Lake County committee recommends McGraw Hill packages for K–12 science; board to vote Jan. 13

Lake County Schools staff presented the district's recommended K–12 science instructional materials on Jan. 6, saying a standing adoption committee narrowed publisher options and settled on McGraw Hill packages for most grade bands. The school board is scheduled to consider the recommendations at its Jan. 13 meeting; the district will publish a 30‑calendar‑day objection window on Jan. 14 if the board moves ahead.

The recommendation grew from multi‑school committees that used a Lake County rubric aligned to the Florida Department of Education rubric, staff said. Kelly Dodd, Lake County Schools' instructional materials and media manager, described the rubric's three evaluation areas — content, presentation and learning features — and said elementary, middle and high school committees each reviewed multiple publishers before selecting McGraw Hill as the leading recommendation in most categories.

Committee votes and why it matters

The elementary (K–5) committee narrowed to two publishers and recommended McGraw Hill, which the committee favored by vote totals reported by staff. The middle‑school (grades 6–8) committee narrowed to three publishers and recommended McGraw Hill by a 71% share of committee votes. High‑school committees recommended McGraw Hill for multiple courses — environmental science, biology 1, chemistry, physics and several…