’s lead negotiator, the two sides appeared headed for compromise over the one issue–how teachers are to be evaluated–keeping the district from approving the 2012-13 teachers contract.
FlaglerLive | March 11, 2012
School Board member Colleen Conklin and Superintendent Janet Valentine explain why the controversy over a controversial provision in teachers’ contract doesn’t tell the whole story.
FlaglerLive | March 9, 2012
The Senate on a tie vote defeated a bill that would have let parents turn failing schools into charters, the latest and perhaps final victory for a dissident faction of the GOP caucus as the curtain came down on the 2012 legislative session.
FlaglerLive | March 8, 2012
Democrats are looking to the Senate and a rogue set of lawmakers to help them defeat an education bill they think is a giveaway to the charter school industry at the expense of public schools.
FlaglerLive | March 7, 2012
Negotiations are back to zero and mutual trust damaged as the Flagler County School Board said it could not legally approve the contract, as it mistakenly did two weeks ago, by carving out a controversial portion of it dealing with teacher evaluations.
FlaglerLive | March 7, 2012
Neither administrator volunteered for the new assignments, but administrators work at the will of the district. No one has been named to the principal’s post at Buddy Taylor Middle School yet.
FlaglerLive | March 6, 2012
House and Senate lawmakers agreed to create Florida Polytechnic University, a pet project of Sen. J.D. Alexander’s, and slash university spending by $300 million, paving the way for an on-time ending to the legislative session.
FlaglerLive | March 2, 2012
Flagler County would have lost $600,000 and 18 jobs, and disability and job-learning skills to 248 adults in the affected programs, had a Senate proposal to end funding prevailed. A public-awareness campaign led by school board member Colleen Conklin helped reverse the cuts.
FlaglerLive | February 29, 2012
Breaking from from federal No Child Left Behind strictures, Florida can now use its own school accountability system, its A-through-F school grades, to rate the state’s public education system. But the waiver comes with strings attached.
FlaglerLive | February 28, 2012
Just before Christmas Jim Guines, the long-time Flagler County School Board member, was hospitalized with a recurring leg ailment that may have contributed to a stroke while he was in surgery. He’s been in rehab since.
FlaglerLive | February 26, 2012
Down time after dismissal? Summers off? Think again. Matanzas High School teacher Jo Ann Nahirny, in her latest installment from the trenches, describes permanent on-call nature of a teacher’s days and evenings.
FlaglerLive | February 23, 2012
The Senate overwhelmingly approved a $70.7 billion spending plan for the coming budget year on Thursday, with a 33-6 vote, setting up a two-week window for negotiating with the House’s smaller budget.
FlaglerLive | February 21, 2012
After a closed-door meeting, the Flagler school board ratified a new contract with its teacher union minus a crucial portion defining teacher evaluations, causing a breach with the union just as the two sides are planning next school year.
FlaglerLive | February 19, 2012
Flagler County is in danger of losing several programs that train and help the disabled find self-sustaining jobs as the Florida Senate ends funding for those programs. The cuts would affect 248 adult in the county, including 36 students in the transition program for 18 to 22 year olds.
FlaglerLive | February 16, 2012
The story of Hellen Keller and Annie Sullivan, with FPC junior Agata Sokolska and senior Leana Gardella in the title roles, is director Kelly Nelson’s valentine to inspiration. The play will be staged Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
FlaglerLive | February 14, 2012
Wadsworth Elementary’s “Who’s Who in History” day Tuesday drew on school staffers and community “celebrities” to perform dozens of historical figures, alive and dead, in a culmination of school-wide biography projects focused on the figures.
FlaglerLive | February 13, 2012
Local school boards would be responsible for enabling prayer measures. Should it become law, the bill would make Florida an outlier state with regard to school-prayer permissiveness and almost certainly trigger court action.
Pierre Tristam | February 11, 2012
Veterans complained to the Flagler County School Board that student portrayals of Lady Liberty they say at FPC “desecrated” her and the flag and should be removed. The veterans were wrong, and were themselves desecrating American values.
FlaglerLive | February 10, 2012
Bernie Axelrod never finished high school, but rose through the ranks of union print shops in new York City, founded a travel agency, and was a pioneer in donating technology to schools. He joined the Flagler Education Foundation in the 1990s.
FlaglerLive | February 8, 2012
Thanksgiving will still be a full week off, but Christmas break will entail two broken weeks at either ends, so students can come back on Jan. 2 and have more time to prepare for the new FCAT: end-of-course exams. Printable calendar included.
FlaglerLive | February 8, 2012
Indian Trails Middle School was one of 25 schools selected out of 1,500 in the first round of a national technology contest, and made the cut to the final 12. Now it has a chance at $100,000 in prizes, but you must vote to help make it happen.
FlaglerLive | February 8, 2012
The proposed increase–and higher ed decrease–comes as Gov. Scott has vowed to veto any budget that does not significantly increase education spending, even though lawmakers are trying to close a nearly $2 billion shortfall without raising taxes.
FlaglerLive | February 7, 2012
The new uniform policy makes broad allowances for color, types of clothing and shoes, but makes the wearing of IDs compulsory in all middle and high schools. The policy goes in effect next fall.
FlaglerLive | February 7, 2012
Supporters say the measure creates more parity between charter schools and other public schools. Opponents slammed the measure as corporate welfare that would provide tax dollars to the private operators of charter schools — despite the fact that supporters of charter legislation said years ago that they would not ask for capital outlay dollars.
FlaglerLive | February 6, 2012
Breaking with their counterparts at the state’s universities, presidents at a handful of Florida colleges urged lawmakers to be cautious about any moves that could push tuition upward again.
FlaglerLive | February 2, 2012
The school prayer bill’s approval overrides objections of senators who said the measure will lead to prayers at school events that students can’t get out of, including possibly in classes, and that some students will have to listen to prayers or risk being ostracized because they come from a different religious tradition.
FlaglerLive | February 2, 2012
The Florida House approved an 8 percent increase and each state university is allowed to add an additional 7 percent, as universities have for the past several years. Gov. Rick Scott is opposed to the tuition hike.
FlaglerLive | February 1, 2012
A measure that would grant in-state tuition to Florida high school students who are U.S. citizens but whose parents are in the country illegally was voted down Tuesday by a Senate committee.
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