NCDPI Office of Charter Schools (OCS) Update

From the Desk of ........................ We’ve Moved!!   The Office of Charter Schools has moved to the 6th floor in the DPI Building. Unfortunately, our current phone numbers are not moving with us. Until we are assigned new phone numbers please communicate with us through email. We will update our website as soon as our phone numbers are assigned. As always, thank you for all you do for our students across North Carolina.     Dave Machado Director of Office of Charter Schools 6303 Mail Service Center Raleigh, NC 27699-6303 dave.machado@dpi.nc.gov (P) 919-807-3490 (F) 919-807-3496

Follow the Office of Charter Schools on Twitter    Contact: ocs@dpi.nc.gov   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.

2019 Performance Framework: March Submission Deadline Approaching Quickly  OCS collects evidence of operational, financial, and academic compliance through the Charter School Performance Framework (PF). Please find the submission criteria due on Sunday, March 31, 2019.   Deadline- March 31, 2019 - All Schools    A01.2 – Parent Letter for Schools with a D or F  A13 – Fire, OSHA, and Other Required Health or Safety Inspections  A15 – Civil and Liability Insurance Certificate  A16 – Board Criminal History Check Policy  A19 – EMO/CMO Public Records Request  A21 – School Improvement Plan    For more information, please check out to the March Submission Guide linked here. [Note: for optimal use of the links within the document, it is best to download a copy of the PDF]     All schools must submit the required documents per the established reporting timelines. Please submit information through the web-based tool Epicenter; to view the webinar training recording click here. Please read the instructions provided in Epicenter for each submission task carefully.     Users are invited to the Epicenter by NCDPI OCS staff. To request a user for your school, the lead administrator must send an email to ocs@dpi.nc.gov with the following information of the requested user: 1) first and last name, 2) school email address, 3) position at the school, and 4) the name of the school.     Web-based Resources:  March Submission Resources  Frequently Asked Questions    For questions regarding the 2019 Charter School Performance Framework, please send an email to performanceframework@dpi.nc.gov.      For technical support, please contact the Epicenter Support Center at (855) 899-1624 or support@epicenternow.org.

Teacher Licensure Requirements – Reminder   Per NC General Statute 115C-218.90(a1) and State Board of Education (SBE) Policy CHTR-006, a charter school is required to maintain certification of at least fifty percent (50%) of its teachers.   As a reminder, per SBE Policy CHTR-006, charter schools shall maintain compliance with the law regarding licensure percentage requirements from December 31 of each year through the end of the school calendar year. Failure to do so is noncompliance with the statutory requirement, which shall result in a school’s placement on Governance Cautionary Status for the remainder of the 2018-19 school year.   The Office of Charter Schools receives a monthly licensure report on each school’s current licensure percentage utilizing data from the PowerSchool schedule and the NC Online State Licensure System. Correspondence regarding governance noncompliance for failure to meet at least fifty percent (50%) licensure ratio has been delivered to the applicable schools in the month of January.   Please note that this report is checked monthly and that charter schools are required to comply with the state law regarding licensure through the end of the school year. It is important that schools continue to monitor and address licensure compliance for the months of February through June to avoid the designation of noncompliance for the 2018-2019 school year.   Please be aware that expired, out-of-State, out-of-area, or out-of-grade level licenses do not count towards your school’s licensure percentage.  Also, be aware that improper coding of teachers or courses, or lack of student assignment, or teacher social security numbers entered incorrectly could be affecting your licensure percentage calculation.  Finally, teachers that work as “pull-out” instructors will not be picked up by the data because they are not connected to a course code. For those teachers, and for any other data assistance issues, please contact Mike Cash, NCDPI Data Analyst, at 919-807-3338 or Mike.Cash@dpi.nc.gov. The Office of Charter Schools does not have access to the data used to generate these reports.   If you have any specific questions regarding licensure, including how to obtain or renew a license, please contact the DPI Licensure Section at (919) 807-3310 or asklicensure@dpi.nc.gov.    Please direct any additional questions to Ashley Baquero, Office of Charter Schools Consultant, at 919-807-3457 or Ashley.baquero@dpi.nc.gov.    ***Statutory and Policy Links*** https://stateboard.ncpublicschools.gov/policy-manual/charter-schools-administration/copy_of_policy-for-charter-schools-on-financial-and-governance-noncompliance https://www.ncga.state.nc.us/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/PDF/BySection/Chapter_115c/GS_115C-218.90.pdf

Regional NCStar Trainings in March & April – Registration NOW OPEN

From 8:30am – 1:00pm at each location, beginner training will be conducted and then from 2pm-4pm each location will have a Q&A session for experienced users. 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.

