Sarah Gonzalez was the Miami-based reporter for StateImpact Florida until March 2013. Previously, she worked at NPR in D.C. where she was a national desk reporter, web and show producer as an NPR Kroc Fellow. The San Diego native has worked as a reporter and producer for KPBS in San Diego and KALW in San Francisco, covering under-reported issues like youth violence, food insecurity and immigration. Her work has been awarded an SPJ Sigma Delta Chi and regional Edward R. Murrows. She graduated from Mills College in 2009 with a bachelor’s degree in sociology and journalism.
DeSoto County High School has been struggling to find foreign language teachers.
Our story aired nationally on NPR, and the school’s principal says she has since received  about 10 calls and emails from teachers around the country interested in a job at the rural school.
Principal Shannon Fusco says most are from out of the state.
Two of the candidates are from the West Coast…of California, not Florida.
Today, Fusco is interviewing a Florida teacher to take over one of the school’s Spanish classes.
Students at DeSoto County High School started the year without their permanent leadership, Spanish or French teachers. In the meantime, Ronnie Padilla -- typically a math tutor -- is filling in as the substitute. Only he doesn't speak any French or Spanish.
Schools have been open for a couple of weeks across much of Florida, but not all of the students know who their teachers are yet.
There’s typically a lot of teacher turnover during the summer break, and schools can’t always get vacant teaching positions filled by the time school starts.
At DeSoto County High School in Southern Florida, Ronnie Padilla, a math tutor, is filling in as the French teacher. There’s only one problem: He doesn’t speak any French. Across from his classroom, Alma Cendejas — the school’s front desk receptionist — is filling in as the Spanish teacher until the school can find one.
Principals across Florida say the summer break just isn’t enough time to fill every open teaching position. Some numbers bear that out.
In Broward County, 119 teachers weren’t hired by the first day of school.
In Hillsborough County, about 150 teaching slots were vacant.
Miami-Dade schools started about 100 teachers short.
Orange County schools started with 36 vacancies
In Duval County, 33 teachers weren’t hired on time.
School officials say that’s not unusual for large school districts with tens of thousands of teachers — Miami-Dade has 22,000.
Still, the vacancies mean thousands of students are starting the school year without permanent teachers. In a school year that is only 180-days long and filled with high-stakes tests, these students are getting a late start.
Students and immigrant rights activists wore graduation caps during a sit-in at Rep. Carlos Lopez Cantera's office in Tallahassee back in February 2012. They were asking the House Majority Leader to push forward a bill in the Florida legislature that would have granted college tuition equity. But the bill died in a committee.
Today marks a big win for U.S. born college students with undocumented parents.
A federal judge in Miami ruled Florida students will not have to pay out-of-state tuition rates at state Universities just because their parents aren’t citizens.
The decision overturns a state Department of Education policy to charge students higher, non-resident tuition rates when the citizenship of their parents can’t be determined.
It could be worth thousands of dollars a year to some students who have been paying double or triple the cost of the resident tuition rates.
The plaintiffs in this case were five U.S. citizens whose parents could not prove their own American citizenship.
Jerri Katzerman is a lawyer from the Southern Poverty Law Center, which filed and won the case in Miami federal court. Continue Reading →
A federal judge in Miami has ruled Florida colleges and universities cannot charge U.S. citizen students — who are Florida residents — higher, out-of-state tuition rates simply because they have undocumented parents.
U.S. District Judge K. Michael Moore said that violates the Constitution.
In Florida, tuition rates are determined by where the parent lives — not the student, unless they are over age 24 or they claim themselves as independent.
Under the policy, U.S. citizen students in Florida have been forced to pay the higher, out-of-state tuition rates if they cannot prove the legal residency of their undocumented parents.
We’ll bring you more updates here on StateImpact Florida.
From our investigation: Tres Whitlock types on the DynaVox tablet that serves as his voice. Whitlock, 17, has cerebral palsy and can’t speak on his own. He tried to enroll in a Hillsborough County charter school, but the school had concerns about the therapy and services he needs.
Our investigation revealed 86 percent of Florida charter schools don’t enroll any students with severe disabilities — like autism and cerebral palsy — compared to 50 percent of traditional public schools.
Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush at the Republican National Convention in Tampa.
Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush was all about education during his Thursday night speech at the Republican National Convention in Tampa.
He kicked off the speech by asking President Obama to stop “blaming your predecessor” for today’s problems.
“Now that I’ve gotten that off my chest, let’s talk a little bit about our kids and education,” said Bush — the younger brother of George W. Bush.
Jeb Bush promoted school choice, teacher tenure and his usual education reforms. His focus was on preparing students for the right jobs that help the U.S. economy.
“China and India produced eight times more engineering students each year than the United States,” Bush said. “This is a moral cost to our country, our failing schools need to be fixed.”
Setting high standards for teachers and students can change that, according to the man known as the “education Governor.” Continue Reading →
JP Taravela High Principal Shawn Cerra with the school's guidance director, Jody Gaver.
When JP Taravela High school went into the summer break, there were 16 teacher vacancies — three resigned or relocated, 13 retired.
Over the summer, five more teachers resigned, according to the school’s principal Shawn Cerra.
“I lost four out of the five to the virtual world,” he said.
The Broward County teachers left the school to become Florida Virtual School teachers.
“They showed the respect that we look for by letting me know they were going into the interview or when they filled out an application,” he said. “So I had an idea that some were interested in leaving, but I really didn’t know for sure until late July, early August.
“So I guess that’s when [FLVS] was doing their hiring — in the middle to late July.”
Cerra had just two weeks to find and hire five new teachers. Continue Reading →
About 148,000 students sucessfully completed 303,000 half-credit Florida Virtual School courses this past school year.
And PE — as in physical education — is a popular class, according to students.
So how do you take PE virtually?
There are two half-credit courses: Personal Fitness and Fitness Lifestyle and Design.
“They make you run, they make you do reps of crunches and you’re supposed to record it,” says student Vanessa Richter, a senior at Terra Environmental Research Institute in Miami.
Students are asked to record their heart rate before and after they exercise — its supposed to serve as proof that students did in fact complete the assignment.
A lot of Florida students got to stay home from school today because of Tropical Storm Isaac — even though it didn’t strongly affect many parts of the state.
In South Florida, rain and wind was pretty light, but districts made the decision on Saturday to cancel school today.
Should they have reopened schools once Isaac made its way north?
Parents and students took to social media saying some districts jumped the gun. But others appreciated the precaution.
Check out our Storify after the jump, and read why one school district made the decision to cancel classes early on.
You can see the full list of shelters and the school addresses after the jump.
Miami Superintendent Alberto Carvalho says schools will need to be inspected before students are allowed to return. Continue Reading →
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