The state Auditor General’s final report about the Martin County School District is available. The report, released today, has two “significant deficiencies” and three “additional matters.” Auditors found no “material weaknesses,” which are the most serious findings.

See the report here.

STUART — A maintenance employee who was fired earlier this year is suing the Martin County School District, saying Superintendent Nancy Kline retaliated against him and other employees after her husband was denied a building official job there.

Javier Suarez, a maintenance manager, was one of two employees fired.

Kline recommended in March that Suarez and Larry Stonecipher, a mechanical specialist, be terminated after an internal investigation found they weren’t following school board policies related to bidding, purchasing and contracting. Their supervisor later resigned.

The school board OK’d the moves. (more…)

ST. LUCIE COUNTY — The assistant principal who left Lincoln Park Academy after four months says he tendered his resignation after learning colleagues were circulating 2-year-old newspaper stories about his resigning under a cloud from Sarasota County schools.

Tim Romano says those stories were circulated on school computers and that he’s the person Principal Alan Cox referred to in a written warning to LPA staff that such computer use is prohibited.

“Information circulated (Nov. 17) about a staff member was unprofessional and lacked complete detail about the conclusion of the allegations from the past,” Cox wrote shortly after Romano resigned.

In the e-mail, obtained in a public records request by Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers, Cox continued: “I am disappointed in those who sent this information and your lack of judgment. I will take anyone breaking this policy to task the next time it happens.”

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STUART — It may go down as the worst year in the history of the Martin County School District.

A year so bad that elected officials are loathe to recall its events, let alone try to explain them.

This is a year, after all, in which school board members wouldn’t allow Superintendent Nancy Kline to speak during their meetings unless spoken to. In which the board’s attorney accused Kline of having public records removed from his computer after hours. In which a staff member filed a harassment complaint against the entire board.

One teacher called it the “worst case of adult dysfunction” ever.

Even Kline, who would prefer to look on the bright side, is hard-pressed to explain: “I’m not suggesting that anything about this is normal,” she said.

Since Kline took office in November 2008 as the county’s independently elected schools superintendent, public squabbles have become all too common. The A-rated school system, a long-standing point of pride for its academic and athletic excellence, has seen its day-to-day operations stymied by a power struggle among elected officials.

For more click here.

INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — School officials said a 14-year-old student broke into Storm Grove Middle School, damaging doors and surfing the Internet for pornography, according to a juvenile arrest affidavit.

Security cameras at the school captured images of the eighth-grade student crawling under a gate to get inside the campus last weekend, a deputy for the Indian River County Sheriff’s Office said. More cameras caught him going into the custodian’s office, where he looked at porn Web sites for an hour, the affidavit said. The student also caused $1,200 damage to an office door, the Sheriff’s Office said. (more…)

St. Lucie County school board members decided unanimously tonight to allow teacher Wendy Portillo to return to teaching more than a year after the May 2008 incident where she led kindergartners to vote a 5-year-old boy out of their class.
School officials say Portillo, who had been suspended and stripped of her tenure, is expected to teach science and reading to sixth graders at Allapattah K-8.
She was Alex Barton’s kindergarten teacher at Morningside Elementary when she led his classmates to vote on whether he should stay in class after he’d been disruptive. Doctors later diagnosed Alex with Asperger’s syndrome, a form of autism.

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STUART — An online neighborhood Web site is including the city of Stuart in its top 20 list of best places to retire.

NeighborhoodScout.com ranked the city No. 18 in the nation on a list of 20 cities where people can retire for less than $150,000.

The rankings were posted on the popular Web search engine AOL.com.

Corpus Christi, Texas is No. 1 on the list.
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If St. Lucie County school board members next week approve Wendy Portillo’s return to the classroom, she’ll likely be teaching students twice as old as the kindergartners she led last year to vote a 5-year-old out of their classroom.

School board officials had suspended Portillo and stripped her of her tenure for the May 2008 incident, in which she asked Alex Barton’s classmates at Morningside Elementary to vote on whether he should stay in class after he’d been disruptive.

Alex was subsequently diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, a form of autism. His mother, Melissa Barton, sued the school board and Portillo in August, saying the “Survivor-style” vote-out caused Alex irreparable psychological harm.

By then, school officials had restored Portillo’s tenure and said she could return to teaching as soon as mid-November.

Portillo’s reinstatement is on the agenda for Tuesday’s school board meeting, joined with several other personnel matters.

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PORT ST. LUCIE — A Floresta Elementary kindergarten teacher was removed from classroom duties Wednesday pending investigation of an incident in which she is accused of asking a 6-year-old girl to clean up another student’s urine and then rewarding the girl with play money.

Port St. Lucie police were called to the school Wednesday, two days after the alleged incident happened, when the 6-year-old’s mother came to the school “very upset,” according to the police report.

School Principal Harriett McGriff told police she spoke with kindergarten teacher Martha Ensley and that Ensley “admitted to having (the student) clean the urine and admitted giving her ‘dolphin dollars’ afterward,” the report states.

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ST. LUCIE COUNTY — Michael Lannon returned to his job as public schools superintendent Monday, ending a 30-day retirement that the School Board granted him to deal with family matters and cash out about $115,000 in accrued vacation and sick days.

“I’m happy to be in the saddle again,” Lannon said from an office still stripped bare of personal effects. State law is strict about public school employees being truly absent during retirement. So Lannon said he rented a nearby commercial storage unit, even though it was clear from the outset he would return in one month. (more…)