• NORTHWEST o April 12th – Olive Hill Resource Center at 509 West Concord Street in Morganton
• WESTERN o April 5th – Burrell Building at Southwestern Community College at 447 College Drive in Sylva
• SOUTHWEST o April 3rd – Linda Rader Staff Development Center at 240 Eighth Avenue in Cramerton
• NORTH CENTRAL o April 10th – Harnett Health Sciences Center at 51 Red Mulberry Way in Lilington
• SOUTHEAST o March 26th – New Hanover County Schools Board of Education Center at 1805 South 13th Street in Wilmington
• NORTHEAST o March 28th – Sadie Saulter Educational Center at 400 Spruce Street in Greenville
• PIEDMONT-TRIAD o April 11th – Workforce Development & Continuing Education Building at 629 Industrial Park Avenue in Asheboro, NC

NCETA Spring Literacy Symposium   The NCETA Spring Literacy Symposium will take place on April 6th and we have a great day planned for this event, with Melissa Smith from #teachinglivingpoets, Jennifer Mangrum from the National Paideia Center, and NC poet Tyree Daye.   Check out our schedule of events here to see descriptions of concurrent sessions, including one session featuring the poetry of Tyree Daye, another led by Melissa Smith, and a session on getting your own writing published in our journal, Fringes. We'll also have tables set up with information about teacher awards, student writing awards, and classroom grants. We still have plenty of space for you to attend the symposium, and you can sign up here.   Jay Whalen NC ACCESS Program Administrator  NC Department of Public Instruction 6307 Mail Service Center Raleigh, NC 27699-6307 Jay.Whalen@dpi.nc.gov

NC Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI) Update

Superintendents' Weekly Message: March 26

Superintendents' Weekly Message: March 26

Statement from Superintendent Mark Johnson on May 1 protest   We support teachers and are championing the changes our education system needs, but I cannot support protests that force schools to close. The protest organizers should choose a non-school day. The legislature will be in session in Raleigh for at least another three months, a time period that spans dozens of days students are not scheduled to be in school, including spring break and summer break. Protesting is a right that can be just as effective during non-school hours. Closing schools affects not only students’ learning and nutrition, but also parents, other school employees, and other teachers. We have more work to do, but we listen to educators’ concerns and have been responding with efforts to raise teacher pay, provide state funding for school construction needs, reduce high-stakes testing, improve school safety efforts, and more.

School Business Newsletter

School Business – March 29, 2019

Allotment Updates

PRC 016 – Summer Reading Camp allotment will go out today.

PRC 058 – CTE – Pathways Initiative Grant (formerly Capacity Building) will go out today.

PRC 115 – Planning allotments have not gone out yet. We are waiting on federal programs for the final allotment totals. We hope to receive the information so the planning allotments can be loaded next week. Once the planning allotments are out, you will need to submit a budget in LBAAS/Budget Builder to be approved by federal programs before receiving your actual allotment. Please allow one to two weeks after your budget has been approved to receive your allotment.

ABC Transfers – any ABC transfer in the allotment system as of 3/25/19 were processed and should be available today.

Planning information for 19-20 – We hope to have the state planning information available sometime in April.

If you have questions related to allotments, please contact Sue Holly at susan.holly@dpi.nc.gov

School Safety Grants 2019-20

The NC Center for Safer Schools is not able to offer grant applications at this time as the grant program is dependent on FY20 appropriations from the General Assembly. Once the General Assembly officially allocates money for the grant program, the Department will post applications on the Center for Safer Schools website at www.ncpublicschools.org/cfss/.

