Hillsborough teachers react to the Gates grant

The $100 million, seven-year grant that Hillsborough schools received from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation on Thursday has the potential to significantly alter the teaching landscape, both in Hillsborough County and nationally.

Its focus on reforming pay structures, evaluation procedures and other matters related to teaching promises to bring change to a culture where change is not always welcomed. And if the teachers don't buy in, it's possible that the best of intentions here could run aground.

That in mind, we interviewed some educators to gauge their views of the new direction. We found a range of reactions to the plans, from wariness to full-fledged support. Read on for a sampling.

Hillsborough wins $100 million Gates grant

It's official: the Hillsborough County School District has won a $100 million teacher effectiveness grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The news, announced in a midday press release Thursday, caps a 9-month application effort by the district, and puts it squarely on the cutting edge of national education reform. (See a summary of the plan on the foundation Web site).

For more details, see Tom Marshall's full report and check back later for more details.

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Gates announcement comes tomorrow for Hillsborough

TAMPA -- It all comes down to a phone call.

At 1:45 pm. Thursday, officials from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation have scheduled a news conference to announce which school districts will spearhead a national education reform effort.

Yesterday the Hillsborough County School Board approved a $100 million grant agreement to revamp its system for recruiting, training and retaining effective teachers. All the district needs to move forward is a green light from Seattle.

Scheduled to speak during the media conference call are co-founder Melinda Gates; Vicki Phillips, director of the foundation's education program; and two deputy directors, John Deasy and Thomas Kane.

Visit the Gradebook and tampabay.com tomorrow for up-to-the-minute news on Hillsborough's grant application.

Tom Marshall, Times Staff Writer

tmarshall@sptimes.com
http://twitter.com/tomsptimes

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Hillsborough is not alone in school calendar conflicts

Across Florida, school districts are hard at work crafting their academic calendars for 2010-11.

And across Florida, nonacademic pressures are again at play.

In Lee County, for instance, the district's calendar committee is sparring over whether to give students a day off for Rosh Hashana, the Fort Myers News-Press reports. A board member has expressed displeasure with closing school on a Thursday, while a community member argues that the district has recognized the holiday for seven years, so why stop now?

Up in Bay County, it's economics causing a rift. Businesses are complaining that they'll lose out if the district begins classes in early August instead of later in the month, the Panama City News Herald reports.

And here we thought that Hillsborough's nearly annual ritual battle over Good Friday was singular.

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Hillsborough to vote today on $100 million Gates grant

TAMPA -- The Hillsborough County School Board is expected to vote this afternoon on a final agreement to accept a $100 million teacher effectiveness grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Follow the link to read more.

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Fire hits Hillsborough elementary school

About one third of McDonald Elementary School in Seffner suffered heavy smoke damage from a fire this morning and another third has moderate smoke damage, the St. Petersburg Times is reporting.

A district press release says "plans are being made to relocate primary grade students to the cafeteria and media center next week." It also says Principal Dave McMeen is "sending a phone message to staff, arranging for several teachers to come in on Sunday to get their relocated classrooms ready for when students arrive Monday morning."

Yellow Brick Road: Pinellas falls in the middle on classroom spending

Pinellas might spend more than most of the other big districts on general administration. But its own analysis shows that when it comes to in-the-classroom spending, its numbers fall in the mid-range.

Among the 12 biggest districts in 2008-09, Pinellas ranked at either No. 5 or No. 6 on “direct instruction,” according to its latest “Yellow Brick Road” report, which was posted yesterday. The numbers are taken from other districts’ annual financial reports, so it’s based on what other districts say about themselves.

Pinellas spent 62.78 percent of its general and special revenue funds on direct instruction last year, the report says. That’s not as good as No. 1 Polk at 64.41 percent, but it’s better than No. 12 Orange at 59.65 percent.

Hillsborough (No. 9) spent 61.83 percent. Pasco (No. 10) spent 61.35 percent.

Missed the school bus?

If your kids are outside waiting for a school bus that seems really late today, they'll be waiting for quite some time.

Hernando, Hillsborough and Pasco schools are closed today in honor of Veterans Day. So tell the kids to come out from the rain and have a little R&R.

Sorry, Pinellas. You're still on. Enjoy learning.

