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JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Duval schools were expecting $10 million this school year for maintenance, repairs, renovations and remodeling, but the legislature has opted not to give public schools a penny.

“They’re undermining public education,” said Tommy Hazouri, a member of the Duval County Public Schools Board.

He said the governor and the legislature are sending the wrong message about public education. “Fifty percent of our schools are in need of repairs; they’re old,” said Hazouri.

Last year, Duval County schools received $7 million from the legislature for maintenance, remodeling and repair; this year it was expecting $10.3 million but will get nothing.

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Tags: 10 Million, Repairs

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Oxnard Union High School District trustees have named a Burbank administrator as their new superintendent.

After a closed session Saturday, the board announced it had appointed Gabe Soumakian to the post. Soumakian is an assistant superintendent in the Burbank Unified School District.

“He was the best qualified of the candidates,” said board President Socorro Lopez Hanson. He has worked with diverse student populations, similar to Oxnard Union’s, and has a lot of experience in education, including with technology, she said.

The board voted 4-0 to appoint him to the job.

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Tags: Burbank Administrator, Oxnard

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It’s the season of high hopes and frazzled nerves for administrators who have applied for state aid to build or renovate schools around the state.

Hopes are high because the Building Excellent Schools Today program offers districts and charter schools access to construction and renovation funding that many couldn’t raise otherwise.

Nerves are frazzled because applying for BEST grants is a bit of a lottery – applications for state funding in the 2011-12 cycle total $372 million, but only about $187 million will be available.

Applicants will learn at the end of the month if their luck held, after the state Capital Construction Assistance Board makes its recommendations during meetings June 27-30. The S

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Tags: Schools, Schools Hoping

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DETROIT (AP) — Michigan’s attorney general is pledging to ask an entire federal appeals court to reconsider a decision that overturned the state’s ban on affirmative action in college admissions.

But here’s the issue: Will a majority of the court’s 15 judges agree to take the case? The deadline to ask is Friday. It’s rare for the full appeals court to set aside the work of one of its three-judge panels and start from scratch.

The case involves a 2006 law approved by Michigan voters and a very contentious issue – the role of race and gender in decisions by public officials.

On July 1, the appeals court struck down Proposal 2, which bans the consideration of race and gender in college admissions and government hiring.

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Tags: Action, Affirmative Action

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