How different will 2026 look from this past year in Hillsborough County schools?<\/p>\n
At a recent Hillsborough school board workshop, board members talked through a range of issues they may or may not update in the next policy cycle, which begins next year.<\/p>\n
Among them: Vaping, student wellness, bullying and the process for parents to complain about classroom materials.<\/p>\n
The board is required to review its policies at least every two years. The changes will be presented at hearings early next year, where the public will have a chance to weigh in before the board takes a final vote.<\/p>\n
Here are the changes that are moving forward \u2014 as well as a few topics of concern that aren\u2019t likely to get new policies in 2026.<\/p>\n
Vaping<\/p>\n
The school board recently moved forward a policy that would expand the definition of tobacco free environments to include \u201cnicotine-dispensing devices,\u201d which are not limited to e-cigarettes, e-cigars, e-pipes and replacement cartridges.<\/p>\n
The district will also expand signage to clearly indicate \u201cno tobacco or vaping\u201d is permitted around school facilities.<\/p>\n
Deputy superintendent Chris Farkas said after a pilot program in some high school bathrooms this fall, the district plans to install sensors at all high schools in the spring. The sensors, designed by Motorola, go off when they detect vaping. Paired with hallway cameras to see who is entering and exiting the restrooms, they have helped identify students who vape.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a huge epidemic in our schools,\u201d board member Jessica Vaughn said. \u201cWhen we have our student forums, the students who come say one of the biggest concerns is vaping and what\u2019s happening in the bathroom.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bus policies<\/p>\n
The board also advanced a policy that would allow school bus drivers to be trained to manage student behavior and allow the district to establish more policies about entering and exiting buses. The policy states that students are required to remain seated; follow driver instructions; use low voices; and keep their hands, feet and objects to themselves. It also applies the district\u2019s bullying policies to buses.<\/p>\n
The amendments come after increased reports of bus fights, board members said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI fear for the safety of other students as well as our bus drivers Perez said.<\/p>\n
Reserve funds<\/p>\n
School board members also moved forward a policy that would require the district to maintain a reserve funding balance double what the state requires \u2014 7% instead of 3%.<\/p>\n
The district\u2019s chief financial officer said if the reserve were to fall below the required 3%, the superintendent would have to notify the state. If it didn\u2019t improve in two years, the state could issue mandates controlling the district.<\/p>\n
Though board members expressed concerns over their ability to continue to provide teachers with raises, they supported securing the district\u2019s long-term financial viability amid a rocky relationship with the state.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am just not going to be responsible for the financial decline and takeover by the state of this district,\u201d board member Stacy Hahn said. \u201cThey get rid of the superintendent, they get rid of every board member, they get rid of the CFO, and the state runs the district.\u201d<\/p>\n
The state has also looked at changing some policies down the road, or not changing them at all. Among them:<\/p>\n
Wellness<\/p>\n
The board deferred putting forth a policy dealing with state law changes, including a free employee assistance program, changing \u201csexual health education\u201d to \u201creproductive health and disease prevention,\u201d requiring 150 additional minutes of physical education for K-5 students and banning food-related fundraisers until 30 minutes after the last lunch period at a school.<\/p>\n
Board member Jessica Vaughn pointed to a previous meeting where a kindergarten teacher cried while telling the board about how overwhelmed she was this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re putting the responsibility of the state-mandated time on our kindergarten teachers, who are already overworked,\u201d she said. \u201cI understand that all teachers are certified to teach P.E., but that time with an actual P.E. teacher is a concern to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bullying and harassment<\/p>\n
The board did not hear amendments to the bullying and harassment policy at its workshop, which would add to the policy hate speech, defined as any conduct or communication \u201cdemeaning another individual on the basis of race, ethnicity, gender, religion, age, disability, national origin of descent, health status, sexual orientation or any other characteristic protected by federal law.\u201d The policy will be heard at a later workshop.<\/p>\n
Public complaints<\/p>\n
A new policy proposed by Hillsborough Superintendent Van Ayres would have struck a passage out about \u201cmatters regarding instructional materials\u201d from the existing public complaint policy and created a separate one called \u201cpublic complaints regarding courses of study.\u201d<\/p>\n
The new policy would have explicitly stated that the board was committed to providing materials \u201cin accordance with Florida statute and Florida Department of Education rules.\u201d It also would have said the superintendent would develop a procedure to handle objections to books and other materials, and that the board would \u201cprovide open access to all materials.\u201d The policy also said no material could be removed except by action of the board.<\/p>\n
The board failed to reach consensus that a new policy was needed. Board member Jessica Vaughn worried it would box them in.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to follow the law,\u201d she said. \u201cIf the commissioner or somebody contacts us and they say we\u2019re breaking the law (over a book), it\u2019s going to be removed. But I don\u2019t need this policy. I think it creates less flexibility. I think it creates more problems.\u201d<\/p>\n
Others felt it was redundant.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to refer to the law no matter what,\u201d board member Nadia Combs said. \u201cWe have the law. We have a policy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"How different will 2026 look from this past year in Hillsborough County schools? At a recent Hillsborough school…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":121231,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[60687,113,22694,60689,12897,60690,571,276,33193,1062,48208,3985,712,14126,99,60688,8573,22408,135,137,136,7331,19992],"class_list":["post-121230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-bullying","tag-education","tag-electronic-cigarette","tag-equality-rights","tag-harassment","tag-hatred","tag-health","tag-hillsborough-county","tag-hillsborough-county-public-schools","tag-human-rights","tag-issues-in-ethics","tag-justice","tag-law","tag-policy","tag-politics","tag-social-ethics","tag-social-issues","tag-social-policy","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-teacher","tag-vaping"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121230"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121230\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/121231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}