(Times file photo)

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A weekend interview about teacher quality and a possible Gates Foundation grant with Hillsborough schools superintendent MaryEllen Elia

There's talk around the nation about the need to change the way teachers are trained, evaluated and paid. Even President Obama has called for reforms in this area. The Hillsborough school district hopes to get on board with the help of a major Gates Foundation grant, for which it's one of 10 finalists. Superintendent MaryEllen Elia spoke with reporter Jeff Solochek about her goals with the grant and teacher reform.

Tell me first about grant one you're looking into and what it would do for the school district.

We received a call in February from the Gates Foundation asking if we would be interested in examining whether a partnership would be a good thing between the Gates Foundation and Hillsborough County. They had done a thing screening 16,000 districts in the country. And they came up with 20 districts that they wanted to look at and get more information on and see if they were interested in working on this project.

What did they tell you was the reason why Hillsborough would be one of those?

Apparently they have a number of things that they looked at. And it was all done by Gates or contracted services to Gates, because we didn't know much about it. I know that it had to do with the kind of work that you had previously done and your commitment to working on issues related to teaching and good teaching. But I really don't know. We weren't part of exactly what the screens were. ... When they called, they asked if we were interested, and I said, "Yes, we are." And they came in with a team of people and they met with people throughout the county and the community to get a real feel of this community and our teachers and the teachers union and the administration. Kind of how we run.

What did they ask?

They talked to us about the relationship we had with the Classroom Teachers Association. They also talked to them. They wanted to see how we function as an organization. They looked particularly at my staff, to see what kind of leadership we have both at the district and school level. They also interviewed the School Board, talked about the commitment the board had moving forward with student achievement by addressing issues that would affect good teachers. They talked to the business community. They met with the foundation. So it was a pretty good screening of Hillsborough County. And then, after that, about a month or two later we got a call saying, "You have made it to the Top 10. Are you interested in moving forward?"

And of course you said no, right?

Behind the Gates money, a new ed reform strategy

TAMPA -- As we reported today and last August in the St. Petersburg Times, the Hillsborough County schools may be holding a $100 million lottery ticket from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

If it won, the district would use the money to revamp its teacher evaluation system; add a corps of 200 peer evaluators to help rate colleagues; bolster its teacher induction and mentoring system; and create a cutting-edge pay system that would allow high performing teachers to jump ahead on the salary scale.

So who are these Gates people, and what are they up to?

Are Green Dot charter schools coming to Florida?

We're not sure. But company officials are meeting with Florida Education Commissioner Eric J. Smith in Orlando this week, and about 20 superintendents have been invited, including Julie Janssen in Pinellas and MaryEllen Elia in Hillsborough.

Green Dot has a reputation for turning around troubled schools in Los Angeles -- and for being friendly with teachers unions. An e-mail from Smith to superintendents said, "Through Race to the Top, there is potential to implement their turnaround model in some of Florida's lowest-performing public schools."

Representatives from the Florida Education Association will also be at the meeting.

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Victim in basketball sex case sues Hillsborough

TAMPA -- In 2007, Wharton High School basketball coach Jaymee Wallace was sentenced to three years in prison for having sex with one of her 15-year-old students.

Now her victim is suing the Hillsborough County school district for alleged negligence, first by hiring Wallace and then by failing to inform her parents of their sexual relationship. The suit, filed Monday in the county circuit court, seeks unspecified damages in excess of $15,000.

She says the school district "should have known that Jaymee Wallace was dangerous and liable to do harm to the students." Her suit alleges that the district failed to conduct a sufficient investigation before hiring the coach, and did not immediately inform her parents when it learned of the problem.

Hillsborough to begin swine flu vaccinations Tuesday

TAMPA -- Vaccinations against the H1N1 virus will be starting Tuesday morning at a few Hillsborough County schools, officials said Friday.

The first swine flu inoculations will be given to students with chronic health conditions and others who fall into high risk groups.

Other school districts in the Tampa Bay region are several weeks behind Hillsborough, with the first inoculations not due to begin until the end of the month or later.

"The first vaccinations will be administered at Caminiti and Lavoy exceptional student education (ESE) centers beginning at approximately 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, Oct. 20, followed by Dover (Willis Peters) and Eisenhower ESE centers," said Hillsborough spokeswoman Linda Cobbe in a statement. "Lopez ESE Center and D.W. Waters and Simmons career center students will receive vaccines on Wednesday, Oct. 21, and, if necessary Thursday, Oct. 22."

