Today's news

FCAT WRITING RESULTS: Pinellas students showed slight gains. Hillsborough eighth-graders outperformed the rest of the state. Pasco scores remained below the state average in all categories. Hernando students make modest gains.

CAUGHT ON TAPE: If you ever wondered why school districts put cameras on buses, read on. Three Dixie Hollins High boys were arrested for sexually assaulting a girl on the school bus, their crime - and their faces - captured on video.

TEACHER MISCONDUCT NEWS: Eric A. Riggins, a Hernando High coach accused of inappropriate contact with female students, resigns. Audio tapes of a phone call released in court reveal that Stephanie Ragusa, one of the Hillsborough teachers accused of having sex with her students, told her victim that what they were doing was illegal.

NO MORE CRISIS: Ave Maria University outside Naples, the nation's first new Catholic university in decades, has seen a turnaround in its enrollment just more than a year after declaring an admissions emergency, the Naples Daily News reports. More here.

FORMER TEACHER GETS CALL FROM PLAYBOY: A St. Lucie educator who says she was fired for working as a bikini mate on a fishing charter (job requirement - looking "hot" in a bikini) now is considering whether to model topless for Playboy, the Stuart News reports.

RESIGNED TO A PAY CUT: Manatee's noninstructional school employees appear likely to accept a 1 percent pay cut as the district aims to save money, the Herald-Tribune reports.

PICKENS ON THE BUDGET: Term-limited House Schools and Learning Council chairman Joe Pickens tells the Palatka Daily News that the legislature's education spending cut of "only 1.84 percent was a testament to the Legislature’s commitment to public education." He also predicts that there won't be a special session for the remainder of 2008.

AROUND THE NATION: Denver schools have so much excess capacity that district leaders tell principals to fill the seats or they'll be sharing the space with other programs, the Rocky Mountain News reports. Top universities such as Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania are tapping more students from their waiting lists than usual, the NY Times reports.

Comments

[Selective Surveliance]

Funny how those bus cameras don't work when the bus driver makes a young elementary kid get off at the wrong stop and the kid gets killed trying to cross Dale Mabry

[Lutz-Fern Road also no tape]

just a statistic:

http://www.sptimes.com/2002/11/03/Northoftampa/Right_bus__wrong_stop.shtml