The budget will fund 2% pay increases for K-12 teachers, a minimum pay scale for school support staff, and a $1,000 bonus for special education teachers. It will also fund 100 additional teachers in the middle grades and big pay raises for school nurses.
Education issues will be at the forefront of the hotly contested governor's race, hinging in part on statewide test scores that showed setbacks among many students caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Since 1976, Grace Adkins has taught at Westwood Schools in Camilla, Georgia, about 60 miles north of Tallahassee. She retired on May 18 and was serenaded with a birthday song by students and staff.
Of 33 seniors in the school's traditional program, only five met the requirements to get a diploma, Marlin ISD Superintendent Darryl Henson said, citing an initial internal audit of attendance, grades and credits that started last week.
Faced with rising enrollment, our rural district reconfigured electives as career and technical education pathways that put students on track for jobs in lucrative fields like computer science.
More and more school districts are joining the legal battle against social media companies to protect students' mental health. But this expert says he's not very optimistic.
A dashboard on the department's website shows school districts have spent varying percentages of the two remaining packages of relief money, ranging from 6% in the small, rural Elba City school district, to 100% by multiple school districts.
The plan identifies five key areas: Improving safety and well-being, working with families and community, accelerating academic achievement, recruiting and retaining teachers and cost-effective operations.
In what's meant to be a time of excitement and relief is being shadowed by security threats as violence and aggression ramp up among students toward the end of the year.