By the following week, middle and high school students will be able to get a shot or nasal mist inoculation during school hours, while elementary students can get vaccinated after school with a parent at neighborhood high schools. All students must have a signed permission slip to get vaccinated, officials said.

A complete schedule of inoculation sites and times will be posted on the district's Web site, along with permission slips and information sheets.

For more information and updates, return to the Gradebook at tampabay.com.

-- Tom Marshall, Times Staff Writer

It's 8 a.m. Do you know where your children are?

If they go to school in Pinellas, Pasco or Hernando, we sure hope they're not sitting at a bus stop or outside a locked school door.

Don't forget, parents. Pinellas, Pasco and Hernando schools are not having classes today. It's the end of the grading period, and teachers are doing report cards. If you dropped your kids off for a regular school day, GO GET THEM!

As for all you Hillsborough folks, carry on. School is in session, as usual.

(Photo from sciencejunkies.com)

Are you smarter than a first-grader?

In years of writing about education, I've always heard that most children learn to read through second grade, and then read to learn beginning in third grade. So this first-grade math problem, which appears as part of Hillsborough County's tailored curriculum designed by Metropolitan Teaching and Learning, confused me (and more than a few first-graders I know).

Perhaps the gifted among us quickly came up with "You can't tell from the information provided." But most adults I've posed this first-grade math problem to answered "six." Which would be the right answer if the school asked "How many marbles did Tom give to Luis?"

Which leaves me with some questions that perhaps you could weigh in on:

• Is this supposed to be a trick math question aimed at teaching first-graders who are learning to read, to read more carefully? (Would that be fair, anyway?)
• Or, is this just a poorly done math problem that made it through all the editors and into the hands of confused first-graders and parents? (If so, should Hillsborough taxpayers demand their money back?)
• And, if a rooster lays an egg on the peak of a roof, will it roll to the right or the left?

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Hillsborough gears up for swine flu vaccinations

TAMPA -- Parents, it's time to check students' book bags for some crumpled but important forms.

Permission slips for in-school inoculations against swine flu are going home this week, with vaccinations due to start Monday at some special-needs sites in the Hillsborough County school system. That campaign is due to be broadened to all students during the week of Oct. 26, with middle and high school students getting shots during school hours and elementary students being vaccinated after school in their parents' presence. No students will be vaccinated without their parents' permission, officials said.

The district has also posted the forms on a special page of its Web site, along with information sheets on the H1N1 vaccines from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And automated phone calls will be going out starting today.

And the biggest school district is ...

The annual rankings of the nation's largest school districts by population are out, and once again Florida stands near the top of the heap.

Four Florida districts — Miami (4), Broward (6), Hillsborough (8) and Orange (10) — make the Top 10. Fourteen are in the Top 100, second only to Texas, which has 18 on the list. The other Florida districts are: Palm Beach (12), Duval (21), Pinellas (23), Polk (31), Lee (39), Brevard (43), Pasco (54), Seminole (56), Volusia (57) and Osceola (79).

Whether this is a good or bad thing remains a question.

Countywide school districts like we have in Florida can theoretically save money by avoiding duplication of administrative resources and pooling purchasing power, while also spreading resources more evenly among poor and rich communities.

But they also can create widespread bureaucracies that aren't always in touch with local needs.

Each year some Florida lawmaker, usually from Miami, proposes that Florida allow voters to break up these giant districts. It never passes. Should it?

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Hillsborough joins another Gates study to videotape teachers

TAMPA -- The Hillsborough County school district is already on the brink of winning a $100 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to develop a cutting-edge merit pay and teacher evaluation program.

Now the district has been chosen to join a second study that uses video in the classroom to measure teacher effectiveness.

The Measures of Effective Teaching project will ask 3,700 teachers in Hillsborough and five other urban districts to volunteer for a two-year study that looks closely at the attributes of good teaching, said senior program officer Steve Cantrell.

Teachers will be videotaped in their classrooms eight times over the next two years. And those tapes will be rated against four commonly used teacher evaluation rubrics, he said.

Hillsborough panel: add an exam exemption, ease weights

TAMPA -- A Hillsborough County School Board subcommittee is recommending a way for seniors to earn one exam exemption this fall.

