NCDPI Office of Charter Schools (OCS) Updates
CHARTER SCHOOLS: DID YOU KNOW?
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The Office of Charter Schools has
some very exciting news this week! The Office of Charter Schools will receive
$23.6 million over five years to help the state’s charter schools meet the
needs of economically disadvantaged students. North Carolina is one of eight
states to receive the Expanding Opportunities Through Quality Charter School
Program grants from the U.S. Department of Education.
The funding, which totals $10.4
million for the federal fiscal year that began Monday, will be used for
sub-grants to new and existing charter schools to:
- Assist new charter schools that
will serve a large economically disadvantaged student population in their
planning year
- Assist charter schools in their
first three years of operation that serve a large, economically
disadvantaged student population
- Assist high-quality charter
schools that serve a large economically disadvantaged population and want
to replicate
- Assist high-quality charter
schools that want to expand to serve a larger economically disadvantaged
population
“North Carolina’s charter
schools should be laboratories of innovation, proving grounds for ideas that
can be scaled across all our schools and all student populations,” said State
Superintendent Mark Johnson. “This funding will allow schools to better
serve our students in the most need and increase the diversity of students
served by charter schools.”
“I am excited that North Carolina
was awarded this highly competitive grant from the Department of Education,” said
Dave Machado, head of the state Office of Charter Schools. “This grant will
help us promote high-quality schools and open more schools in the underserved
rural areas of North Carolina.”
The application deadline for
charter school boards interested in applying will be early spring, with grants
to be awarded by the end of the school year. The State Board of Education will
approve the grants based on recommendations from the Charter School Advisory
Board. If you have any questions regarding this amazing opportunity for
our NC charter school community, please contact ocs@dpi.nc.gov.
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New OCS Data
Management System
Contact: ocs@dpi.nc.gov
The Office of Charter Schools
is very excited to announce the implementation of a new data management
platform called Epicenter which will assist with automating and
streamlining our compliance and performance processes.
Any information that you need
to submit to the Office of Charter Schools for the renewal, ready to open, and
performance framework processes will be uploaded and stored in Epicenter,
along with academic, operations, and personnel information. All schools will
transition to Epicenter later this fall and trainings will be held across the
state for users. More information to follow. Stay tuned!
 Follow the Office of Charter Schools on Twitter
The Office of Charter
Schools is officially tweeting! Follow us @NCCharterOffice for news,
updates, and to see the great things happening at charter schools around the
state.
NC STAR Regional Trainings
Contact: Alessandro.Montanari@dpi.nc.gov
Federal Program Monitoring
& Support will be conducting regional NCStar Trainings. These regional
opportunities will contain both beginner trainings and Q&A sessions for
experienced users. From 8:30am – 1:00pm at each location, beginner training
will be conducted and then from 2pm-4pm Q&A sessions for experienced
users will be held.
Registration is open at www.ncstar.weebly.com. Space is limited and
registration for each site will close once site capacity is reached. Please
remember that any school identified in a federal or state list will be
required to use NCStar to create and manage their school improvement plan. Any
school that wishes to use the tool, must attend a beginner training at least
once. These are the eight dates and sites:
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October 11th – New Hanover County Schools Board of Education
Center at 1805 South 13th Street in Wilmington
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October 19th – Sadie Saulter Educational Center at 400 Spruce
Street in Greenville
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October 23rd – Workforce Development & Continuing Education
Building at 629 Industrial Park Avenue in Asheboro
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Planning Year Sessions
for RTO
Board members from charter
schools that are opening in 2019 are required to attend 5 face-to-face
Planning Year Sessions from September to January. The school leader and
some of the board members are also required to attend the New Charter School
Leaders Institute in June. As a customer service, the Office of Charter
Schools continues to open up these sessions to all charter schools. If
you have a new school leader and/or a new board member interested in attending
any of the sessions, he or she must register to attend. Please note the
schedule below:
Date
Time
Location
Topic
October 31, 2018
8:00 - 4:15
DPI: Room 150
Charter School Finance
November 14, 2018
8:00 - 4:15
DPI: Room 150
Charter School Operations
& Accountability
December 12, 2018
8:00 - 4:30
DPI: Room 150
Meeting the Needs of All
Students
January 30, 2019
8:00 - 4:15
DPI: Room 150
Our School Opens in 7 Months!
