Charter School Advisory Board November Meeting

The North Carolina Charter School Advisory Board met November 5^th and 6^th, 2018 at the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction.   

The agendas are available on the State Board of Education’s website under the Meetings tab. There you can also find presentation materials for each agenda item, where applicable.

Charter School Advisory Board meetings are live-streamed and available on the NCDPI YouTube Channel.

Questions regarding this meeting should be directed to NCDPI Communications at 919-807-3450.

Reflections from Mr. Steven Walker, Charter School Advisory Board (CSAB)   The Charter Schools Advisory Board had a long but very productive meeting for November. The application review process is now well underway, as we conducted initial reviews of the first batch of applications that requested acceleration under the new State Board of Education policy on accelerated opening. Under the policy, an applicant must show an exceptional need in the community for a charter school and must demonstrate that the facility has been identified and secured for an early opening. Schools that are approved for an accelerated opening will participate in the Ready To Open training during the pendency of their application and be allowed to open one year earlier than a school that goes through the normal Ready to Open process. We also interviewed schools that are up for renewal in the current cycle and continued our reviews of charter schools that have been designated as low-performing or continually low-performing. As we enter the Thanksgiving season, I am thankful for the hard work of all the members of the CSAB, the hard work of OCS, and I am especially thankful for all the charter school leaders and teachers that have made charter schools a resounding success in North Carolina.  Happy Thanksgiving!

Amendments

The CSAB discussed two charter amendments for weighted lotteries and voted to recommend approval of one request, while tabling voting on the other request for the next meeting.

School Presentations

The CSAB heard presentations from the Heads of School for Three Rivers Academy and Healthy Start Academy. KIPP Durham, Rocky Mount Prep, Wilmington Preparatory Academy, Ignite Innovation Academy – Pitt, PreEminent Charter, PAVE Southeast Raleigh Charter, Aristotle Preparatory Academy, UpROAR Leadership Academy, and Paul R. Brown Leadership Academy were selected to give presentations and address the CSAB regarding their academic data and school improvement plans. In addition, seven schools addressed the CSAB with renewal presentations. The CSAB will vote next meeting on 2019 renewal recommendations.

Application Season

The application interview season has begun with clarification interviews. Six applicants proposing unique charter schools from across the state were heard for clarification interviews. All six applicants were selected to participate in full interviews next month.

Twitter!   The Office of Charter Schools announced its official Twitter account to the CSAB. OCS hopes to raise awareness and promote positive news about our charter schools through this social media initiative. In addition, this will serve as another communication tool for the office. Find us at @NCCharterOffice.

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT – EDDIE is the authoritative source for NC public school numbers and demographic information, is used by multiple NCDPI technology systems including: Accountability, PowerSchool, NC School Report Cards, and is used to meet federal reporting requirements. LEAs and charter schools are responsible for ensuring their data in EDDIE are complete, accurate, and current. EDDIE is located at: http://apps.schools.nc.gov/eddie