OCS Weekly Newsletter for June 19, 2020

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logoOffice of Charter Schools

6307 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC 27699-6307  •  919.807.3491

Weekly Newsletter- June 19, 2020


Thank you for updating Epicenter!!!

FYI: Our phone numbers have changed. See our new numbers below.

Please email us with questions. We are working remotely, and cannot always access voicemail.

 

SBE Guidelines for the Remote Instruction plan

 

https://simbli.eboardsolutions.com/ePolicy/policy.aspx?PC=SPLN-006&Sch=10399&S=10399&C=SPLN&RevNo=1.32&T=A&Z=P&St=ADOPTED&PG=6&SN=true

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Remote Instruction Plan Template

 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/14eUPdXICmRTcmDN5p0nrzuD0fXOVxF9L/view

 


Jumpstart

Hello leaders!

 

We know you are working hard to complete your Jump Start plans and budgets.  Please be sure to submit both the plan and budget to the following email address no later than 5:00 pm, Monday, June 22. 

RemediationJumpstartTeam@dpi.nc.gov

 

 We appreciate all of your hard work.  If you have additional questions, you can email Shaunda Cooper at Shaunda.Cooper@dpi.nc.gov.  

 

 

Q. As you prepare for the new school year, are you surveying your parents?  We would love to see samples of your surveys. Please share them with us.

 

Remediation & Summer Jump Start FAQs

 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NfJdDuZDBuf-KULCaOSZTH8u7Os_Zi1L/view

 

Remediation & Summer Jumpstart (Updates)

 

Please find the attached update for Remediation and Summer Learning.

 

  • Superintendents, Charter, Regional, Lab, & ISD School Leaders,
     
    Thank you for your ongoing partnership as we all do our part to minimize exposure and risk of COVID-19.
     

  • Please find the following important information about PPE along with a request for you to complete a brief survey to ensure prompt delivery of your PPE Starter Pack. The attached pdf outlines key messages/talking points for use when responding to question about school infection control and PPE guidance. Best, Jessica

    An important component of school reopening is ensuring that our school nurses and delegated staff who provide health care to students have Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to protect themselves and mitigate the spread of COVID-19. Accordingly, the State will provide to all North Carolina public school units a PPE Starter Pack for school nurses and delegated staff for the first two months of the 2020 – 2021 school year.

     

    The PPE Starter Pack will include a two-month supply of:

    • Thermometers
    • Surgical masks
    • Face shields
    • Gowns

    *Note: The State will provide a two-month supply of PPE for school nurses and delegated staff ONLY. Districts and schools will be responsible for purchasing their own additional supplies of PPE and other infection control materials (such as cloth face coverings for teachers and students) using guidance referenced further below by DPI and NCDHHS.

     

    NC Emergency Management will deliver the two-month supply of PPE Starter Packs to public school districts and to charter/regional/lab schools. To ensure delivery of your supply, superintendents and charter/regional/lab school leaders must complete this short survey no later than 5:00 p.m. on Wednesday, June 24, 2020. ​​​​​

     

    Building on StrongSchoolsNC Public Health Toolkit (K-12) (guidance from NCDHHS) and Lighting Our Way Forward (guidance from NCDPI), NCDHHS has worked closely with NCDPI to develop a companion document, StrongSchoolsNC Infection Control and PPE Guidance (K-12), with more information on what PPE schools will receive from the State, as well as recommended quantities and process for ordering other infection control supplies that districts and/or schools are responsible for purchasing on their own. If your school/district plans to make use of state contracts and available pricing for additional infection control and PPE items, review this guidance as soon as possible and take action to place your own orders.

 

Since March 2020, the number of calls to poison centers across the U.S. has been rising for exposures to cleaners and disinfectants. Given the increased frequency of cleaner and disinfectant use to reduce the spread of COVID-19 and the potential for misuse, the NCDHHS offers the following guidance on safe application of disinfectants.  This information is also being shared directly with maintenance directors.

 

Click to read the Interim Guidance for the Safe Application of Disinfectants  June 12, 2020.

 

Subject:  HB 1043 Funding Application for Bus Connectivity and LMS Establishment/Expansion

 

Applications are now available for all Public School Units to apply for funding for Bus Connectivity and Learning Management System Establishment/Expansion as appropriated by House Bill 1043. An informational webinar was held on June 18th and a recording is available for additional information. Applications are due by 5pm on Thursday, June 25th.

 

Bus Connectivity Application: https://bit.ly/buswifi1043app  

For inquiries about the Bus Connectivity Application, email Nathan.Craver@dpi.nc.gov

 

LMS Establishment/Expansion Application: https://bit.ly/canvas20funding

For inquiries about the LMS Application, email Pamela.Batchelor@dpi.nc.gov.

 

Thank You,

 

Jill Darrough

Follow me @JillDarrough on Twitter for Professional Learning Opportunities

Connecting Communities of Education Stakeholders Conference Co-Lead

 

Home Base Opt-in Process Extended – June 30,2020

The NCDPI Home Base team is extending the Home Base Opt-in Process through June 30, 2020.  If your PSU has not opted into Home Base, please inform your district’s finance officer or charter principal/director that the deadline is June 30.  Those PSUs that have not opted into Home Base by July 1, 2020, will lose their access to Schoolnet and their local NCEES Professional Development Office component.

