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Virtual school to expand services

May 1, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Parents can begin customizing their child’s educational plans from the very start after Gov. Rick Scott signed into law an expansion of virtual-school offerings that will allow children as young as kindergartners to take online classes and still attend a traditional school.

Leon County officials are not sure how the plan will work for Tallahassee elementary schools because of the many factors involved in scheduling, computer access, and adult supervision, but they will soon begin discussions on how best to accommodate the online options.

The new law also will require the Florida Virtual School to provide services for exceptional student education and also requires the school to provide the English for speakers of Other Languages program.

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Lighthouse Project: Our Future, Our Choices: Education a virtual certainty of change

April 29, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Brooke Gerber was a 10-year-old fifth-grader at Seacrest Country Day School when she predicted that schools would become a thing of the past.

“I am guessing there is not going to be a school, just these things at home — a virtual school room,” she said in 2012. “So all of the students in a grade will have different electronics. There will be one school and everyone will go to it from their houses.”

A virtual school district might have sounded far off in 2012, but as education officials tried to imagine what 2023 would be like, anything was possible.

Kamela Patton, interviewed by the Daily News in 2012 as Collier County School District superintendent, said Brooke’s vision for the future wouldn’t be that far off.

“We were building like crazy in 2002. Ten years later, to think we wouldn’t be building schools would be hard to imagine, but here we are,” she said in 2012. “I think virtual education will have a big hand in education in the future. Education will be beyond the four walls. Where traditionally, we would be within the four walls, if we are not outside the four walls, I think we will be behind.”

Patton foresaw a move to Common Core standards, where the nation assessed students in the same way, instead of 50 versions of assessments as there were in 2012.

“It is hard to compare Florida to everybody when Florida is the only state with a (Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test),” she said in 2012. “We as a country have to move forward together and not as 50 separate states.”

For the rest of the article, go to Lighthouse Project: Our Future, Our Choices: Education a virtual certainty of change

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School Board Approves Expanded Grade Level at Two Elementary Schools

April 24, 2012 By Leave a Comment

While teachers will offer the same curriculum as a traditional middle school, the expanded grade-level environment will encourage more of a focus on core subjects and alleviate one elective. Electives will be provided through a wheel format as is currently used in traditional middle schools, but will be limited to physical education, band or orchestra, and art. The capability of using virtual school electives will also be included in the program where students can enroll in advanced classes.

 

“This is not meant to be the equivalent of a traditional middle school environment,” explained McGonegal. “The sixth grade schedule will be based on a six period day, allowing more time in core classes.”

 

Board member Robert Gause said he was confident the experiment was worth trying and optimistic that it will turn out well.

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Two Manatee elementary schools may add sixth grades

April 18, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Despite the many advantages of adding on a sixth-grade, Pistella said the idea also has drawbacks.

For one, fewer elective courses can be offered with a smaller middle school student body. An effort will be made to ensure that band, for one, is offered to the sixth-graders because band is such a popular elective among high schoolers.

Stokes said one way officials plan to ensure a broad array of offerings is through virtual school.

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St. Johns County students do well at state science & engineering fair

April 15, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Several St. Johns County students earned awards at the 57th annual State Science and Engineering Fair of Florida from April 3-5 in Lakeland.

They will be recognized at the county School Board meeting May 15.

Seven students received awards in the Senior Division. Caroline Snowden of Ponte Vedra High School (PVHS) won first place in the Medicine and Health division for her project:  “The Association Between Cutaneous T-Cell Lymphoma and Psoriasis:  Examining a Common Biology of Hyperlymphoproliferative Disorders.”

She received $150 in cash awards and was nominated to receive a $10,000 scholarship per year from the Florida Institute of Technology.

Joseph W. Paul III of PVHS placed second in the same category with his project: “Depletion of pgrn-1 Induces Cleavage of Exogenous Human TAR DNA Binding Protein-43 in C Elegans.”

He will also represent St. Johns County at the International Science and Engineering Fair in Pittsburgh, Pa., from May 13-18.

Maya Goldman from PVHS placed third in the Environmental Sciences division.

Kurt Hennigar from St. Johns Virtual School was entered in the Computer Science division and received $250 from the Robert and Judy Kryger Family, a $100 Savings Bond and a Silver Medallion for Excellence from the United States Army.

Alexa Burch from PVHS received an honorable mention and $100 from the American Society of Civil Engineers, Florida Section.

David DiMare from Pedro Menendez High School received recognition and $250 from the American Society of Civil Engineers, Florida Section.

Lucinda Ford from PVHS received recognition in the Biochemistry division.

For the rest of the article, go to St. Johns County students do well at state science & engineering fair

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Everest boosts Florida Virtual School’s laptop loaner program

March 28, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Everest University Online, one of the nation’s leading online career colleges, has donated $14,000 to The Foundation for Florida Virtual School.

