Board okays plan to lure teachers

The new partnership with USF will identify non-education majors who may have an interest in teaching.

By KELLY RYAN

© St. Petersburg Times,
published August 22, 2001

LARGO -- In the 2000-2001 school year, the Pinellas school district had only 11 teaching interns in math, science, reading and world language. At the same time, the district needed to hire 262 teachers in those subjects.

On Tuesday, School Board members approved a partnership with the University of South Florida to create a program they hope will correct that imbalance and lure more people into teaching.

The program will identify non-education majors who have bachelor's degrees and have an interest in switching careers to teaching. The program will not take as long or cost as much for the teachers-to-be as returning to a university for education college.

School districts around the state are increasingly turning to non-education majors to fill teaching posts. Many of those new teachers end up quitting shortly after they enter school, unprepared for some of the challenges they face. This new program will instruct new teachers in effective classroom practices, as well as providing coaching and mentoring.

The district is seeking a $1.1-million federal grant to pay for the program.

In other news:

The School Board suspended without pay a veteran physical education teacher who is accused of using excessive and inappropriate discipline techniques with her students at Paul B. Stephens Exceptional Student Education Center in Clearwater.

Susan Huber was to be fired, but she is contesting the punishment and has requested an administrative hearing. She will be suspended until the hearing process is complete.

The board approved a resolution honoring Garnelle Jenkins, a former teacher and longtime president of the St. Petersburg branch of the NAACP who died earlier this summer. Jenkins was involved in the negotiations to end three decades of court-ordered busing for desegregation in Pinellas schools.

The Love of Learning charter school for "emotionally and creatively advanced" students announced it will not be able to open this school year.

Board members voted to appeal a judge's decision that the public has a right to videotape meetings that are open under the state's Sunshine Law. Suncam, Inc. had sued the district, saying it wanted to videotape a meeting of a committee interviewing construction managers.

School Board attorney John Bowen argued that the public has the right to attend open meetings, but not to videotape them. In this case, the committee had determined that cameras would be disruptive. Board member Linda Lerner argued against an appeal and voted against it, saying an open meeting should be open to people, audio tapes and video tapes.

Other board members worried about how far-reaching the judge's decision might be, wondering whether this would open up other meetings to be videotaped and sold for profit.

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