2019-20 Home Base Opt-in Availa DPI is pleased to announce that the full suite of Home Base will become available to all districts and charter schools for the 2019-20 school year in early to mid-April. The cost will remain the same as last year - $1/ADM which gives access to Schoolnet and NCEES Unified Talent Perform and Professional Learning. Districts and charter schools can acquire Canvas for an additional cost of $3.74 per user through the state negotiated convenience contract. Home Base users can expect to see a streamlined assessment creation and scheduling dashboard, including easy access to share assessments and locally created question banks in Schoolnet. NCEES Unified Talent Perform and Professional Learning will offer: Updated dashboards to track CEUs through local PD course modules and varied PD opportunities Free access to NCDPI self-paced Canvas and Moodle modules aligned to staff standards and elements Effective educator evaluation instruments based on NC teacher standards and NC standards for administrators   We hope to see 100 percent district opt-in as in the past. If you have questions concerning the 2019-20 Home Base Opt-in process, please contact Yolanda Wilson, Home Base Opt-in Administrator, yolanda.wilson@dpi.nc.gov.   Yolanda Wilson NC Department of Public Instruction Digital Teaching and Learning (919) 807-3485

Greetings HR Directors:

In an effort to keep you all better informed about changes to state policy, NCDPI will begin offering monthly webinars closely following State Board of Education meetings.  The purpose of the webinars is to provide you with the opportunity to hear about proposed and approved changes to state policy that have an impact on Human Resources departments.  

Because we anticipate many participants, the webinar will not offer a "Q & A" session.  We will, however, have a chat feature enabled and will try to answer the most common questions raised from the field.  Additionally, we will record these webinars and place those recordings online so you will be able to hear the information even if you are unable to attend.  Attendance is, of course, optional, but we hope you all will join us for the webinars.

DPI will send out calendar invites to all Personnel Administrators listed in EDDIE.  If your EDDIE account is not up to date, please update it as soon as possible.  HR Directors may forward the invitation to any staff member they feel would benefit from attending. 

Here is a list of the dates we are planning to schedule the webinars:  

April 5

May 7

June 7

July 15

August 12

September 6

October 4

November 8

December 6

Specific times and the login for the webinar will be provided in the invitation.  Please let me know if you have any questions or comments.

Thomas Tomberlin

Director, Educator Recruitment and Support

Office of the Deputy State Superintendent of District Support

North Carolina Department of Public Instruction

(O) 919-807-3440

NCDPI Makes $1.8 million available to economically distressed counties to support local K-8 digital literacy efforts

The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction is excited to announce a new partnership with Learning.com to improve digital literacy across the state.

Nurturing students’ digital literacy skills encourages growth in areas such as computational thinking, digital citizenship and online safety, visual mapping, databases and computer fundamentals. School districts, charter schools, lab schools, and ISD schools within the most economically distressed counties (as determined by the North Carolina Department of Commerce Tier One designation) will now be eligible to receive funding totaling approximately $1.8 million for implementation and adoption support provided by the Digital Learning Initiative (DLI). All other North Carolina LEAs and schools may choose to leverage the cooperative purchasing agreement via convenience contract with statewide negotiated terms and pricing ($7.50 per student or $3,200 per site license).

All funding-eligible LEAs and Charter Schools within Tier One counties must complete an “intent-to-contract” form (sent directly to its Finance Officer in early April 2019) if they intend to execute a local contract with Learning.com for the 2019-20 school year by 5 p.m. on April 26, 2019.

Eligible LEAs and Charter Schools completing the intent-to-contract form will receive an allotment of at least $3.69 per allotted ADM in the Spring 2019 for adoption support (i.e., off-setting the cost of professional development, technical assistance, devices, etc.). Another allotment of at least $4.62 per allotted ADM will be provided in late Summer 2019 to those eligible LEAs and Charter Schools that have executed local contracts with Learning.com by July 1, 2019. This second Summer allotment will help to off-set the subscription fee. A summary of these allotments can be found below:

All LEAs and Charter Schools will work directly with Learning.com to execute local contracts (whether they are eligible to receive funding or not), by contacting mspence@learning.com.