Now What?
June 11 - 12, 2019
8:00 - 5:00
DPI: Rooms 150, 224, 564
New Charter School Leaders
Institute
Registration is now open for
the October session. Registration ends on Sunday, October
21st. Please use this link to register: https://goo.gl/forms/OrBieAkHvrBfPPlk2
For questions, please contact
Shaunda Cooper at shaunda.cooper@dpi.nc.gov and Stephenie Clark
at stephenie.clark@dpi.nc.gov.
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Cash Management and
MSA Training (Charter Schools):
We will have a Cash
Management and MSA training class for Charter Schools on Friday, October 12,
2018 at the Department of Public Instruction in Raleigh, NC, Room #564 from
10:00 am - 4:00 pm.
There is no registration
fee for the class, but you must register to attend. The class is
designed for those who work in the charter school’s finance office. The
class consists of "Hands-on" training with the emphasis on understanding
the monthly financial reports, a brief lecture on Compliance &
Monitoring, and a brief overview of the Cash Management System.
Instruction is geared to the beginner or new user and as a refresher for
others. There are only a certain number of seats in the training
room, so limited space is available on a first come, first serve basis.
If you would like to attend
this class, please provide your name, charter school name, charter school
number and email address.
Please email Roxane Bernard
at roxane.bernard@dpi.nc.gov.
If you have questions, please call Roxane Bernard at 919-807-3725.
You will be notified by email when you have been successfully registered for
the training class.
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The 2018 Charter School Leadership Institute is coming!
What is
it?
The Charter School Leadership
Institute is an annual gathering of charter leaders, staff, and board members
from across the state. Join us for informational sessions, hands on workshops,
and panel discussions on a wide range of topics including specific tracks for
finance and serving special populations. Sign me up!
When is it?
Great question! Thursday,
October 18 (8am-4:30pm) and Friday, October 19 (8am-1pm)
Where is it?
Even better question! This
year’s Institute will be at Pine Springs Preparatory Academy at 220
Rosewood Centre Drive, Holly Springs, NC 27540. Huge thanks to Pine
Springs for hosting!
How much does it cost?
Less fun, but extremely
relevant question. The registration fee is $55 per participant.
Where should I
stay?
There are a few options in
the immediate vicinity. Here are some recommendations: Hampton Inn and Suites Holly Springs (3.3mi); Comfort Inn Apex (2.7mi); Holiday Inn Express Apex-Raleigh (3.2mi)
What else should I
know?
Lunch will be provided both
days. Agendas, speakers, logistics, and more coming soon!
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NEWS RELEASES 2018-19 :: OCTOBER 2, 2018
35 NEW CHARTER APPLICATIONS RECEIVED
APPROVED SCHOOLS WILL OPEN FOR STUDENTS IN FALL 2020.
Thirty-five nonprofit boards submitted applications to open public charter schools in August 2020. A listing of applicants is available on the N.C. Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI) Office of Charter Schools’ website .
October 1 was the deadline to submit an application through the
Office of Charter Schools’ automated application system. Each charter
school applicant was required to pay a $1,000 application fee and
perform criminal background checks on its proposed board members in
addition to providing a detailed description of its proposed school’s
mission and plan to meet that mission for students.
The Office of Charter Schools will review the applications for
completeness before forwarding them to the N.C. Charter Schools Advisory
Board (CSAB). The CSAB will use an established structure, including
external evaluators and applicant interviews, to review the
applications. At the conclusion of this process, the CSAB will recommend
applicants to the State Board of Education for approval.
North Carolina currently has 185 charter schools open for students.
