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Lacoochee, Seven Oaks elementary schools get new leaders
06/19/13 BlogTwo Pasco County elementary schools will get new principals in the coming weeks.
Superintendent Kurt Browning decided to move Shirley Ray, who has led struggling Lacoochee Elementary School since 2010, to the top job at Seven Oaks Elementary, where she was an assistant principal for four years. Lacoochee is in the midst of a turnaround plan that includes restaffing, as it expects to earn a third straight D in the state grading system....
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Troubled Lacoochee Elementary gets a new principal
06/19/13K12After weeks of careful consideration, Pasco school superintendent Kurt Browning has decided to install a new principal at struggling Lacoochee Elementary School.
He picked a Lacoochee native who wasn't even aware she was qualified for the job.
Latoya Jordan, assistant principal at nearby Cox Elementary School for six years, will become Lacoochee's next leader. Jordan, 38, attended Lacoochee and once lived in the housing project next door to it. But she figured the post would go to an experienced principal with a record of turning around low-performing schools....

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Pasco School Board pauses over class rank rule change
06/19/13 BlogA proposal to change the way Pasco County high schools calculate class rank grade-point averages didn't win overwhelming support from School Board members during debate Tuesday.
Board vice chairwoman Alison Crumbley said she received several calls from parents who did not approve of the recommended new policy, which would count all high-school courses toward the class ranking. To this point, only courses taken during the six-period day are included....
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Pasco judge denies charter school's attempt to expand
06/19/13 BlogThe Athenian Academy of Pasco County's attempt to win a court order to allow it to add 100 students to its enrollment did not survive a judge's scrutiny.
Pasco Circuit Judge Stanley Mills issued a two-page ruling on Wednesday saying that the school's effort to expand its student body did not jibe with state law governing charter schools deemed "high performing." The law says high-performing charter schools may grow their enrollment, but not in the year after they receive a state grade of C or worse....
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Florida needs better science standards, State Board member says
06/19/13 BlogFlorida Board of Education vice chairman John Padget on Tuesday continued his criticisms of the state's science standards, which have received a mediocre review from the Fordham Institute.
"Florida has to raise its science standard," Padget declared during the board's meeting in Tampa....
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Florida education news: School grades, construction bonds, achievement gap and more
06/19/13 BlogMORE F's: Superintendents warn the Florida Board of Education that multiple changes to the state school grading formula threaten to create more F schools and hurt the credibility of the accountability system. • The Polk district prepares letters to explain the changes to parents, the Ledger reports. • More from the Miami Herald....
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Pasco School Board to sue Citigroup over fraud allegations
06/18/13K12LAND O'LAKES — Rushing to beat a June 30 deadline, the Pasco School Board on Tuesday decided to sue Citigroup over allegations of fraud in bond issuances from 2007 and 2008.
The district stands to recoup up to $10 million if the action is successful, superintendent Kurt Browning told the board in recommending the suit.
It does not face any out-of-pocket costs to pursue the case....
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State Board members call for quicker interventions at struggling schools
06/18/13 BlogFlorida Board of Education members called for tougher interventions for the state's most struggling schools as they approved turnaround plans for 58 of them, as well as updated accountability policies, on Tuesday....
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Embattled Hudson Middle School principal to keep her post
06/18/13K12HUDSON — Hudson Middle School principal Terry Holback has weathered a storm of staff criticism to retain her job for another year.
"I'm not planning on making a principal change at Hudson Middle," said superintendent Kurt Browning, who at one point had the position on his short list for added scrutiny. "We've had a coach working with Ms. Holback. I believe that she is changing."
Holback's name went to the School Board on Tuesday for reappointment....

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Florida State Board of Education to hear pleas for school grade lenience
06/18/13 BlogThe release of FCAT and end-of-course exam results in recent weeks drove home the point for many Florida superintendents that school and district grades are unlikely to be good this summer. Changes to the grading formula, combined with higher testing standards, threaten to push the grades down, they argued in a recent letter to State Board of Education chairman Gary Chartrand....
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Florida education news: Teachers, privatization, dual enrollment and more
06/18/13 BlogTEACHERS MATTER: Florida education commissioner Tony Bennett says having well trained and dedicated teachers plays a pivotal role in school and student success.
PRIVATIZATION: An Escambia charter school that earned two straight F grades decides to go private, the Pensacola News-Journal reports. • The financially struggling Pembroke Pines charter school system prepares to hire Charter Schools USA for management, the Sun-Sentinel reports....
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Class-size compliant districts to get budget boost
06/17/13 BlogForty-two Florida school districts will get a bump to their budget bottom lines later this month, when the state reallocates its class size funds for 2012-13.
The 25 districts that did not comply with Florida's 2002 voter mandate on class sizes will pay $5.6 million in fines, which will be redistributed to districts that met the mark. In the Tampa area, the Hillsborough district stands to receive $687.240; Pinellas, $359,176; Pasco, $235,535; and Hernando, $80,761....
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Florida teachers' lawsuit continues despite new evaluation law
06/17/13 Blog"Common sense prevails in Florida."
National Education Association president Dennis Van Roekel made that statement after Gov. Rick Scott on Friday signed into law a bill mandating that teacher evaluations be tied to the performance of the students they actually teach. Although that sounds like "common sense," as Van Roekel said, lawmakers were amending a two-year-old measure imposing a new evaluation model that didn't make such connections clear....
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Savings unclear in Pasco administration reorganization
06/17/13 BlogPasco superintendent Kurt Browning has taken several steps to reorganize the district administration, with a goal of improving services rendered to schools and students.
He's merged some departments, eliminated others, and reassigned staff members to where he says they will put their skills to best use.
But as School Board members head to their Tuesday meeting, where Browning has asked them to approve his administrative appointments and several new job descriptions, questions remain....
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Florida education news: Science fair, free lunch, school theater and more
06/17/13 BlogWINNER: Shorecrest Preparatory School senior Evie Sobczak takes first place in the national Intel Science and Engineering Fair.
SHORTFALL: The Baker school district faces a deficit because of declining funding associated with shrinking enrollment, the Florida Times-Union reports. • Flagler schools revise their spending plans after voters reject a tax increase, the Daytona Beach News-Journal reports. • Lee and Collier budgets continue to face cuts despite added state funding, the Naples Daily News reports....








