Education

Suspicious Belle Glade Garbage Truck Explained: Dude Has No Idea How to Read Odometer

By Rich Abdill Thu., May 24 2012 at 7:57 AM
Categories: Education
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On Tuesday, we had a story looking at suspicious use of a Belle Glade garbage truck -- the mileage records were a mess and seemed to suggest something shady was happening that caused the use of the truck to skyrocket earlier this year while gas use was suspiciously low.

Well, we've got our answer. Was it a garbage-hauling side job put on the taxpayer dime? A city commissioner using it for trips to Tallahassee?

Nah. Garbage man doesn't know how to read the meter.
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Truck 707
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Education

Mavericks High Has Lowest FCAT Reading Score in Palm Beach; Tied for Second-Worst in Broward

By Lisa Rab Thu., May 24 2012 at 5:58 AM
Categories: Education, Investigations
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maverickshigh.com
Mavericks in Palm Springs opened last August.
Aside from the kids in the Palm Beach County jail, tenth-grade students at Mavericks High in Palm Springs fared worse on the FCAT reading test than any of their peers in the county, according to data released last week by the state Department Education.

Only 7 percent of the 54 students who took the FCAT at Mavericks last fall passed the reading portion of the test. The 16 students who took the test while in jail had a 6 percent passing rate.

Mavericks in Palm Springs opened last August. It's the newest in a chain of charter schoolsMore »

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charter schools, FCAT, Fort Lauderdale, Mavericks High, Palm Springs, reading
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Education

Florida Changes Standardized Test Grading System, Everybody Fails

By Rich Abdill Wed., May 16 2012 at 12:20 PM
Categories: Education
FCAT-Logo.jpg
The state's release of preliminary results of FCAT testing has put Florida education reporters in a tizzy the past few days, and there have been impressive stories written all over the place about the debacle. In case you don't want to wade through a million inches of copy to understand the craziness, here's a summary of what's happened so far.
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Crime

Ex-Band Teacher Heath Miller Serving Time in Miami-Dade County Prison

By Lisa Rab Mon., May 7 2012 at 12:24 PM
Categories: Crime, Education
Heath Miller.jpg
Florida Department of Corrections
The popular Palm Beach Gardens band teacher who was arrested three years ago for sexually assaulting four girls at H.L. Watkins Middle School is about to complete his first month in a Miami-Dade County prison.

Heath Miller, 37, pleaded guilty in March to one count of sexual battery of a minor and three counts of lewd and lascivious conduct. He was sentenced to 13 years in prison and eight years of probation and is barred from unsupervised contact with children.

In his prison mug shot, Miller looks thinner than he did when he went to jail in 2009. His head is shaved and his left arm decorated with a tattoo of a Tazmanian devil.

Miller is the son of a prominent Belle Glade family and attended Howard University in

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band teacher, H.L. Watkins Middle School, Heath Miller, Palm Beach Gardens, sexual assault
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Education

Frank Biden "Plans to Save the Country" With Mavericks High Schools

By Lisa Rab Thu., May 3 2012 at 7:02 AM
Categories: Education, Investigations
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Facebook.com
Biden says he's on a mission from God.
Frank Biden, younger brother of the man who is second in line for the White House, has a flair for the dramatic. Last year, he called the Mavericks High charter school in Palm Springs a "hope factory" and said its management company, Mavericks in Education Florida, was "on a mission from God." 

Now, he says Mavericks schools are going to "save the country." As he wrote on his blog yesterday:

Frank Biden plans to save the country, one student at a time. With the dropout rates in the state of Florida and in the entire nation reaching alarming levels, the brother of US Vice President Joe Biden is dedicated to eradicate eradicating the silent epidemic by serving as the President and Director for Business Development for Mavericks in Education.
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charter schools, Frank Biden, Mavericks High School, Mavericks in Education Florida
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Education

Fort Lauderdale Mavericks High Fight Posted on YouTube (Video)

By Lisa Rab Wed., Apr. 25 2012 at 7:07 AM
Categories: Bad Ideas, Education
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Two young women throw punches and tear at each others' hair while a crowd of onlookers shouts around them. Teenagers hold cell phones to record the fight as the women tumble to the ground. In the center of the video frame is a man wearing a T-shirt bearing the logo of Mavericks High -- the South Florida chain of charter schools that has been plagued by whistle-blower lawsuits and academic troubles.