An additional eight schools received a favorable report in August from
the State Board of Education to begin a planning year for preparation to
open in August 2019. During the 2018 application year, seven schools
were granted a one-year delay in opening by the State Board of
Education. These 15 schools, once all open, will bring the state’s total
number of charter schools to 200.
Charter schools are public schools operated by nonprofit boards. The
schools have open enrollment and no tuition is charged to attend. Tax
dollars are the primary funding source for charter schools.
Visit the N.C. Office of Charter Schools’ website for more information.
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Charter School Web Link:
The
Exploris School and Diversity
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How North Carolina charter schools are planning for and intentionally building an MTSS that meets their needs
Building a Multi-Tiered System of Support is based on the needs of your school. By examining both student and implementation data a system can be built that supports both teachers and students.
Cohort 3 & 4 Charter School teams spent last year building knowledge about intervention systems specifically around literacy, math and social emotional & behavior supports. Then, through the use of MTSS resources and conversations with their team, they prioritized their intervention system implementation for the 2018-2019 school year. Here are some actual examples of identified implementation priorities:
- Continue to analyze our core instruction and make changes as needed
- Develop Common Understanding Regarding a Standard Protocol Approach as it applies to supplemental and intensive tiers of support
- Build understanding of the difference in intensity between supplemental and intensive tiers of support.
- Define and communicate the Purpose/Role of the School Leadership Team in developing the school’s intervention system
- The school leadership team revisits and revises their established Terms of Reference
- Communication feedback loops are established between PLCs and school leadership teams/connected to MTSS communication protocol
- Establish a calendar of school leadership meetings to develop and monitor the intervention system
- Work in teams to analyze data in order to make decisions about core and/or supplemental instruction
- School leadership/district team will create math intervention entry rules for intensive supplemental instruction based on universal screening results
- School-wide data evaluation plan that includes student outcome measures for a literacy intervention system
- Set up a “Stop Doing List” that will be developed based on common understanding around a standard protocol approach to designing an intervention system
- Use our intervention time to maximize providing supplemental instruction to our TIER II students
We are proud of these charter school teams who continue to problem solve data to engage in continual improvement. As always, if your team would like additional support to plan for implementation steps such as these , please contact your IABS Consultant .
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NC Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI) Updates
ARE YOU READY TO HELP
SHAPE NC STUDENTS' DIGITAL LEARNING STANDARDS?
As part of the NC
Standards Review, Revision and Implementation process, the Department of Public
Instruction is seeking your input on the current student information and
technology standards (known as ITES, Information Technology Essential
Standards) via survey. The survey may be accessed via: ncvps.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_3EO3ABH2pjftRVH
Thank you in advance
for taking the time to complete this survey and assisting in our evaluation of
the 2009 ITES. We value your expertise and unique perspectives on digital
teaching and learning in our state. The ITES Steering Committee will be
reviewing this data to determine if they should be revised.
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October 1st EL Headcount
The October 1 Headcount of English Learners will be open
from Monday, October 1, 2018 and close Friday, October 26, 2018 via reporting
in PowerSchool.
The Headcount of English Learners is used to determine
distribution of PRC 054 state funds and LEA/Charter eligibility for the federal
Title III PRC 104 Language Acquisition Grant. In accordance with SL
2003-284, Section 7.15(b), the Department of Public Instruction is required
to prepare a headcount of all English Learner students and report it to the
Joint Legislative Education Oversight Committee by December 15 of each year.
The
Headcount Procedure Document 2018.pdf is attached at the bottom of this email.
The
recorded webinar, link below, is also available on the ELD Wiki:
To review the data for discrepancies, utilize the English Learner reports in
PowerSchool.
