NCDPI Office of Charter Schools (OCS) Updates
DID YOU KNOW?
Thanks to your input, we sought clarification on last week’s CPR requirement announcement. According to the Healthful Living department, charter schools are EXEMPT from the CPR requirement written into the State Graduation Requirements. The Attorney General at the time of the enactment stated that the requirement did not apply to charter schools. More information about Healthful Living can be found here. We apologize for the confusion and thank you for your feedback!
|
|
 |
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 dates and sites:
-
October 23rd – Workforce Development & Continuing Education
Building at 629 Industrial Park Avenue in Asheboro
|
|
 |
|
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.
|
|
 |
Charter School Leadership Institute - 2018 at Pine Springs Preparatory Academy
NC Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI) Update
Educator of Excellence for recognition at the 68th Conference on Exceptional Children.
As of October 15th, the Exceptional Children Division records indicate that your LEA did not nominate an Educator of Excellence for recognition at the 68th Conference on Exceptional Children.
Please advise if your LEA intends to nominate an Educator of Excellence. If so, please do so by October 22, 2018.
Additional information regarding the nomination process may be found at: https://ec.ncpublicschools.gov/conferences-profdev/annual-conference.
Thank you for your attention to this matter. Have a great day. If you have any questions, please contact Jamie Davis at: jamie.davis@dpi.nc.gov
College application fee waiver extension for hurricane-impacted counties
NC schools have been busily preparing for College Application Week (Oct. 15-19) as part of NC Countdown to College (nccountdowntocollege.org).
Even so, many schools have been significantly impacted by Hurricane Florence and have been unable to schedule events or help their students prepare. In light of this fact, a number of colleges have extended their admission application fee waivers until Nov. 16 for students in 28 designated counties.
When a student is completing their application on CFNC.org, the system will provide the special fee waiver option based on the county in their permanent/mailing address on the application. You’ll find the list of designated counties and colleges extending fee waivers at http://nccountdowntocollege.org/hurricane.
Summer programs and EOG testing
For the 2018-19 school year, districts may administer the End-of-Grade (EOG) and End-ofCourse (EOC) tests during summer programs. As in previous years, the readministration scores will not be included in growth analyses for school accountability or for educator effectiveness. However, the higher score will be included in proficiency calculations for school accountability within the current accountability year. The 2018-19 accountability year ends on July 6, 2019. Summer program EOG and EOC readministration scores uploaded to the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (DPI) by July 6, 2019, will be included in 2018-19 accountability calculations. Summer program sessions with test scores uploaded to the DPI after July 6, 2019, will be included in the 2019-20 accountability analyses.
Click here to read more.
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.
|
|
 |
MESSAGE from Regional Education Facilitators (REFs): Have you heard.........
1. Beginning Teacher Support Program (BTSP) Plans must be updated and approved this year to align with policy TCED-016 no later than Oct. 31.
2. The 2018-2019 Peer review process is now being shared at your regional Beginning Teacher Support Collaborative meeting. Dates and times of those meetings vary by region.
3. Questions about a sound BTSP Program can be located in the Beginning Teacher Support Program Handbook
4. BTSP Monitoring visits for the next five year cycle can be seen here
5. Unpacking Teacher Working Conditions Survey Data Webinar was shared on October 9. It was recorded and is posted on the Regional Education Facilitators website.
|
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!
|
|
 |
|
Please follow this link to access the ESL/Title III
Update bit.ly/ESLupdate1018 -
Growing Success for North Carolina English Learners.
Contact Mrs. Xatli Stox at xatli.stox@dpi.nc.gov if you have any questions
|
|
 |
Presidential Scholars Program, deadline extended
Due to the storms affecting the state, DPI has extended the deadline for superintendents to submit nominations for the Presidential Scholars Program until Nov. 9.
The mission of the program is to recognize and honor superior high school seniors and thereby to encourage high attainment among all students. Each LEA superintendent is invited to nominate one student in the general category who has achieved high academic success while overcoming obstacles to represent his/her school district for the U.S. Presidential Scholars Program.
Click here for the official statement, including more information about the program and how to apply. (Note that this is the original memo and does not include the new deadline of Nov. 9.)
|
|
 |
Other News
North Carolina Homeless Education Program
North Carolina Child Care Resource & Referral Webinar Oct 22nd, 11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
The next collaborative webinar in the series being hosted by SchoolHouse Connection (SHC), the North Carolina Coalition to End Homelessness (NCCEH), and NC Homeless Education Program (NCHEP) will be broadcast on Monday, October 22, 2018, from 11:00 am – 12:00 pm. The webinar, “North Carolina Child Care Resource & Referral” will focus on partnerships related to accessing quality child care and early education services.
Registration is available at https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/472470435894016259.
Lisa Phillips, State Coordinator, encourages your participation in this webinar, if possible; however, we recognize that many of our LEAs are still recovering from Hurricanes Florence and Michael and may not be able to participate on October 22nd. The webinar will be recorded for later access.
If you are not able to participate in the broadcast, please reach out to your program specialist for access information after the broadcast date. Any questions you may have after viewing the recorded webinar should be submitted to NCHEP and feedback will be provided through an FAQ.
Please feel free to share this webinar registration information with any colleagues who you feel may be interested in participating.
If you have webinar participation questions, please contact your program specialist for assistance.
|
|
 |
2018-2019SY Data Collection is Open
The homeless module in PowerSchool is now open.
Please contact your program specialist if you experience any access issues. NCHEP will collect all issues and work with DPI for remedy.
Data collection training materials and resources are located at https://hepnc.uncg.edu/data-collection/. For any questions not covered in these resources, please contact your program specialist.
Paullett Wall – pwall@serve.org or 336-315-7407
Northeast, Southeast, North Central, Sandhills
Patricia Lentz – plentz@serve.org or 336-315-7402
Piedmont-Triad, Southwest, Northwest, Western
|