 

Detailed information can be viewed by visiting our NCDPI Home Base Opt-in page and the Home Base Pricing Memo from Dr. Beverly Emory.  Questions concerning this process may be addressed to Yolanda Wilson, yolanda.wilson@dpi.nc.gov.

 

End-of-Year Updates for Special Grants (Risk Pool, Special State Reserve and Developmental Day Center) do not need to be submitted at this time. Thank you in advance if you have already submitted any of them.

 

End-of-Year Combined Expenditure Reports (PRCs 029, 118 and 119) do not need to be submitted at this time.

 

The Preschool Survey does not need to be submitted.  The checkbox in the IDEA grant is not a required box and leaving it blank will not prevent the LEA from changing the grant status to “Draft Completed”.

 

Grant System Resources

https://www.smore.com/sumwn

 

 

**PRC 118 Supplemental Funds have started being allocated this week. When received, you will be able to budget the funds. The funds will need to be budgeted according to the request submitted by your EC Director/Coordinator. Please connect with them to ensure the budget and requests align.  

 

 

Amanda W. Byrd

Section Chief- Special Programs & Data

NCDPI- EC Division

6356 Mail Services Center

Raleigh, NC 27699-6356

(984) 236-2597 (P) New: as of 5/8/2020

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End of Year Updates

The 2019-20 EOY Process for the Home Base Suite of Applications will begin Tuesday, June 30, 2020. Home Base will be taken offline on Tuesday at 5:00 p.m. EOY processing and archiving of data will begin 8:00 a.m. on Thursday morning, July 2, 2020. 


2019-2020 PowerSchool EOY Guide Now Available!

The Home Base team has updated the PowerSchool End-of-Year User Guide for the 2020-2021 school year. Notable updates for this school year include:

  • A new grade level of -9 (XG) is now available for students who have reached the 12th grade and will return next year to continue receiving services. This is referred to as the Extra Grade level, or XG, on state reports. In PowerSchool, XG is represented as -9.
    • There will be more documentation released next week about -9 (XG).
  • The section with directions for charter schools has been updated with steps to ensure no student records remain in the DPI FTE School. In the past, it was common practice for charter schools whose terminal year was lower than 12th grade to move students into the DPI FTE School at EOY, then transfer them out. Due to ECATS, charters now need to move those student records out of the DPI FTE School and back into the charter school before transferring them out. No student records, whether active or inactive, can remain in the DPI FTE School.


The updated EOY user guide is a Google Doc that can be downloaded or printed as desired. Please be sure to review this guide in its entirety to ensure your PSU is ready for EOY. Home Base will go down for EOY at 5:00 p.m. on June 30, 2020. PSUs will begin local PowerSchool EOY processing at 8:00 a.m. on July 2, 2020. The guide can be found by clicking here or by visiting the NC SIS Resources page on the NCDPI website. As always, please direct any questions to home_base@dpi.nc.gov or to PowerSchool Support.

 

School Business Closing Procedures & Dates

https://files.nc.gov/dpi/documents/fbs/finance/reporting/charter-school-closing-letter19-20.pdf

 

PowerSchool (EOY Contact Updates)

Please be reminded of the following and take the time to review your contact information to ensure the required fields are accurately completed. 

  • An alternate phone number is required on the EOY Contacts’ screen for both, the Primary and Secondary contacts (the alternate number should not be the same as the primary phone number). 
  • If there is a phone extension, it should be entered at the end of the Title field (e.g., Title:  PowerSchool Coordinator x4567). 
  • The EOY Contacts’ screen must have a Primary Contact and a Secondary Contact (Primary and Secondary cannot be the same person). 
  • The “Last School Ending Date (mm/dd/yyyy)” field on the EOY Contacts’ screen must be filled out and the page submitted even if your contacts have not changed from the previous year.
  • The “Login (User Admin Name)” fields on the EOY Contacts’ screen should match the “Admin Username” on the user’s Admin Access and Roles tab of the Security Settings’ screen.

 

Questions concerning EOY may be addressed to home_base@dpi.nc.gov

 

 

OCS Guidance for Charter Schools SB704/Session Law 2020-3 and SBE RIP Calendar and other Requirements 5/22/2020

 

OCS Guidance for Charter Schools House Bill 1043 / Session Law 2020-4 Supplemental Grants 6/2/2020


Final Remediation and Summer Jump Start Guidance has been issued by DPI.
Charter schools that serve grades
K-4 do need to submit their summer learning plan to DPI by June 22nd. (Section3.3 (13)) 

 

SBE approves funds for Remediation & Summer Learning:

https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/NCSBE/bulletins/28f1d1d

 

 

To help recap important news of the week, we are pleased to bring you the NCDPI COVID-19 WEEKLY TOP TEN-Special Early Edition!

As a reminder, please forward this link to anyone in your organization you feel can benefit from receiving this information.  The link does not change.  New content is added to the top of the document weekly.

