TECH HELP: Pinellas Oak Grove Middle School employs Netbooks to help students still learning English. (Times photo, Jim Damaske)

COOKOFF: About 100 Hillsborough students compete in the district's nutritious recipe contest, with the finalists getting their meals featured in their schools.

NEVER GIVE UP: Hillsborough superintendent MaryEllen Elia is undeterred by the School Board's rejection of her $3.7 million school security plan.

INFLUENCE: The accrediting agency for the University of Florida investigates whether Gov. Rick Scott got too involved in persuading president Bernie Machen to stay.

BE REASONABLE: Florida education commissioner Tony Bennett should stick with the state's existing FCAT concordant scores until new ones can be set, the Times editorializes.

PENALTIES: Florida lawmakers must decide whether to penalize Florida State College at Jacksonville for overstating enrollment, which got the school an extra $400,000 in state funding, the Florida Times-Union reports.

PENSION WARS: The Florida Supreme Court's pension ruling sets up political battles over how to deal with state employee retirement benefits, the Herald-Tribune reports.

LABOR NEWS: St. Lucie district and teacher representatives near contract agreement after 10 hours of mediation, the St. Lucie Tribune reports.

MISSTEP: A Brevard county official questions whether the school district might have violated agreements in making plans to close some schools, Florida Today reports.

PORN SHOW: Volusia officials are looking into how a high school presentation on the Salem witch trials wound up including pornographic movie footage, the Daytona Beach News-Journal reports.

ATTRACTORS: Magnet schools continue to offer options for students and families that want public school choice, Redefined reports. 

UNFOUNDED: A lawyer helping FAMU respond to the state's hazing investigation calls the initial report "incompetent," the Orlando Sentinel reports.