Fake Battles
On Tuesday, the Escambia County School Board approved an emergency rule empowering Interim School Superintendent Keith Leonard to remove from the schools any book challenged for its sexual content.
- The rule puts the district in compliance with the recently passed and signed HB 1069. The books remain unavailable until a final determination on their appropriateness is made.
Why this matters: Leonard’s predecessor, Dr. Tim Smith, was fired for not negotiating a contract with Charter Schools USA for Warrington Middle School and not getting the 200 books challenged off the shelves quick enough.
School Board members Keith Adams and Paul Fetsko gummed up the Charter Schools USA negotiations, forcing Smith to take a brow-beating from the state Board of Education.
The books were going to be removed anyway by July 1 – no matter who was superintendent.
Dig Deeper: Malcolm Thomas is the puppetmaster behind this coup, stroking the fires to pressure the school board to get rid of Smith and pushing for a return to an elected superintendent.
- The school board continues to give Pensacola parents reasons to secede from the Escambia County School District and create a city school system.
Open Books and Inweekly will be giving away banned books this weekend at PensaPride – 10 a.m.–4 p.m. Saturday, June 24, in Cordova Square, 1101 N 12th Ave.
New Scam
The City of Pensacola has received reports from the public of fraudulent text messages and websites claiming to represent the City of Pensacola Housing Department Section 8 program.
- These text messages and websites are not legitimate and are not coming from the City of Pensacola or the Pensacola Housing Department.
Why this matters: The text and internet scam is targeting citizens wanting to apply for Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher rental assistance and promises to expedite application approvals by pushing applicants to a phony website.
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- The Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher waitlist is currently closed and not accepting applications.
- Waitlist applications are processed in the order received in accordance with the City’s Housing Choice Voucher Administrative plan and HUD guidelines.
- When the waitlist reopens, the Housing Department will provide the public with information about how to apply.
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What to do: To report scams or fraud to the Federal Trade Commission online, visit ReportFraud.ftc.gov
Wahoos Clinch Title
Troy Johnston ripped a two-out, two-run triple in the ninth inning and reliever Jefry Yan overcame a leadoff walk, striking out the final batter as the Blue Wahoos rallied to beat the Tennessee Smokies 3-1 Wednesday to clinch the first half South Division win, thus gaining the spot in post-season.
Read full recap.
Aside from other crucial constitutional suits and making sure the books remain available through other means, I can’t see anything that can be done about the book banning until the GOP is done blowing itself up in the state of Florida, not to mention nationwide.
At this point, the remnants of what used to be the Republican Party are in a race to see which they can destroy more quickly, their party or our public school system. Let’s hope its the former.
Per the superintendent decision, yep, that’s why they were in such an all fire hurry to tank the charter school situation and fire Dr. Smith…they wanted it done before it would become moot even as a talking point for the fools that believe their lies and the charlatans that support them.
I hope somebody follows up on the procurement issue–both in the past, and whatever changes might be underway to reinstall the facilities and maintenance darlings to sweetheart status. Sorry to have to sit this one out…I have a feeling it will be the same no-brainer as the paper trail (or, rather, the lack of it) on Gilley’s procurement nightmare at the County.