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.

CHARTER SCHOOLS:  DID YOU KNOW?

The Office of Charter Schools has moved to the 6^th floor in the DPI Building. We have updated our phone numbers, which are located on the OCS website.  You may continue to email us or you may call our office.  As always, thank you for all you do for our students across North Carolina. 

2019 Performance Framework April Submission

OCS collects evidence of operational, financial, and academic compliance through the Charter School Performance Framework (PF). Please find the submission criteria due on Tuesday, April 30, 2019. 

Deadline- April 30, 2019 - All Schools

A20 – NC Retirement System Dissolution Funds

2020 Renewal Schools Only (Deadline April 30, 2019)

B1 – Graduation Requirements

B2 – Student Promotion Requirements

B7 – Board Student Discipline Policy

For more information, please check out the April Submission Guide linked here. This guide contains Frequently Asked Questions, submission instructions, and general guidelines for the PF evidence documents due by April 30, 2019. [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. Submission tasks have been assigned to all schools, including items that may be deemed Not Applicable. 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:

April 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.

Regional NCStar Trainings in 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
• NORTH CENTRAL o April 10th – Harnett Health Sciences Center at 51 Red Mulberry Way in Lilington
• PIEDMONT-TRIAD o April 11th – Workforce Development & Continuing Education Building at 629 Industrial Park Avenue in Asheboro, NC

Cash Management and MSA Training (Charter Schools):

We will have a Cash Management and MSA training class for Charter Schools on Friday, April 26, 2019 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.

The above training date is for current charter schools.  New charter school training will be given later and the information will be sent out very soon.

If you would like to attend this class, please provide your name, email address, charter school name and charter school number.  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.

Refund State or Federal Program Report Code (PRC) overages

Review your monthly financial reports, Budget Balance Reconciliation Report (JHA705EG) and Cash Balance Report (JHA714EG) for overages.  Refund any state and federal overages.  If you are expecting additional allotments, please contact the program administer and the Allotment section.  You should not be recording expenses if you do not have an allotment for those expenses.

If you have questions, please contact Roxane Bernard at roxane.bernard@dpi.nc.gov  

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:  

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

2019-20 Home Base Opt-in Available

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

Please see the attached Memorandum announcing Spring 2019 meeting of LEA representative for OT, PT and School Psychology. Participants will need to register using the following link: 

http://bit.ly/RSPSpring2019

• 2019 Spring Statewide Meeting of Related Services Representatives.pdf

Job Vacancy

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  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.