 

 

Communications Team:

Please note we will transition to biweekly calls on Tuesday, June 16, 2020.    Our biweekly Tuesday calls will continue to be held at 8:00 a.m. and recordings will be provided in a follow-up email if you are unable to attend.  We welcome all communications leaders and superintendents to join our biweekly calls. Our biweekly calls occur in the off week of the standing superintendent and charter leaders calls by design, to keep an open channel between NCDPI and the field open each week. 

 

Dates for our upcoming calls are: June 16, June 30, July 14, July 28. 

 

6/10 Communications Call Recording:

The Follow-Up document with the webinar recording and integrated chat from the June 10, 2020 call is now available.    The link to this document does not change. New content is added to the top.

 

 

 

2020-21 DLI Grant Applications

Upcoming Webinars

 

Please take note of the upcoming DLI Grant webinars that took place on Wednesday, June 17, 2020. We will provide details on the application process for both the Implementation and Planning DLI Grants. The webinars will be recorded and available for review on the DLI Grant website. Registration links for the webinars are noted below. 

About the DLI Grants: The RFPs for the DLI Grants were approved on March 5, 2020, by the North Carolina State Board of Education. These competitive grants are intended to support North Carolina Public School Units (PSUs) as they address challenges, harness opportunities, and leverage resources for digital-age, personalized teaching and learning. As specified in the Digital Learning Plan, this grant program is intended to support the development and dissemination of local innovative digital teaching and learning across North Carolina. 

During this round of the Digital Learning Initiative Grants, there are two Request for Proposal applications: Planning and Implementation. Please refer to the RFP materials on the DLI Grants website for detailed information about each grant opportunity as well as the submission guidelines. 

The deadline for all application submissions has been moved to August 31, 2020, at 5:00 p.m.

Webinars for this have closed.

 

 

 

 

 

 In addition, questions regarding these grant opportunities may be submitted by August 27, 2020, by 5:00 p.m. through the DLI Grants Questions Form. We will post responses to questions on the Q&A page.  

Lindsey Sipe (lindsey.sipe@dpi.nc.gov) and Julie Gurganus  (julie.gurganus@dpi.nc.gov), two of our Digital Teaching and Learning Consultants, are the leads on this effort and will be hosting the webinars and keeping track of the Q&A’s. 

We look forward to many of our North Carolina PSUs engaging in this competitive process as we continue to foster digital-age, personalized learning across our state. If you have questions, please contact Lindsey Sipe or Julie Gurganus.

 

Charter leaders, please take a look at the timeline and requirements for the Second Annual NCCAT Beginning Teacher of the Year Award! Recognize your amazing beginning charter leaders. All the details are right here!

 

Second Annual NCCAT BTOY Award

 

 

The NCCAT Beginning Teacher of the Year  timeline has changed due to these unprecedented times. Please find a link here to the new timeline. https://drive.google.com/file/d/19cGanTnK5KwiXlKe2BNp2mgtn7Eb5Xgr/view

 

Upcoming Events and Reminders!

Save the Date!

 

OCS Huddle West 

July 28th, 2020

OCS 2020 Summer Huddle West Registration

 

Virtual Huddle Registration Closes July 20

VIRTUAL 2020 OCS Summer Huddle

Charter School Leadership Institute 2020

Charter School Leadership Institute 2020 will be postponed until Spring 2021.

 


NC DPI COVID19 WEEKLY TOP TEN

 

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Office of Charter Schools (OCS) Updates

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Professional Learning & Renewals Newsletters

OCS Huddle West Interest Survey


Did You Know?

Charter Schoolhouse
Online Resources from Finance & School Business Division
Topics with links to our most recent information:
Federal CARES Act
Funding and Allocations
PRC154 COVID-19 Supplemental Funds - State
Emergency Leave
Other

DPI Logo

NCDPI Updates

Attendance Reporting in PowerSchool:

Urgent High Priority Triangle
Grants

 

State Board Policy GRAD-004


Leadership Opportunities:

Pinnacle Classical Academy Assistant Principal

CSUSA Human Resources Generalist

CSUSA School Enrollment Systems Specialist

Lake Lure Executive Director Job Posting

Thomas Jefferson Classical Academy Leadership Opportunity

Socrates Academy Elementary school teachers, middle school ELA teachers, and middle school band teacher.


Whom Should I Contact at the Office of Charter Schools?

OCS Main number: 984 236 2700 ocs@dpi.nc.gov

Dave Machado         984 236 2702

Director of the Office of Charter Schools

 

Georgia Maimone       984 236 2701

Program Administrative Assistance, Communications

 

Shaunda Cooper      984 236 2707

Consultant, Renewals & Performance Framework

 

Claire Porter              984 236 2709

Consultant, Professional Learning & Ready to Open Process

 

Ashley Baquero         984 236 2708

Consultant, Amendments & Compliance

 

Joseph Letterio       984 236 2703

Consultant, Epicenter Tech Support & Performance Framework

 

Darian Jones           984 236 2705

Consultant, Applications & Renewals

 

Jay Whalen              984 236 2711

Program Administrator, NC ACCESS Program

 

Barbara O'Neal        984 236 2706

Program Coordinator, NC ACCESS Program