NCDPI Office of Charter Schools (OCS) Updates

Web Links:

Important Resources for Charter Schools: (Please Read)

Please click on each link.

Charter School Diabetes Memo

Charter School Epinephrine Memo

Professional Learning 101

https://www.smore.com/z7vg5

The Scoop with Coop

The Scoop with Coop is a newsletter that focuses on the North Carolina Charter School Renewal process.  In addition, this letter provides insight on a variety of charter school topics to assist our leaders and readers alike!  https://www.smore.com/8hcf9

Union Academy Marching Cardinals to Participate in the Chicago Thanksgiving Day Parade

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PY6jTIPw9vDq9aNMyJw-XOOulv5XsZmIjNBTELH-OHc/edit?usp=sharing

Did You Know?   More North Carolina charter schools are eligible to apply for the NC ACCESS grant?  Expansion and Replication (high quality charter schools operating for at least 3 years) eligibility requirements are below.   “A/B” school and “Met/Exceed” growth for two (2) of the past three (3) years. Applicants must: 1. have maintained at least a “B” SPG, as determined by the NCDPI, for at least two (2) out of the three (3) years prior to their application cycle; 2. have met or exceeded academic growth, as determined by EVAAS, for at least two (2) out of the three (3) years prior to their application cycle; and 3. when applicable, have a graduation rate higher than the state average.           “A/B” school for the past three (3) consecutive years. Applicants must: 1. have maintained at least a “B” SPG, as determined by the NCDPI, for all three (3) years prior to their application cycle; and 2. when applicable, have a graduation rate higher than the state average.           “C” school and “Met/Exceed” growth for the past three (3) consecutive years. Applicants must: 1. have maintained at least a “C” SPG, as determined by the NCDPI, for all three (3) years prior to their application cycle; 2. have met or exceeded academic growth, as determined by EVAAS, for all three (3) years prior to their application cycle; and 3. when applicable, have a graduation rate higher than the state average.     Applications for the NC ACCESS grant will be available online November 15th.

Epicenter Tip Center

What should you do when an Epicenter user is no longer with your school?

DO NOT replace the user’s account information with a new name. This would replace all old timestamped activity from the former user to the new user and create an incorrect history. In addition, it causes login problems.

Instead, you should do the following:

1. If you already made a change – change the previous person's account back to normal (name, email, and sign-in email).
2. Ask the North Carolina Office of Charter Schools to deactivate/delete the previous user.

Ask the North Carolina Office of Charter Schools for a new account by sending the new user’s name, position, and email address to OCS.

NC ACCESS Program Information and Application Training Sessions Contact: NCACCESS@dpi.nc.gov   The second application cycle of the NC ACCESS Subgrant Program is coming soon! The NC ACCESS team is holding several in-person technical assistance information and application training sessions from October 2019-January 2020 to assist prospective applicants with the subgrant application process.   Please note that each 2-hour session will consists of two parts: hour one is an informational session outlining the NC ACCESS Subgrant Program and its requirements, and hour two is an in-depth application training. Sessions with no registrants will be cancelled 24 hours prior to the training.   Learn more and view the full training schedule on our website or register for a training here.

Required Planning Year Sessions Opportunities

Board members from charter schools that are opening in 2020 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:

Registration is now open for the November session.  Registration ends on Sunday, November 10.  Please use this link to register: https://forms.gle/kVCAuaYcj7jYDy638

For questions, please contact Dr. Kebbler Williams at kebbler.williams@dpi.nc.gov or 919-807-3920.

Cash Management and MSA Training (Charter Schools)   We will have a Cash Management and MSA training class for Charter Schools on Wednesday, November 13, 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.   If you would like to attend this class, please provide your name, email address, charter school name, charter school number and 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.

Early Registration Discounts to Fresh Take Conference

Fresh Take: Strategies for Student Success education conference is

February 7, 2020 in Davidson, NC

Todd Whitaker's keynote is titled "What Great Educators Do Differently"

Visit our website to see all the details

Early registration and group discounts are available now

Register Now

#FreshTake2020

NC Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI) Updates

Financial and Business Services Newsletter

Please click on the link below for important financial information

http://www.ncpublicschools.org/fbs/

TeachNC Participation

Greetings HR Directors:

Please see the message below from our teacher-recruitment partner, TeachNC.  Please notice the deadline of November 15, 2019, for taking action.  If you have any questions, please contact Princess Brown (contact information below).