More information will be coming in the weeks and months ahead, however, if you have immediate questions, please contact Hunter.Huffman@dpi.nc.gov or 919.807.3688.

ECATS Newsletter - March   Attached is the ECATS Newsletter for March.     ECATS Newsletter 2019-03.pdf

April EC Directors' Webinar - Cancelled

The April 2 EC Directors' Webinar is cancelled due to the Exceptional Children Division moving locations within the Education Building.  

Other News

Mountain Island Charter School Press Release

PRESS RELEASE

Mountain Island Charter School Morehead-Cain Scholarship Acceptance
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Mount Holly, NC – It is with great pleasure that we recognize Jake Hawkins as Mountain Island Charter School’s first recipient of the Morehead-Cain Scholarship to the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. Jake was notified of this scholarship award on March 8, 2019 and accepted this award on March 15, 2019. Jake is a founding student at MICS, serves as the High School Student Body President, President of Student Government, Co-Vice President of Best Buddies and also serves as a Team Captain for Varsity Football and Golf. Jake will attend UNC Chapel Hill in the fall. The Morehead-Cain Scholarship is the first merit scholarship program ever formally established in the United States. Only a select few are offered this scholarship each year and those selected pose a rare combination of potential, principle, and purpose as well as significant academic ability. In addition to a full scholarship, the Morehead-Cain award includes a fully-funded undergraduate educational experience, four years of summer leadership training, a discovery fund to research a major project of the student’s choice as well as a paid study abroad program.

The Annual Charter School Health Report will open May 1, 2019 and must be completed no later than June 1, 2019.    A preparation worksheet is provided with the reporting criteria.  All schools are encouraged to download the worksheet and mark the appropriate responses before beginning the online report survey. You may  Click Here  to access the worksheet.  Once you have prepared your responses, save the document to your local computer. This worksheet cannot be accepted as your report requirements. You will use it as a tool to enter your information into the online survey system once the report opens.      North Carolina’s charter schools are required to comply with the Care of Students with Diabetes and with the School Supply of Epinephrine Auto-Injectors laws. Annually, charter schools report on compliance with each law, providing information that identifies staff educational and support needs related to compliance and student safety.    The Charter School Health Report is designed to assist schools in addressing the healthcare needs of students.  Responses will be used to inform future training topics and to report on compliance with required legislation and policies such as Care of Students with Diabetes (§ 115C-375.3.) and School Supply of Epinephrine Auto-Injectors (§ 115C-375.2A ).  The summary will open May 1, 2019 and be completed no later than June 1, 2019.     Please contact Ms. Annette Richardson at annette.richardson@dhhs.nc.gov with questions or concerns.    Annette Darden Richardson, MSN, RN, NCSN Charter School Health Nurse Consultant Division of Public Health - Children and Youth Branch NC Department of Health and Human Services   Office: 252-339-3009

Job Vacancies   Casa Esperanza Montessori   Head of School   Casa Esperanza Montessori is a Charter School grades K-8; and a private preschool located in Raleigh, NC.  We offer a stimulating, enriching curriculum emphasizing academic core subjects, independence and organizational skills. At Casa, students develop a world view that is both practical and thoroughly inspirational. Because of our Montessori philosophy our students are creative, independent learners and self-directed problem solvers. With our multicultural options, families may choose a Spanish immersion speaking curriculum, or a significantly useful Spanish enrichment curriculum   Casa Page Link: http://www.cemcs.org/careers/ or   State Direct Link: https://nc.teachermatch.org/applyteacherjob.do?jobId=446721     The Learning Center   Head of School- in training Open Position 2019-20 school year     The Learning Center Charter School, located in the mountains of western North Carolina in Murphy, seeks a Head of School- in training who is interested in becoming the Head of School.   The HOS-in training will have the opportunity to work alongside the current Director to advance the school’s vision as a national benchmark in educational excellence through an integrated E-STEAM open approach to learning.  To apply send a letter of intent and curriculum vitae by  April 1 to employment@naturallygrownkids.org.      The full job description is available on the school’s website, www.naturallygrownkids.org, then scroll down to News and Newsworthy.

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