But semester exams will still happen during the week of January 12, rather than before the holidays, and good attendance won't get you out of them. The proposal is up for discussion and a possible vote at this Tuesday's board meeting.

Under the plan, the district would reinstate an exemption that allows seniors to skip one exam in any class from the first semester if they earn at least a 3 on the science portion of last year's Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test. To qualify, they must maintain at least a C average in the class for both of the nine-week grading periods, with no final period grade below a C; receive approval from the district's student affairs office; have no debts to their school; and meet the 10th grade FCAT graduation requirement.

Students and families have complained about both the post-holiday exam schedule -- which was forced by a state law barring districts from starting school more than two weeks before Labor Day -- and the suspension of attendance-based exam exemptions due to the swine flu outbreak.

Men to march in high heels for rape victims at USF

TAMPA -- Here's something that, thank goodness, you don't see every day: men in high heels.

For the second year, men will take part in a "Walk a Mile in Her Shoes" march at the University of South Florida from noon to 2 p.m. Oct. 8. The march will begin at at the Marshall Student Center, and marchers will walk around campus in silence, stopping at several locations to hear statistics about rape, sexual assault and gender violence.

While "the sight of hairy legs in pumps" might cause some people to smile at first, the cause is serious, according to Eileen Dabrowski, president of USF NITE (Necessary Improvements to Transform our Environment), the group organizing the event. It is to make people think about what they can do to help end violence against women.

 Richard Danielson, Times staff writer

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Shorecrest suspends students after party bus incident

In the wake of the party bus incident, the private Shorecrest Preparatory School in St. Petersburg has suspended some students, according to this letter to parents that went out today from headmaster Mike Murphy.

He wrote: Violators have been suspended, have lost privileges, have lost the right to play in their athletic contests this week and will participate in an educational program designed for them.

We don't know how many students were suspended, or for how long. The Gradebook asked and got this e-mailed response from Murphy: "If you ever want to discuss the positive contributions of the students and teachers at Shorecrest give me a call. I have moved on to more productive topics."

The St. Petersburg Times reported today that Durant High in Plant City suspended four students for 10 days for being involved in a separate party bus incident Saturday night.

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Hillsborough has 14 top black students; Pinellas, Pasco each have one

Fourteen Hillsborough County students have been named National Achievement semifinalists, an academic honor that places them among the top black students in the country.

Pinellas and Pasco counties each had one student to earn that designation. Hernando had none.

See the complete Florida list here.

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Drunk students on party buses make a lot of headlines

The high school kids at Shorecrest Prep in St. Petersburg and Durant High in Plant City are hardly the first to hop on a party bus and stumble into both trouble and a newspaper story. This morning’s St. Petersburg Times piece is just the latest in a string of them from around the country.

Here’s one from New Jersey … and Texas … and Connecticut …

In case you missed the Times story, here's the money quote:

Michael Holcombe told the St. Petersburg Times Monday that his daughter, who is a senior, got sick at the Durant dance, though he declined to say if she was the student taken to the hospital.

Still, he said that contrary to rumors at school, "she's not in a coma yet. But she might be when I'm done kicking her a--."

Homeless in school: The numbers keep rising

We told you this weekend about the rising number of homeless students in Pasco County schools. Unfortunately, it's not a problem that's limited to Pasco County.

A fresh report from the Florida Department of Education shows that the number of homeless students across the state rose 20 percent in 2008-09 from the previous year, from 34,376 to 41,286. In the Tampa area, the numbers broke out like this:

Hernando: 156 in '07-'08; 207 in '08-'09
Hillsborough: 2,073 in '07-'08; 2,054 in '08-'09
Pasco: 1,599 in '07-'08; 1,815 in '08-'09
Pinellas: 962 in '07-'08; 1,870 in '08-'09

And they're not all the people you'd expect to see seeking shelter and food stamps.

Pinellas vs. Hillsborough on Advanced Placement approach

It's not exactly trash talk before the big game, but Pinellas is taking a bit of a dig at Hillsborough for its aggressive approach to increasing the number of Advanced Placement students. In this recent note to Pinellas County School Board members, deputy superintendent Catherine Fleeger notes that Pinellas boosted both its AP participation and passage rates last year, with the latter climbing from 45 to 47 percent.

"In Hillsborough," she continues, "the average passing rate is now only 38%."

Ouch! Okay, maybe we're making a mountain out of a molehill here, but there is debate to be had over whose approach to AP is best.