Dear LEA Partners,

Action Item Summary— By 11/15/19:

1. Complete & return this Letter of Participation
2. Fill out this Google form

This year, the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (DPI), in partnership with BEST NC and TEACH.org, launched TeachNC, an innovative and collaborative multi-year initiative designed to build a strong North Carolina educator workforce and to ensure that all students have access to great teachers. TeachNC strives to elevate the image of teaching, expand the educator pipeline, increase the diversity of our educator workforce, and fill vacancies in persistent certification shortage areas. We are excited to officially begin our partnership with you!

By joining TeachNC as a partner, you will gain access to a comprehensive recruiting system that includes a blend of advertising, online, and in-person tools, services, and resources. Working with TeachNC, you’ll identify and grow your own current students and non-certified school community members who are interested in a teaching career and promote your recruiting and hiring events and activities. With a dedicated TeachNC profile page, you’ll also help current job seekers learn more about what it’s like to work in your district, and how they can apply for open positions. You can see an example of a partner Profile Page from Connecticut here. 

There is no cost for districts to join the TeachNC partnership.

It’s time to get started! In to take part in TeachNC and be featured on the TeachNC site as part of the first cohort of LEAs, please complete these two simple steps by Friday, November 15, 2019:

1. Read, sign, and return the Letter of Participation (also attached as PDF) to princess@teachnc.org. 
2. Complete the online 2019-2020 LEA Profile Page Request Form to answer questions about your school/district, which will be used to populate your profile page. Click here for additional instructions and information about submitting your profile form or see the attached instructions page.

If you have questions, please reach out to Princess Brown, TeachNC Director and Communications & Engagement Coordinator with BEST NC, via email at princess@teachnc.org. 

www.TeachNC.org

LEA LOP- TeachNC.pdf

Students in the FTE School

NCDPI has discovered that some schools have students in their DPI FTE school. NCDPI would like to inform all public school units (PSUs) that the DPI FTE school should not be used as a holding school during the school year and there should not be any student records in this school within your instance. This school may be used as a temporary holding school during the EOY process, but students must be moved back to their previous school and transferred out as a no-show within your instance after EOY. Failure to remove these students causes double enrollment in ECATS, resulting in record transfer issues.  

What is a No-Show student? When a student is enrolled in a school but did not show up the first day of school, they are referred to as a " No-Show".  

For the No-Show students to report correctly, the Entry Date must be equal to the Exit Date. Summer No-Show students should have summer entry/withdrawal dates after July 1 and before the first day of school. NCDPI prefers summer dates of 7/6 – 7/6 to avoid enrollment, reporting, and transfer student record issues.

2020-21 Course Code Request

The window for requesting new 2020-21 Course Codes is open and will remain open until November 13, 2019. If you have any specific course code requests for the 2020-21 school year or have general ideas for how we can improve the statewide course code system, please be sure to submit a response by the deadline. If you have any questions or concerns related to the survey, please contact Brandon Young at 919-807-3655 or brandon.young@dpi.nc.gov.
Request Link

SY 2019-20 Mandatory Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) 60-Day OMB Package Now Available

The SY 2019-20 CRDC 60-Day OMB Package was posted on September 19, 2019, on regulations.gov and is now available for public comment. The CRDC requires all local educational agencies (LEAs) in the nation that are recipients of federal funds to respond to the CRDC for the 2019-20 school year.  This includes every public school district, charter schools, juvenile justice facilities, alternative schools, and schools serving only students with disabilities.  

The announcement is available in the Federal Register and copies of the documents may be accessed on regulations.gov. Select “Open Docket Folder” and scroll down to “Supporting Documents” and choose “Forms and Instructions (60D FRN)” and “Supporting Statements (60D FRN)” for the documents posted on September 19, 2019. Comments in response to this notice must be submitted electronically through www.regulations.gov or by postal mail addressed to the Director of the Information Collection Clearance Division, U.S. Department of Education, 550 12th Street SW, PCP, Room 9089, Washington, DC 20202-0023.  The 60-day public comment period closes on November 18, 2019 at 11:59 p.m. ET. 

Exceptional Children Assistance Center Family Engagement Calendar   In celebration of Family Engagement Month, ECAC created a calendar of activities for schools and for families (English/Spanish). We are hoping that schools will disseminate to families and consider placing it on their websites. Also attached is an announcement / flyer about the ECAC sponsored video contest highlighting examples of effective family engagement practices. This can be a video of an event for families, a video of staff planning/ unpacking family engagement and developing strategies, etc. The competition ends on November 18th. There will a Title I winner and a non-Title I winner. Each will receive a $500 gift card to go towards a family engagement activity.      ECAC_SchoolFamilyEngagementCalendar2019.pdf   ECAC_FamilyEngagementCalendar_2019spanish.pdf   ECAC_FamilyEngagementCalendar_2019.pdf   Video contest.pdf

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