According to the student who posted the video on YouTube, this fight took place near the Fort Lauderdale campus of Mavericks. "Shit got to real in skool 2day these hoes stay fighting !" Junior Lamy tweeted on April 16 before posting a link to the video.

Mavericks enrolls students who are at risk of dropping out of high school, promising to

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charter schools, Fort Lauderdale, Mavericks High School, school fights, YouTube
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Education

Frank Biden Discovers Blogging (Sort Of)

By Lisa Rab Mon., Apr. 9 2012 at 7:06 AM
Categories: Education, Technology
Frank Biden3.jpg
Remember WordPress.com? Back in 2003, it was a brilliant invention designed to put any pajama blogger on the cutting edge. That edge is clearly where Frank Biden belongs.

Biden, brother of the Amtrak-riding vice president, has entered into the wild world of WordPress to tout his for-profit chain of charter schools, Mavericks in Education Florida. As president and "P.T. Barnum" of the West Palm Beach-based chain, it's not surprising that Biden would want to brag about Mavericks on his very own site.

Here's how he begins a March 29 entry:
Frank Biden is the brother of US Vice President Joe Biden. He is making a name for himself in the education sector as the President and Director for Business Development of Mavericks in Education, an educational institution that is dedicated to the design, development, and delivery of innovative, out-of-the-box, and effective educational solutions to students who are at risk of dropping out of school.


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blogging, charter schools, Frank Biden, Mavericks in Education Florida, WordPress
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Breaking News

Third Whistle-Blower Suit Filed Against Mavericks Charter Schools

By Lisa Rab Fri., Apr. 6 2012 at 7:01 AM
Categories: Breaking News, Education, Investigations
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maverickshigh.com
A former special-education teacher at Mavericks High in Palm Springs has filed a whistle-blower lawsuit alleging that the charter school is inflating enrollment records and fabricating grades.

Angenora Mechato's suit is the third whistle-blower case to be filed against Mavericks in Education Florida, a for-profit, West Palm Beach-based company that manages eight charter schools in the state. Two former employees at Mavericks High in Homestead made similar allegations last year, and their suits are still pending.

In her legal complaint, Mechato says she began working as a special-ed "lead teacher" and

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charter schools, Lauren Hollander, Mavericks in Education Florida, Palm Springs
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Education

North Miami Beach Residents Fed Up With Crime Around Mavericks High

By Lisa Rab Fri., Mar. 23 2012 at 11:20 AM
Categories: Business, Education, Investigations
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maverickshigh.com
Mavericks High in Homestead has suffered violence too.
​Last month, we brought you news of violence involving Mavericks High charter school students in Homestead. One 17-year-old was arrested for bringing a gun to school, and a 16-year-old student was shot and killed by a police officer. Now the Mavericks High in North Miami Beach is making headlines for crime -- and city officials are not happy about it.

According to the Miami Herald : "Police records show that since the school opened in 2009 to December 2011, police have arrested 32 Mavericks students and responded to 88 calls for service at the school. But police say the number of incidents is likely much higher."

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charter schools, Jarret Gross, Mavericks High School, North Miami Beach
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WTF

UPDATED: FAU Student Threatens to Kill Teacher in Class; Students Respond by Filming the Whole Thing (VIDEO)

By Rich Abdill Wed., Mar. 21 2012 at 12:11 PM
Categories: Education, WTF
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UPDATE, 3/30: Carr's family has commented about her history of mental illness.

UPDATE, 3/22, 4:50 p.m.: We got the police report in this case, and it's a doozy.

UPDATE, 12:11 p.m.: The student has been identified as Jonatha Carr. The University Press, FAU's student paper, has the full story.

Original post:

​An unnamed Florida Atlantic University student was forcibly removed from class yesterday after screaming, among other things, "I will kill the fuck out of you" in a biology class.

Sitting in the front row of the classroom, she screams at a person who appears to be the teacher, "I hate this shit" and then "You better shut the fuck up before I fucking kill you." The class, rather than running away or moving to protect the teacher or anything, responds by going "oooooohhhhh" like a bunch of second-graders who just heard Suzie call Billy a fart-smeller. In one video, several students are filming on cell-phone cameras.

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FAU, Florida Atlantic University
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