Florida is implementing new requirements for kids who buy lunch at school. This tray belongs to a student who liked the pizza more than the healthy offerings.
“I hate them.”
“They’re disgusting.”
These sentiments are from elementary students around Tallahassee who aren’t fans of their school’s vegetables.
“I cannot think that they’re actually real.”
“Our vegetables don’t taste real and they look like green spaghetti.”
Fortunately, not all of their peers agree.
Today, kids at Ruediger Elementary School are getting broccoli and bananas on their plates. They have other options, too.
“I take the salad and I take the fruit,” 11-year-old Shaniya Storey said. “I eat most of the carrots off the salad.”
Hialeah High teacher Julia Holden has 66 students in one class.
Schools can pack as many students as they want into classes like Calculus, Writing, Spanish and Physical Education. There are no class size limits. But there is the issue of space.
In order to accommodate 66 students at once, the girls locker room at Hialeah High is being used as a classroom.
There aren’t enough desks or chairs for the students, so they stack up blue and green exercise steps to use as chairs. Other students either stand or sit on the ground. Listen to the story to hear from a principal who says schools don’t always have the resources to follow the law.
James G. Blaine, a former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representative. His proposed amendment to the U.S. Constitution failed, but Florida was one of more than 30 states which approved a similar ban on public funding of religious groups.
Alachua County school board member Eileen Roy has called a proposed constitutional amendment coming before voters in November “the very death of public schools.”
The state’s largest teacher’s union is running ads against the change and mobilizing teachers to get out and vote against it.
Amendment 8 – dubbed the Religious Freedom Amendment – is likely to be one of the most contested ballot questions this fall.
The big question: Will it take taxpayer dollars away from public schools — to fund private, religious schools?
The answer: No, not directly…at least not yet. But passing the amendment could lay the groundwork for a future voucher campaign.
But in Orlando schools, custodians are the highest in demand.
This summer, the Orange County school district asked principals which positions they needed help filling.
The top answer across the district? School Custodians.
Orange County schools require candidates to pass a physical fitness test before they can get hired. But about 30 percent of custodial applicants who take the test don’t pass it.
The shortage has forced hiring manager Carol Kindt to get creative.
She’s recruiting parents as they register their kids for class.
“We’re doing anything we can to get more people through the application process to the interview,”she said.
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.
Vanessa Richter, 17, works on her online summer course as her friends eat lunch at a food court.
Last year, Luis Gonzalez failed freshman English, Algebra and Physical Science. When he starts school later this month, he’ll still be considered a freshman.
His school has a different name for it.
“They call it a ‘fresh-more,’” he said. “By years I’m a sophomore. But I’m going to have freshman classes.”
Gonzalez thought he could make up the classes during summer school.
But summer school wasn’t an option for the Pasco County student.
Because of budget cuts, Florida’s largest school districts say they cannot offer summer school to everyone who needs it.
Only some students get to attend – and juniors and seniors are the priority in counties such as Pasco, Miami-Dade, Hillsborough, Orange and Duval.
“Now it’s going to be kind of embarrassing going to school because my homeroom is going to be with all freshmen,” Gonzalez said. “I’m not going to have any classes with friends, but I guess it’ll teach me a lesson.”
It may teach the 16-year-old to do better in school next year.
But having few summer school options also makes it harder for Gonzalez to catch up to his peers. The risk is that he keeps falling behind.
Juan Galvez is going into 4th grade. His parents are from Bolivia and Guatemala, and they only speak Spanish.
When it comes to homework, Juan is usually on his own.
“My mom helps me a little because she knows the math,” said Juan. “But with reading, I’m good. I do it by myself.”
Students learning English in Ft. Lauderdale, such as Galvez, are getting free help with reading this summer.
A six-week camp has been growing steadily since it was founded four years ago. Now, because of changes in Florida testing requirements, these kids are being challenged to learn reading and writing faster.
So we grabbed him for a few minutes to ask what Education Commissioner Gerard Robinson’s resignation might mean long-term.
Dorn says Robinson was put in a particularly difficult position and that Florida’s education chief is a more political post than in other states. And despite complaints — and errors — with the state’s school grading system, Dorn doesn’t think Robinson’s resignation will cause state leaders to rethink Florida’s accountability system.
Miami teacher Karla Mats teaches special education science at Hialeah Middle School. She says she was observed by her principal for 20 minutes out of the school year, and she says that isn't enough time to fairly rate her performance.
When Florida teachers were evaluated last year, the stakes for most of them were pretty low.
No more. Soon, teacher evaluations will be tied to teacher pay.
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