From
the Start Page select:
- System Reports
- sqlReports 5
- English Learners (EL)
- EL Roster - Enrolled ~or~ EL Roster - Enrolled and
Withdrawn
To submit the headcount, from the Start page select:
- EL
- Click on the 'Counts' tab
- Click on each aggregate count to review the list
individual students
- Once all discrepancies have been resolved, click the
Submit button
To access these reports and submit the headcount, a PowerSchool user role of
218 LEP Coordinator is required. If discrepancies are found, email a Record
Change Request (RCR) form (attached below) to marshall.foster@dpi.nc.gov by
October 26, 2018. (note: Vicky Kriegsman has retired)
For other PowerSchool issues, the PowerSchool Coordinator should contact the
HomeBase Support Center by submitting a ticket through the Remedy Portal or by
calling 919.807.4357.
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2018 NC Teacher Working Conditions Survey
Thank you, once again, for your
assistance in making the 2018 NC Teacher Working Conditions Survey a success!
We are
offering an informational webinar on Tuesday,
Oct. 9, to discuss the overall data from the survey, as well as
ways you can use the data to improve working conditions in your school or LEA.
The
webinar will be offered at 10 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. on October 9,
and will be recorded and posted on the Regional Education Facilitators website for viewing at a
later time.
To
register for the 10 a.m. webinar, go to: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/4807630378542041857
To
register for the 3:30 p.m. webinar, go to: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/19363892205546497
After
registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about
joining the webinar.
Cynthia
Cynthia M.
Martin, Ed.D.
North
Carolina Department of Public InstructionEducator Support Services
Educator
Support Recognition & Advancement LeadEmail: Cynthia.martin@dpi.nc.gov
Office: 919-807-4037
Fax:
919-807-3362
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Registration Open - 68th Conference on Exceptional Children:
Registration is now open for the 68th Conference on Exceptional Children.
More information is located at https://ec.ncpublicschools.gov/conferences-profdev/annual-conference.
Registration deadline is October
31 so be sure and register early.
The Exceptional Children Division looks forward to seeing everyone at the
conference!
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Charter Read to Achieve Webinar
Many charters have requested
benchmark extensions due to the disruptions or closures caused by Hurricane
Florence and its aftermath. We have also had additional extension
requests due to technology and classing issues some districts have encountered
this year.
In an effort to accommodate the
needs of affected schools and districts, the state will extend the BOY
window for mClass:Reading 3D to Monday, October 8th. Exceptions to
this final extension date include those districts and schools in the Southeast
and Sandhills regions. You can set your Charter date anytime before October
8th.
Many of you have emailed me about
dates beyond October 8th and I have approved those dates (you do not need
to email me again). If you have not contacted me and will need a date beyond
October 8th, email be with the date you wold like your window to close and the
reason for the needed extension.
Rebecca Belcastro
K-3 Literacy Consultant, Piedmont-Triad
North Carolina Department of Public Instruction
919-789-1036
rebecca.belcastro@dpi.nc.gov
Indicator 11 Count is Due on 10/19/2018
10/1/2018 - Indicator
11 Count is Due on 10/19/2018
Indicator 11 is now open for submissions. All test counts have been
deleted. All LEAs,
Charter schools, and State Operated Programs that completed a December 2017
child count must submit and certify Indicator 11 no later
than October 19,
2018.
Submitting the Count:
The EC Director must sign into CECAS.
Open Data Exchange folder, Open the Periodic Count folder, Click on Periodic
Count Submissions.
On the Periodic Count Submissions page, click New Submission. Fill in the drop
lists on the screen.
Click Next.
To Certify the Count:
Make sure the count status is either NO DATA or VALIDATION COMPLETED
The EC Director must sign into CECAS. Open Data Exchange folder, Open the
Periodic Count folder, Click on Periodic Count Submissions.
On the Periodic Count Submissions page, drop down the Count period Type field.
Select Indicator 11. From the count period drop list select SY 2017-18 Ind 11.
Select Region and LEA. Do
not select a FILE TYPE.
Click Search. The Certify button will appear next to the Search button.
Click Certify.
Print the next page for your records.
If you have any questions regarding this, please contact your Regional
Trainer. If you cannot reach your Regional Trainer, contact the Help Desk at
(919) 807-4357, press 3, then 1 for CECAS
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