Former teacher, current reporter.
Edie Smith is the only teacher from Sarasota County to be named Florida Teacher of the Year, having won the statewide honor for 1985 as a Riverview High School English teacher. The award brings the expectation to travel, give speeches and be an ambassador for Florida education.
“No one seems to really know” how more than $600 million in early learning funds are divvied up among Florida's 67 counties.
Florida's prison system offers virtually no meaningful education to inmates, despite overwhelming evidence that it's the strongest antidote to recidivism. The state has instead emphasized warehousing, creating an environment where inmate idleness, surging staff turnover and a lack of incentives for good behavior have led to violence.
Florida’s Office of Early Learning distributes $600 million a year for low-income child care. Nobody in the agency knows what each county's allocation is based on.
The money trail is circuitous, but public hospital officials used a crumbling office building as a conduit for steering taxpayer money into political action committees.
After an investigation by the Herald-Tribune, Sarasota Memorial Hospital leaders have reversed course on a plan that would have steered nearly $300,000 from the public hospital into a Political Action Committee.
The "muffled thump" he heard just after 9:37 a.m. on Sept. 11, 2001 caught Pentagon maintenance worker Edward Junior Whitley off guard. Whitley, who goes by "JR," looked up from the passenger seat of his work cart when he heard the strange noise.
Christy Karwatt teaches social studies, but she's been thinking more like a math teacher the past few days. At 61, the Sarasota High School teacher is entering her 27th year in Florida's system, and she loves her job. She had planned on teaching three more years to maximize her retirement payment.
Violence is on the rise at Sarasota's school for students with disabilities.
While the rest of the country battled COVID-19, one DeSoto couple made it their mission to save as many pigs as possible.
One of the 21st century’s most devastating volcanic eruptions brought a devastated family to Bradenton. Now they try to adapt.
Did the Sarasota School District protect their school grade by placing non-disabled students in a program for the cognitively impaired?
Bridget Ziegler has spent much of the last seven years on the losing end of votes, as a staunch conservative on the Sarasota County School Board. But her influence beyond Sarasota has exploded in recent months. In December, Ziegler teamed with two former school board members to launch " Moms For Liberty," a grassroots organization that advocates for parental rights in schools.
Low barriers to entry means there are plenty of child care providers, but quality suffers and money is scarce.
District officials are working to expand internet access and make sure families know what will be expected.
Since schools in Sarasota County reopened on Aug. 31, students have had to acclimate to new protocols. Mask mandates, one-way hallways and desk dividers are now just a part of the school routine, like fire drills or chicken nuggets in the cafeteria. For students with profound disabilities, the "new normal" is just another obstacle to overcome.
In the first analysis of its kind, USA TODAY Network reporters examined salaries and housing costs for teachers all over Florida. Reporters obtained salary data from nearly all 67 school districts and compared median teacher income to median rental costs. In nearly every corner of the state, teachers spend more than a third of their monthly income on housing costs.
As students are isolated from the school employees who normally alert authorities of potential abuse or neglect, calls to the state reporting hotline have dropped.
As alumni tally classmates' death, their demand for answers grows louder.
Afghani translators assumed their time serving the U.S. military would put them on the fast track to the American Dream. That's not the case.
Farmers love it. Neighbors hate it. Local politicians fight it, while the state expands its use. Industrial sludge has arrived in Tidewater.
The Sarasota School Board, unaware of allegations of sexual harassment against operations chief Jeff Maultsby, awarded him a one-year contract extension just days after an assistant accused him of misconduct.
It's one of the most confusing labels in education. Every year the term "not on grade level" gets tossed around to describe wide swaths of the student population. Politicians and education leaders talk about how students who are behind face a range of negative life consequences, and how hard it is to get a student out of that category. But what does it actually mean?
Students from around the world working in Sarasota’s tourism industry get a crash course in America.
A new Board of Education rule requires all Florida school districts to implement child trafficking education into their curriculum.
A suspended whistleblower said the district ignored complaints about a teacher groping students.
Duck calling is a way of life for these competitors
Lincoln Memorial Middle School teacher Eddie Hundley was aware there was enough evidence for authorities to seize former Lincoln teacher Quentin Peterson’s electronics during an investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct with a child.
As state testing begins, two elementary schools in Manatee's poorest neighborhoods are hoping to survive.
State inmates overcrowding Henrico’s two jails, costing county taxpayers $6.5 million annually
As one of the school district's oldest and most historic schools tries to leave, school board members fight back.
Manatee looking for local solutions to national problem
Ever since the state began including graduation rate among the metrics for school grades, Manatee's rate has dramatically increased. How?
Retired administrator surprised to learn he is being blamed for a burgeoning scandal.
The county's volunteer fire departments lose money on fundraisers, give $30,000 loans to members, don't pay their taxes and buy equipment from their own officers.
Hopes and Miner stick to their guns, accuse one another of foul play.