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• Bronx High School of Science’s principal is retiring, amid a hazing scandal. (Post, SchoolBook)
• In a private meeting with UFT officials, Anthony Weiner told them to endorse him in a runoff. (Post)
• Weiner elaborated on his merit pay proposal, which would give teachers in some areas more. (WSJ)
• Weiner was a crowd favorite at a forum held by charter school advocates this week. (GothamSchools)
• The Post says it is still looking for a candidate who will aggressively, not tepidly, back charter schools.
• Eva Moskowitz: It’s good for schools to be able to suspend students who misbehave, as we do. (Post)
• The principal of New Dorp High School is up for an award for her response to Sandy. (Daily News)
• City teachers and members of other unions rallied for back pay under new contracts. (GothamSchools)
• Shelly Silver says the city has finally agreed that his district needs more schools. (Downtown Express)
• Students in Dallas are suing over their school district’s treatment of truancy as criminal behavior. (WSJ)

If you’re a regular GothamSchools reader, you might have gotten a little surprise in your email inbox this morning: The first edition of our brand-new Rise & Shine morning newsletter.

Our readers have told us that they want even more ways to get the latest New York City school news from GothamSchools. So starting today, we’ll be sending out an email every weekday with our Rise & Shine headlines, highlights of our reporting, and other bonus content including snapshots from city schools.

(E-mail us with pictures of events, classes, or field trips from your school, and you could wind up in the newsletter yourself.)

Check out the first newsletter we sent out this morning, then subscribe here if you didn’t already get it. (more…)

• A bomb threat on the first day of Regents exams caused Stuyvesant High School’s evacuation. (DNAInfo)
• Jack Hidary, an entrepreneur with an education edge, is considering a run for mayor. (GothamSchools)
• The former principal of an out-of-control school is now an assistant principal elsewhere. (Daily News)
• Bill de Blasio and Bill Thompson skipped a charter school-focused forum. (GothamSchools, Post, NY1)
• Thompson also called for higher supply stipends for teachers, a pet UFT issue. (GothamSchools, Post)
• Democrats for Education Reform aimed to ease allies’ mayoral race fears. (GothamSchools, Crain’s NY)
• The state might not try to boost the role of test scores in teacher evaluations right now. (GothamSchools)
• Private schools want access to the cut-rate power bills that public schools in the state get. (Daily News)
• A city councilman wants the city to provide school safety agents to private schools if they want one. (Post)
• A new report from child care advocates says parents depend on care to stay employed. (SchoolBook)
• An admissions policy proposal for a new Upper East Side middle school is confusing parents. (DNAInfo)
• Parents at a private school are upset that students were asked to write suicide notes in class. (Post)
• Newark’s superintendent will halt school closures for at least a year to study the issue. (N.J. Spotlight)

A revised advisory about the Families for Excellent Schools forum shows a blank where Bill Thompson’s name used to be on the list of participating mayoral candidates. Bill de Blasio also backed out of attending.

When parents from charter schools around the city grill mayoral candidates about their education views this evening, two expected candidates won’t be there.

The campaign of Bill Thompson, the former comptroller, told Families for Excellent Schools today that he would not be able to make the forum, which is one of the first times that charter school advocates will get a chance to ask questions of the candidates. Public Advocate Bill de Blasio also backed out of attending the forum at the last minute.

FES, a group that is trying to mobilize the parents it works with to play a role in the mayoral election, had previously announced that Thompson  and de Blasio had confirmed their attendance.

The last-minute lineup changes come as candidates gear up for a conversation that could be uncomfortable for those who, like Thompson and de Blasio, have declared opposition new charter schools and to school co-locations, a controversial space-sharing arrangement that has allowed charter schools to flourish under the Bloomberg administration. (more…)

To show that he respects teachers’ hard work, Bill Thompson wants to give each of them $200 a year to use on classroom supplies.

The mayoral candidate and former comptroller made the request during a conference call this morning that his campaign said would focus on “how to cut waste and abuse at the Department of Education.” The department has spent millions of taxpayer dollars on outside consultants and pricey contracts but, when it comes to teachers, has been “nickel and diming them for out-of-pocket expenditures,” he said.

Restoring Teacher’s Choice, a City Council program that gives teachers a small stipend for discretionary purchases, to its pre-recession levels would cost about $15 million a year, Thompson said. He added, “I’m sure we can find those dollars in the excess waste at the Department of Education.”