Hillsborough's 20-day enrollment beating projection

TAMPA -- Hillsborough schools may grow this year after all, despite a projection that the district would see a third straight year of enrollment losses.

The district counted 190,366 students Tuesday, up 438 students compared to the same day last year. If those numbers hold, they'll wipe out the projected official October count of 188,228, which would have marked a decline from 189,588 students in the fall of 2008.

It's all about the money, since every student brings in around $5,000 in additional state funding.

Slumping enrollment has also prompted the district to call a halt to most school construction over the next five years.

Florida voucher leader joins public school foundation

John Kirtley, arguably Florida's leading voucher supporter (probably a tie between him and Jeb Bush), is now a member of the board of directors of the Hillsborough Education Foundation, which raises money for public schools.

Kirtley's new gig further blurs the political lines in the voucher wars. Democratic lawmakers in Florida continue to migrate to the pro-voucher position. And just last month, Step Up for Students - the voucher group Kirtley chairs - announced a partnership with the Hillsborough teachers union to help train private school teachers.

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Hillsborough leads Florida in National Merit semifinalists

The National Merit Scholarship program announced today its 2010 semifinalists, and in Florida the Hillsborough County school district had the most recipients at 53. That's nearly twice as many as the state's largest district, Miami-Dade, which had 27.

Pinellas public schools also had 27 semifinalists, while Pasco schools had four.

The approximately 16,000 semifinalists across the country now vie for about 8,200 college scholarships worth more than $36 million. The awards will be announced in the spring.

“We’re proud of our high schools,” Hillsborough superintendent MaryEllen Elia said in a release. "These students are the brightest of the bright. The fact that we have more than any other district in the state says a lot about the quality of our teachers and how our students are excelling at the highest levels."

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Hillsborough, Pasco gain high-performing status

Today the Florida Board of Education granted academically high-performing status to 21 of the state's 67 school districts. Pasco and Hillsborough made the list for the first time.

Districts can receive the recognition by earning an A from the state for two consecutive years, and having no schools with an F grade. They also must meet class-size reduction requirements and have no material weaknesses in their most recent financial audits.

The benefit comes in the ability to waive certain state mandates, not the least of which is the requirement to start school no sooner than two weeks before Labor Day. Pasco district officials say they plan to take full advantage of all the possibilities. Stay tuned.

Swine flu masks in class? Not a chance, officials say.

TAMPA -- The headlines certainly sounded scary. Students with swine flu will be wearing surgical masks! In school!

But Hillsborough County school officials said all the media excitement over Monday's arrival of 20,000 surgical masks was short on facts and long on hype.

For the record, district spokeswoman Linda Cobbe said, students with flu symptoms won't be walking around school or attending class wearing masks.

A weekend interview with Nicholas Whitman, executive director of the Hillsborough Classroom Teachers Association

With the recent retirement of Yvonne Lyons, the Hillsborough Classroom Teachers Association needed new leadership for the first time in many years. Rather than turning to an insider, the association turned to a young gun from up north. Nicholas Whitman, most recently the head of the Racine (Wis.) teachers union, took over the HCTA executive director job last month. He spoke with Jeff Solochek about teacher unions, contracts and his expectations for the coming year.

How did you wind up here?

I spent about the last 20 years, to be honest with you, working in various capacities with organized labor. About eight years ago, my girlfriend -- who's now my wife -- started coming to the Florida area to vacation. We had a time share on Madeira Beach and we would come down a couple of weeks a year. And certainly loved the area and loved the state of Florida, for the weather and all that good stuff. Then I just happened to start looking, exploring what options were out there for new challenges after being in the Racine area for a while. I saw that there was a position open here in Hillsborough County. Then just keeping that in the back of my mind I started doing an electronic newspaper clipping search. And there was a lot of stuff that kept coming back about positive collaborative working relationship, early reports about interest in the Gates Foundation grant. ... My former managers in New York knew Jean Clements, who was and is the president here. So all those streams came together to convince me to apply for it.

This is a pretty big district. And I know Racine is not exactly huge. Does the job you do change because you've got so many more people you're dealing with?