The donation is in support of the Laptop for Learners Program, which provides needy Virtual School students with a loaner laptop. Currently more than 35 students are being assisted through the program, according to a news release.

The 2011 Florida’s Digital Learning Act requires all public high school students to complete an online course before graduating. Florida Virtual School is a free public option.

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Fallacies about teachers

March 18, 2012 By Leave a Comment

According to a report in Florida Today, the Florida Legislature, supported by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), plans on portraying teachers as “overcompensated underachievers” in an apparent effort to continue dismantling Florida’s public school system, replacing it with corporate-run, for-profit, public charter/virtual schools.

Another report, co-sponsored by the Heritage Foundation and American Enterprise Institute, concludes teachers are overpaid, underworked, not as smart and receive better benefits at lower cost than nonpublic employees.

Malarkey! I’ll use personal career experience to debunk this travesty of intelligent reasoning.

First, a brief biography. I have an electrical-engineering degree and worked in private industry for 24 years. I have been a teacher for seven years, a union member since day one and a part of Marion Education Association’s leadership for six of those seven years.

For the rest of the article, go to Fallacies about teachers

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Legislature aiming to regulate FHSAA

March 3, 2012 By Leave a Comment

“This will turn eligibility and fair play and teaching kids the right way to win upside-down. We’re hoping that the Senate and Governor will look into the issues that are included in these bills, and common sense and what all of the practitioners in public and private schools who coach these kids, who help raise these kids, who help serve as examples for these kids about sportsmanship and integrity … the state (association members) is unified against both of these bills and we hope that the Senate and the Governor heed the wisdom of all those people that work with our young student-athletes day in and day out.”

SB 1704, sponsored by Sen. Stephen R. Wise (R), District 5. would have forced private school members of the FHSAA to join the fledgling Sunshine Independent Athletic Association, which has 30 members according to its web site. Some of those schools have been banned from FHSAA membership for major recruiting violations.

The wording of the bill has been changed to give public and private schools the option of joining either association but was amended to allow any private high school in Florida, including a virtual school, a home-education cooperative or a charter school, to become a member of the FHSAA or the SIAA and participate in the activities of that organization. However, a public high school, other than a charter school, may not join the SIAA.

The two bills are considered companion bills and the Senate is expected to address the issue Monday, the beginning of the final week of the legislative session.

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Mother of homeless student struggles to enroll him

February 25, 2012 By Leave a Comment

HUDSON, Fla. — Can you imagine what it’s like to get up and go to school when you don’t have a place to sleep, take a shower, or even eat a hot meal? Well, that’s the reality for thousands of students in the Tampa Bay Area.

Education means a lot to Kimberly Parsons, a mother of two. Her daughter, Hope, is only 4 years old, but Parsons has a 17-year-old son too. They all live together in a homeless shelter in Hudson right now.

Parsons says enrolling him in virtual school probably wouldn’t have happened without help from the woman who runs the shelter where they’re living. She says she’s the one who put her in contact with the program called Students in Transition, which is run through the Pasco County School District. They have a Homeless Liaison, too.

For the rest of the article, go to Mother of homeless student struggles to enroll him

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Parents raise concerns over four-day school week

February 11, 2012 By Leave a Comment

DADE CITY — Elizabeth Beagle came to Pasco Middle School on Thursday evening with one thought in mind: Her opposition to a four-day school week.

“I’m against it,” said Beagle, who has children in Zephyrhills High and Woodland Elementary schools. “I have a junior in AP classes. She does virtual school, she’s in athletics. Her day is long enough.”

A forum on the subject drew about 70 residents, most of whom shared their reservations with the idea of having children attend school for fewer, longer days. The concept is in play because School Board member Steve Luikart pressed for a task force to explore it as a way to cut expenses as the district’s revenue shrinks.

District finance officials have projected a loss of $22 million in state funding for 2012-13, not including $7 million of added costs to meet class size plus a fine of at least $1 million for failing to meet class size requirements this year.

“Please keep in mind it’s only one option,” Luikart told the audience as he opened the 90-minute forum.

Another possibility could be to cut 465 noninstructional positions and move on, he said. “That’s not acceptable. … We have to look at every dime and how we use it.”

One by one, speakers rose to offer their views.

Carlos Saenz of Land O’Lakes, whose child attends Oakstead Elementary, said the School Board would do better to explore privatization of nonessential, noninstructional services to effect real savings, rather than tinker around the edges with a four-day plan.

Debbie Smith, a grandmother and a Pasco High food services manager, questioned what would happen to the growing number of poor students who rely on schools for their daily meals if the schools closed an additional day each week. Kim Cicanese, whose daughter attends Pasco Middle, worried about leaving children at home unattended.

For the rest of the article, go to Parents raise concerns over four-day school week

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