Thompson’s request comes just a week before the United Federation of Teachers is scheduled to endorse a candidate in the Democratic primary. The union helped launch Teacher’s Choice in the 1980s and has advocated annually for its continuation. The union expressed disappointment when the City Council sacrificed the program to avert teacher layoffs in 2011 and last year, when teachers received only about $40 each through the program. (more…)

• New York City has hired the Parthenon Group to make a plan to save school networks. (GothamSchools)
• The city has chosen the middle schools that will extend the school day this fall. (GothamSchools, Post)
• Regents scores for immigrant students at the International School for Liberal Arts soared last year. (Post)
• Forty Kinsborough Early College HS students will get associate’s degrees after four years. (Daily News)
• A Harlem charter school that serves students with autism will expand some features. (GothamSchools)
• Maryalice Blackmore, the 17-year counselor at M.S. 180 in the Bronx, is up for an award. (Daily News)
• City Councilman Robert Jackson has come out against the prospect of de-zoning District 6. (Daily News)
• The Post praises Anthony Weiner for being the only candidate with a plan for student misbehavior.
• Student suicides led ritzy East Hampton to build bridges with its growing Hispanic population. (Times)
• The rise of computer-based testing is giving rise to new forms of cheating and cheating prevention. (WSJ)
• Texas’s governor signed a law reducing the number of tests required for graduation from 15 to five. (AP)
• Students have struggled to pass some of the exams being eliminated in Texas. (Dallas Morning News)
• Douglas County, Colo., is launching a teacher pay scale that favors some subjects and grades. (Reuters)
• Chicago’s schools chief announced a five-year plan that focuses on accountability. (Tribune, Sun-Times)

• Some schools continue to prioritize the arts, despite well-known incentives not to. (Brooklyn Bureau)
  
• All about high school Regents exams, which students start taking for the year on Tuesday. (SchoolBook)
• A new report finds that Latino students are often shut out of science learning in Chicago. (Catalyst)
• Traditional allies of the Bloomberg administration’s school policies have been mum lately. (Crain’s NY)
• The principal of Brooklyn’s PATHS, a performing arts school, is leaving for a New Rochelle job. (Patch)
• Bill Thompson’s comments on school discipline have him navigating a fine line. (Capital NY)
• The Paddlewheeler helped the PTA at P.S. 8 get closer to its fundraising goal. (Brooklyn Daily Eagle)
• A city teacher says she is worried that emotion in literature is being lost under the Common Core. (Times)
• Mona Davids of the New York City Parents Union has a new job at DC 37′s Local 372. (GS in Brief)
• Teachers at a British school celebrated their students’ exam scores by dancing “Gangnam Style.” (BBC)

• Schools that weren’t allowed to mark their own Regents exams last year saw their scores fall more. (Post)
• A year after its principal was yanked for cheating, TAPCO seems to be on the upswing. (GothamSchools)
• The former principal of P.S. 91, who left amid cheating allegations, is under investigation again. (Post)
• A judge ruled that the city can send gifted admissions letters while the methodology is contested. (WSJ)
• Teachers at an international school are helping undocumented students pay for college. (Daily News)
• U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan touted Aviation High School’s program. (GothamSchools, NY1)
• A paraprofessional fired for an inappropriate relationship with a student says she did no wrong. (Post)
• Residents of College Point want the city to replace a Catholic school with a middle school. (Daily News)
• A NYSUT rally in Albany on Saturday targeted high-stakes testing. (GothamSchools, Times Union)
• Two city professors: Criticism of the Common Core results from its heavy-handed imposition. (Times)
• Schools are increasingly grouping students by ability, a practice that had fallen out of favor. (Times)
• Robots more and more offer homebound students a chance to participate actively in schools. (Times)
• The Gates Foundation wants to improve relations with teachers after alienating them. (Seattle Times)
• After narrowly winning election, the new mayor of Jersey City, N.J., wants to take on the schools. (WSJ)
• Schools in the Netherlands, like many in wealthy countries, are experimenting with iPads. (Times)

At the year-end summit today of a city program to boost achievement among male students of color, inspirational speakers were only the opening act. (more…)

• President Obama vowed to bring high-speed internet to 99 percent of schools by 2018. (Times, WSJ)
• The proposed city budget would slash $20,000 from I.S. 318′s award-winning chess team. (Daily News)
• The Post says it’s glad that Michael Mulgrew is honest about the union’s intentions in the mayoral race.
• Officials opened the $100 million new Harlem Children’s Zone charter school building. (Daily News)
• Many city schools used their training day Thursday to learn about new evaluations. (GothamSchools)
• A student and his mother blew the whistle on expired milk being served at P.S. 165 in Queens. (NBC NY)
• In Albany, high school students held a singing protest against music teachers’ layoffs. (Times Union)