It's dependent on whether you look at the positions of responsibility. I was the executive director for the entire state organization in New York, the National Education Association's New York affiliate had about 45,000 members. So comparatively speaking, I had staff I was responsible for overseeing in 10 offices. ... In terms of the scope of things, this job isn't any larger of a responsibility than that one was. Similarly after the NEA and AFT merged in New York, I became the exec director for the entire state of North Dakota Education Association. And so again, being responsible for staff and members across a state. ... This isn't the largest job I've been responsible for.

When you work up north, teachers can do things like strike. Here they can't. So I imagine the things you're able to do in negotiating changes a bit.

Buccaneers coach to push character education

First Obama. Now Raheem Morris. The Bucs coach plans to host a series of video podcasts to middle and high school students in Pinellas and Hillsborough counties that addresses "education, leadership, determination and character." Surely, there's something controversial here.

Gov. Charlie Crist delivers check to Frost Elementary

Gov. Charlie Crist will drop by Hillsborough's Frost Elementary at 1:15 p.m. today to deliver $56,222 to the school. Frost earned the recognition funds by increasing its state grade from a C to a B, based on spring 2009  FCAT results.

School district spokesman Stephen Hegarty said he expects Crist will have a few words to say to students, most likely congratulatory in nature for a job well done. The district won't be asking parental permission for children to spend time with the governor.

Frost is one of 2,103 schools that will be getting school recognition funds this year.

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Hillsborough details its plan to turn around Middleton High

TAMPA -- The state wanted a shakeup at Middleton High last spring, and the Hillsborough County schools delivered.

That's the bottom line in a report approved last week by the School Board and headed to next week's state Board of Education meeting.

While Middleton posted gains last spring on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, it remained on a state watch list after earning its sixth straight D grade in the state accountability system. That left the district with just a handful of options to block a state takeover or conversion to a charter school.

Gov. Crist is coming. Want to opt out of that, too?

Amid all this furor over President Obama's planned speech to the nation's students, Florida Gov. Charlie Crist has put in a request to visit a Hillsborough County school next week.

The governor, of course, is a Republican who is running for Florida's open U.S. Senate seat. He's been vilified by the conservative wing of his party, as well as the Democratic party leaders who hope to reclaim both the Governor's Mansion and the spot in D.C.

Will there be an outcry against his appearance, too? (Not as if people have screamed about his recent visits to schools in St. Petersburg or Orlando, to name a few.)

So far, the Gradebook has learned, the Hillsborough district plans to welcome the governor, as it usually does. And it won't be asking parents to send in forms asking whether they want their children to hear what he has to say.

(Photo of Gov. Crist meeting with students at John Hopkins Middle in Pinellas in April)

Former Hillsborough bookkeeper took nearly $600,000, district alleges

The Hillsborough school district has filed civil suit against Dianne Parker, a former bookkeeper for the Erwin Technical Center, seeking repayment of $582,659 in school funds the district claims she diverted to her own personal use.

Using a new auditing software, district auditors discovered that Parker had been holding checks and money orders without receipt, and making deposits for amounts less than the school had taken in, according to a district press release.

The missing funds came to light in June, when the auditors discovered irregularities as they worked to reconcile the non-sufficient funds account. The investigation is ongoing.

Parker, 55, is a 29-year district employee, never working anywhere in the district but the Erwin center.

Share your thoughts with Arne Duncan

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan is holding a televised national town hall meeting at 8 p.m. Sept. 15, and he wants to hear from you as he prepares the show.

You can call toll-free to 1-888-493-9382 during the show, submit questions via e-mail to Education.TV@ed.gov by Sept. 9, or send videotaped comments by Sept. 2. (For more details, read this flyer.)

What's also cool about this event is that the USDOE is going out of its way to seek input from Hillsborough residents. It has set up a daylong session to videotape the views of local students, parents and teachers at Egypt Lake Elementary School next week.

The show will be broadcast online and on the Florida Education Channel. Hillsborough's cable education channel also has agreed to air the show live. We'll have to watch and see if anyone from the area makes the cut.

USF to offer job search help to unemployed alumni

TAMPA -- Starting in late September, the University of South Florida will begin offering free job search help to unemployed alumni.

The new Alumni CareerQuest program involves USF's Career Center and Alumni Association. Jobless alums who have earned a degree from USF can get help with effective job search strategies, resources and coaching.

Alumni CareerQuest is not meant to be a job placement program, administrators say. But it will provide alumni with access to a variety of resources, professional career coaches, workshops, webinars, job search preparation software and opportunties to network and talk to recruiters looking to hire candidates from USF.

