DPI Staff Update Board on Florence Damage and Recovery Efforts
Three weeks
after Hurricane Florence swamped eastern North Carolina with torrential rains
and catastrophic flooding that followed, many school districts are still
struggling to recover, members of the State Board of Education learned from
Department of Public Instruction staff leading the agency’s recovery efforts.
Lynn Harvey,
chief of School Nutrition Services, said that local and state school nutrition
personnel had been playing a critical role – even before the storm’s arrival –
helping to prepare emergency shelters in advance and staffing them during the
many days that followed. At one point, Harvey said, a total of 156 shelters were
serving nearly 125,000 people who had fled their homes.
The local school
nutrition personnel helping to staff those shelters, she said, “are unsung
heroes in their local communities and deserving of our recognition.”
In terms of
financial cost, Harvey said, school food authorities in the state that
participate in federal meals programs have estimated and projected lost revenue
of $14 million because of closed schools, and losses of $2 million in food and
equipment from the storm due to lost power, spoilage and food diverted to
shelters.
The impact on
school facilities has been severe, said Eileen Townsend, chief of the DPI’s
Public School Insurance section. Townsend estimated losses of at least $40
million to date, with a total of 125 claims having been filed from 17 school
districts and seven community colleges that are also covered by the insurance
fund. Townsend said the number of claims has exceeded anything the fund has
seen before.
“The situation
is fluid and continues to change,” Townsend said, “and it’s difficult to say
where that number will end up.”
Compared to
Hurricane Matthew in 2016, she said, which resulted in about $14 million in
damages, Florence is likely to result in three times that cost.
“It’s a big
number and a lot of claims,” she said, explaining to the board that Florence
was both a flooding and wind event, causing a range of damage, including water
damage, power outages, mold and mildew. “It’s colossal in so many ways.”
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 Former and Current Education Leaders
Launch Florence Relief Effort
A coalition of
current and former state education leaders presented their effort to aid
schools to the State Board of Education, promoting Florence
Aid to Students and Teachers (FAST
NC) to help North Carolina’s public schools as students and educators recover
in the storm’s aftermath.
In an effort
initiated by former State Superintendent Mike Ward, the members of the steering
committee leading the drive are:
- June Atkinson, former State
Superintendent
- Eric Davis, State Board of Education
Chairman
- Henry Johnson, former U.S. Assistant
Secretary of Education and former Mississippi State Superintendent
- Mark Johnson, State Superintendent
- Phil Kirk, former State Board of
Education Chairman
- Mike Ward, former State
Superintendent
FAST NC is using
an existing foundation established by the State Board of Education in 1989 to
provide support for public schools, and will work with local superintendents,
charter school directors, and statewide associations to identify needs and to
direct funding from the foundation. FAST NC will not seek to duplicate payments
from insurance or state or federal disaster aid, but instead will focus on
supplementing these resources. It also provides a highly visible way for those
nationwide to contribute to Florence relief with a focus on public schools.
The steering
committee will make decisions about funding requests submitted from educators
and administrators across the state that have the approval of the local
superintendent or charter school director.
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Three New Members Join the State Board
Gov. Cooper has
appointed the following individuals to the board, filling the unexpired terms of Bill Cobey, Becky Taylor and Greg
Alcorn, all of whom resigned their seats in recent months:
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Jill Camnitz, of Greenville, as a representative
of the 1st Education District. Camnitz is chair of the Boys and Girls
Clubs of the Coastal Plain Board of Directors. She also serves on the
Parents for Public Schools of Pitt County, Pitt County Educational Foundation
and Brody Foundation. She previously served as a member and as chair for the
Pitt County Board of Education.
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James E. Ford, of Charlotte, as a representative of
the 6th Education District. Ford is the principal at Filling the Gap
Education Consultants, LLC, and serves as co-chair for the Leading on
Opportunity Council in Charlotte. Ford previously served as the program
director at the Public School Forum of North Carolina and was the North
Carolina State Teacher of the Year during 2014-2015.
