For immediate release
May 3, 2018
State
Board of Education approves report to General Assembly on operational review of
the Department of Public Instruction
The State Board of Education today
approved a report to the General Assembly on the results of an independent operational
review of the Department of Public Instruction that includes 18 specific
recommendations to help the department better support educators and students at
North Carolina’s school districts and charter schools.
Under legislation passed in 2017,
the state superintendent initiated a third-party review of DPI’s organizational,
functional, and business-process operations. Ernst and Young (EY) was selected to
perform the work. EY spent several months at DPI and interviewed more than 100
DPI employees and 100 external stakeholders, including superintendents,
principals and teachers.
The EY team condensed what they
learned into 18 recommendations in its final
report. The recommendations can be grouped into two broad themes for
transforming the agency:
- DPI can improve services to North Carolina
public schools by reducing internal silos and by delivering a more consistent
vision for how to support local schools and students
- By improving internal business processes and
consolidating information technology activities, DPI can focus resources on
supporting schools, educators, and students
“I strongly believe implementing
the recommendations in this third-party evaluation will significantly improve
how this agency functions internally and how districts, schools, educators, and
students are supported across the state,” said state Superintendent Mark
Johnson. “With a strong commitment from leadership, these recommendations can be fully implemented.”
As a next step, the department will
establish a transformation management office to develop an implementation plan
with specific actions, detailed timeline, and milestones to use in leading
change efforts in the agency. The SBE also voted Thursday to establish a
special committee to oversee agency changes proceeding form the operational
review.
To help ensure effective
implementation of the EY recommendations, the SBE and the state superintendent have
made two requests to the General Assembly:
- Delay
of the $5.1 million management flexibility reduction scheduled to take effect
on July 1. According to the report cover submitted by the agency, reductions of
more than $5 million for next year will prevent the strategic implementation of
thoughtful changes that will yield efficiencies over a multi-year period and
improve DPI effectiveness on behalf of students.
- Inclusion
of language in appropriations legislation this session permitting the department
to restructure positions, operating budget, and related funding and fund-code
structures on a recurring basis that may be necessary to implement the EY
recommendations.
Supporting documentation for the operational
review can be found here.
###
|