Tampa Bay parents share their back-to-school photos

We love all the back-to-school pictures we've gotten in the last few days -- cute, nervous, excited kids. Take a look at all the photos, then vote for your favorites.

There is still time to share yours. Here's how it works:

• E-mail your pictures to submit@tampabay.com with your name and photo details in the body of the message.
• Post your photos on tampabay.com's Facebook wall and we'll upload them to our photo gallery.
• Join tampabay.com's Community Photo Gallery for free and upload your own photos.

How Tampa Bay schools and districts fared on ACT, SAT

We told you in recent days how Florida fared on the latest ACT and SAT results, but you can see on the state Department of Education Web site how individual districts fared on those tests here and here, and how individual high schools fared here and here. Here’s the quick district roundup for Tampa Bay:

On the ACT
Pinellas: 19.8 average composite score, with 46.6 percent participation
Hillsborough: 19.4 … 53.4 percent participation
Pasco: 20.0 … 49.9 percent
Hernando: 19.9 … 65.9 percent

On the SAT
Pinellas: Average scores of 506 in reading, 513 in math, 484 in writing, with 46.2 percent participation
Hillsborough: 493, 501, 477 … 53.7 percent participation
Pasco: 499, 499, 479 … 39.3 percent
Hernando: 504, 491, 481 … 32.4 percent

Ron Matus, State Education Reporter

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No surprise: Hillsborough enrollment on track to decline

TAMPA — Student numbers are on track to decline slightly compared to last year in Hillsborough County, officials said Tuesday.

District officials reported a first-day enrollment of 178,781, up 5,622 students compared to last year’s first day of school.

But that increase might not be very meaningful, since a storm and bus problems likely kept some students home a year ago, said spokesman Stephen Hegarty. Even with an expected increase of 10,000 students, the district’s official October enrollment would be down for a third straight year.

The district is still projecting that enrollment for the year will fall by 1,360 students to 188,228, Hegarty said. Barring surprise increases, it will be at least four years before Hillsborough builds another school.

Officials reported a quiet morning in the district, aside from traffic delays at the new Strawberry Crest High School in Dover.

A few school buses were also delayed in Lutz due to traffic from the nearby funeral of Tampa Police Cpl. Mike Roberts, who died Wednesday night in a shooting incident.

For more details and updates from the first day of school in Hillsborough, visit tampabay.com or read tomorrow’s St. Petersburg Times.

-- Tom Marshall, Times Staff Writer

Did your kids experience any problems at their bus stop?

Parents, we'd like to hear from you: How did everything go for your kids at the bus stop this morning?

Were buses on time? Were you able to identify your child's bus easily? Was the bus stop at a safe location?

We're looking to hear about the trouble spots. Tell us about your morning here in the comments section or contact reporter Ron Matus: matus@sptimes.com

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Hillsborough school wins governor's fitness challenge

Our physically fit Florida governor last year challenged the state's youth to join him in his pursuit of physical fitness. Eight elementary schools and eight middle schools that had at least half their students participate in the two-month challenge would win a prize.

Hillsborough's Dowdell Middle has claimed one of the awards. The school received $2,500 this week to put toward new sports or P.E. equipment.

Now, Gov. Crist has once again issued his challenge for 2009-10. (Middle schools, of course, will be closer to the goal simply because Crist pushed through a new P.E. requirement for them that begins this year.)

"As we begin another school year, it is important to remember the connection between a healthy lifestyle and student achievement," Crist said in a release. "By emphasizing the importance of physical fitness, we can teach students how to make smart choices about exercise and nutrition that will improve their health throughout their lives."

(Times file photo)

Police report on toe-popping incident draws scrutiny

TAMPA – Did police find any indicators of abuse during their investigation of the King High School assistant principal who squeezed students’ toes for earning poor grades?

The subject came up at last Tuesday’s televised meeting of the Hillsborough County School Board, after several citizens objected to the district’s handling of the case.

As readers have pointed out in numerous blog posts, calls, and letters, the conversation that followed has called into question a central element of the St. Petersburg Times' coverage of that investigation.

School Board attorney Tom Gonzalez told the audience and board members that investigators had found “no indicators of abuse” in the case.