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JB Buxton, of Raleigh, as a member at-large. Buxton is the founding principal of the Education Innovations Group and has also worked as the deputy state superintendent of the North Carolina Department for Public Instruction. Buxton has served as an appointed member of the Raleigh Planning Commission and as a soccer coach with the Capital Area Soccer League. |
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Student Subgroup Performance Data Presented to Board; Schools Needing Extra Support Named
Under revised
school accountability measures required under the federal Every Student
Succeeds Act (ESSA), DPI released additional data to the board reflecting
school performance by student subgroups in 2017-18 and the names of schools
needing additional support under federal and state guidelines. The additional
data was unavailable in September, when overall School Performance Grades were
released.
Beginning with
last school year’s accountability results (2017-18), all public schools received
a letter grade for the first time for each student subgroup (American Indian,
Asian, Black, Hispanic, Two or More Races, White, Economically Disadvantaged,
Students with Disabilities, and English Learners) in addition to the grade
reflecting the performance of all students combined. Subgroup performance is
reported when the number of tested students in a particular group is at least
30 students.
As with the
overall School Performance Grade, subgroup grades are determined based partly
on the growth or progress that students achieve during the year. Within a given
school, each subgroup is designated as having exceeded expected growth, met
expected growth or not meeting growth goals. Growth counts for 20 percent of
the grade, while absolute performance counts for 80 percent.
While the
subgroup grades reflect longstanding gaps between students based on race,
income and disability, the gaps in growth data are less pronounced.
Grades and
growth data for the state, districts and individual schools can be found here at 2017-18 School Performance Grades and following the
Subgroup tab at the bottom of the file.
ESSA requires
the identification of schools requiring extra support, either from the state
using federal funds for the lowest performing schools (Comprehensive Support
and Improvement) or from local districts for schools needing less intensive
intervention (Targeted Support and Intervention).
Based on 2017-18
accountability results, a total of 77 schools were identified as CSI-Low
Performing schools as the lowest 5 percent of all Title 1 served schools. An
additional 42 schools were identified as CSI schools for having a high school
graduation rate of 66.7 percent or less.
A total of 1,740
schools were placed on a “watch list” for Targeted Support and Improvement
having a subgroup that received an “F” letter grade. Final identification for
that support is based on at least two years of data. In addition, 1,634 schools
were listed for Targeted Support and Improvement based on having had a subgroup
grade below that of the highest CSI-Low Performing school. The lists of schools
qualifying under the CSI or TSI performance criteria can be found here under 2017-18 Data Results.
Six Schools Under Consideration for NC Innovative School District
The list of
schools under consideration for inclusion in the NC Innovative School District for
2019-20 has been narrowed from 14 to six, board members learned from LaTeesa
Allen, newly named superintendent of the district.
Allen explained
that the shorter list of schools was developed after schools were removed from
consideration based on a number of factors, including schools receiving a
School Performance Grade of “D” for the 2017-18 year, schools that received an
“F” in 2017-18 but that met growth and all schools that met growth goals in
both 2015-16 and 2016-17 and eared a “D” grade in those years.
Deputy
Superintendent Eric Hall told the board that superintendents of the districts
where all six of the schools now under consideration have been contacted,
broader engagement with local school boards and communities will not occur
until final selections are made in mid October. Board member Alan Duncan said
he was concerned that communication with school boards and communities follows
the final selection instead of preceding it, causing potential resistance in
local districts.
Hall explained
that the Innovative School District faces a time crunch between early
September, when potential schools for the district are identified based on test
results, and a statutory deadline of Oct. 15 for a final selection of schools.
Because of that brief window, he said, engagement with local communities is a
challenge.
The six schools
under consideration for the 2019-20 school year:
Rural: Carver Heights Elementary, Wayne County; Gaston Middle,
Northampton County; Hillcrest Elementary, Alamance-Burlington; Williford
Elementary, Nash-Rocky Mount Schools
Urban: Fairview Elementary, Guilford County; Hall-Woodward Elementary,
Forsyth County
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