Wisconsin Right Now

School districts around the country are facing issues with how they handle their social media accounts, and the debate has reached the U.S. Supreme Court. Denver Public Schools recently reviewed its social media policy that doesn’t allow employees to restrict comments on social media or limit who can see them. The Denver school district's  policy  was reviewed earlier this month by the school board and states that neither the school, school board members, nor district employees can restrict a person’s ability to view, post, comment, restrict, or delete comments from any public social media pages that are maintained or operated by the district. The document further states that doing so goes against a person’s speech protected by the First Amendment or the Colorado Constitution. In Oregon, a school district is being accused of unconstitutionally violating a mother’s First Amendment rights by suppressing her speech online and at public meetings. The Liberty Justice Center,...

  School districts across the country are spending federal COVID-19 relief money on bonuses to employees saying their employees earned it for their work during the pandemic. The bonuses vary from district to district, ranging $250 to more than $20,000 per employee. Flint Public Schools in Michigan gave each of its teachers a $22,500 bonus in 2021. Tucson School District in Arizona is going to pay $7,500 retention bonuses to all of its full-time employees spread over three payments starting Dec. 2, 2022, through Dec. 1, 2023. Gaston County Schools in North Carolina approved $5,000 in retention bonuses for all of its permanent employees during the 2021 and 2022 school years. District officials cited additional responsibilities employees "have endured" since the pandemic and said the bonuses helped improve the stability of the district's work force. The Los Angeles Unified School District is paying teachers a 3% retention bonus in 2022-23 and 2023-24. That w...