In the interest of clarity, here is a brief review of what the Times reported, along with a few key documents:

DOE clarifies shift in diploma policy, but not completely

The Florida Department of Education issued a new memo this week to “clarify” its abrupt call to districts to stop granting standard diplomas for students following the “GED exit option.” But the clarification still leaves a key question muddled: Will several thousand students currently in the program be grandfathered in?

District officials in Hillsborough and some parents believe from their interpretation of the memo that they will be. But it’s hard to tell if they’re right.

DOE officials say the department doesn’t have the authority to grandfather those kids. But they don’t seem to be in a hurry to stop districts that plan on doing just that.

“If that’s their interpretation of the memo, that’s their interpretation,” DOE spokesman Tom Butler told The Gradebook. But will standard diplomas granted to grandfathered students be valid? “That’s probably a question for a lawyer. At this point, we’re just trying to move forward.”

Hillsborough teachers ratify contract agreement

TAMPA -- Unionized teachers in Hillsborough County have overwhelmingly ratified a tentative contract agreement with the School Board, officials said today.

Some 82 percent of Hillsborough Classroom Teachers' Association members who voted on the contract supported it, while 18 percent opposed it, said executive director Nick Whitman. It was not immediately clear how many members took part in the vote.

Under the agreement, which must still be approved by the School Board, teachers would get no step increases on their negotiated salary scale this fall.

But they won't have to take unpaid leave to help balance the district's budget, either. The two sides agreed to revisit the district's proposal for furloughs in January, barring unforeseen emergencies.

After further review, one less D for Pinellas high schools

The school grade for Northeast High School in St. Petersburg has been moved up from a D to a C, after a review of its appeal by the state Department of Education. That leaves eight Pinellas high schools with a D and one with an F.

Statewide, 18 schools appealed their grades or "adequate yearly progress" status, and DOE accepted eight of them.

In Pinellas, DOE denied an appeal by San Jose Elementary, which earned an A grade but did not meet AYP.

In Hillsborough, DOE denied appeals by Summerfield Crossing Elementary, which earned a B, and Miles Elementary, which earned a C.

No other Tampa Bay area schools appealed.

Ron Matus, State Education Reporter

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Hillsborough district, teacher group team with voucher organization for training

Here's a collaboration you might not have expected.

Step Up For Students, which oversees Florida's corporate tax credit scholarship program (vouchers to some of you), has joined forces with the Hillsborough school district and the Hillsborough Classroom Teachers Association to improve the training of teachers at the private schools where voucher students end up.

Step Up For Students plans to provide at least $100,000 to help create professional development modules for those teachers.

Hillsborough superintendent MaryEllen Elia said in a release that the partnership makes sense for the community. “Ultimately, we all want to help teachers get better, wherever they’re teaching our kids,” Elia said.

HCTA president Jean Clements agreed. “This is not a competition. It’s about all of us doing our best to help children who come from very difficult circumstances. I can’t ignore the legitimate needs these children have.”

How's that for commitment to school choice?

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Hillsborough to vote on extending Elia's contract

TAMPA -- Superintendent MaryEllen Elia earned stellar ratings from most members of the Hillsborough County School Board in her annual performance review.

Four out of seven members awarded her more than 40 points out of a possible 45 on the district's evaluation scale, and two -- Jack Lamb and Carol Kurdell, respectively -- scored her only one and two points from perfect.

"It is most evident that we made a good decision in selecting our superintendent," Lamb wrote, referring to her 2005 promotion to the top job. "Our district is cited as a model in a number of issues as we continue to improve in spite of a reduction in resources; much of this is due to her leadership."

The board is scheduled to vote on the evaluation and a possible one-year extension of Elia's contract today at its 3 p.m. meeting.

Swine flu prompts Hillsborough to suspend attendance incentives

TAMPA -- Perfect attendance is a wonderful thing, but it likely won't get you out of semester exams this year in Hillsborough County.

District officials today said they would continue the suspension of their attendance incentive program through the 2009-10 school year, in order to prevent the spread of the H1N1 virus. Turns out students are often willing to attend school sick to avoid tests.

The program was put on hold last spring after the district was forced to close schools to limit the spread of swine flu.

The School Board is scheduled to vote on the measure today at its 3 p.m. meeting.

For more details and updates, visit tampabay.com or read tomorrow's St. Petersburg Times.

Tom Marshall, Times Staff Writer

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