OCS Weekly Newsletter for June 4, 2021

North Carolina Public Schools sent this bulletin at 06/04/2021 11:52 AM EDT

Having trouble viewing this email? View it as a Web page.

logoOffice of Charter Schools

6307 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC 27699-6307  

Weekly Newsletter- June 4, 2021

Upcoming Events and Reminders!

Save the Date!

 

New Charter School Leaders VIRTUAL Institute 2021

June 8th & 9th, 2021
Cohort 2021 new charter leaders (heads of school) are required to attend this two-day VIRTUAL institute. Please register at the link here.  BOD members are also welcome and encouraged to attend.

NC Homeless Education Program (NCHEP) Reminders

  • Annual Homeless Data Collection Submission Deadline: Tuesday, June 15th – 5:00 PM

All charter, ISD, lab and virtual schools are required to submit homeless data annually (even if “0” students to report).  Submissions prior to the close of the final school day are being allowed this year and may be made at any time convenient to staff.  Optional, online data submission workshops are being offered for anyone wishing to participate.  On demand data collection resources are available here.

  • Charter Schools Self-Assessment End-of-Year Survey Deadline: Thursday, May 27th – 5:00 PM

NCHEP is conducting its biennial McKinney-Vento program survey of all charter schools in the state.  It is the expectation that each charter school will complete the Self-Assessment Survey as a requirement of the State Coordinator's Office.

  • The survey (1) should take no more than 45 minutes to complete; (2) doesn’t allow for saving entries and returning later to continue; or (3) may be printed as a PDF as a “preview” or as documentation for program activities and files.
  • Access Survey Here

Please submit homeless data collection or self-assessment survey questions to Patricia Lentz, NCHEP Program Specialist for Charter Schools.

OPEN NOW: 2021 NC Charter Applications

The 2021 NC Charter School Application process is open as of Friday, May 28th at 5 pm Eastern Time (ET). The 2021 charter application window will close on July 29, 2021 at 5pm ET. Applicants who are interested in opening a charter school in 2022 under the accelerated timeline, or in 2023 under the standard timeline must submit their charter applications on or before the July 29, 2021 application close date.

Both the online application and $1,000 application fee must be submitted on or before July 29, 2021 at 5pm ET.

The link to the 2021 NC Charter School application will go live on Friday, May 28th at 5pm and will be posted on the NCDPI Charter Schools Application page found here. 

Follow-Up for Monthly NCDHHS Joint COVID Call

Additional resources referenced in the call:

6.1.21 DPI Slide Deck

6.1.21. DHHS Slide Deck

Clarification on face covering requirements for school employees:

DHHS has updated the FAQ for the Toolkit. The information from the FAQ is below.  The updated guidance is on page 4 and 5 of the Toolkit FAQ (available at https://covid19.ncdhhs.gov/media/401/download?attachment).

 

Charter School Nursing Services

 

If you did not have the opportunity to complete the survey on nursing services in charter schools, we will assume that you do not have a school nurse. If this is not the case, please contact Annette.Richardson@dhhs.nc.gov or 252-339-3009

OCS OFFICE HOURS Will Return Monday, June 14th at 11:30 a.m.

Join Us for Office Hours on Monday, June 14th at 11:30 a.m.

Here is the NEW OCS Office Hours LINK: https://ncgov.webex.com/webappng/sites/ncgov/meeting/download/184509c605b64005a0671c573f999fe7?siteurl=ncgov&MTID=m63130db7d3357c89a7332d38b6921c79

NCDPI Agency Horizontal Logo

MEMO - Key Dates for 2020–21 Reporting and Updates for Spring 2021 and Fall 2021

Required Participation in USED’s Office of Civil Rights Data Collection

 

Superintendents and Charter Leaders, 

Please find the attached letter from Superintendent Truitt containing information on the U.S. Department of Education's Civil Rights Data Collection, which requires the participation of every PSU. 

Executive Order 215 and Graduations Update

 

Please see the linked memo below regarding Executive Order 215 and Graduations, from State Superintendent Catherine Truitt.

MEMO: Science of Reading Professional Learning and K-3 Formative/Diagnostic Assessment

ESSER Reminder

Dear Charter Directors,
This is a reminder that the 2021-2022 Eligible Schools Summary Report (ESSR) must be submitted in PowerSchool for all local education agencies (LEAs) and charter schools in North Carolina. All charter schools are required to report these data regardless of whether they accept any federal funds and the report is used to meet several requirements, such as School Report Card, CEDARS and Teacher Loan Forgiveness.  Thank you in advance for your support.

Information regarding the data collection can be found at  https://www.dpi.nc.gov/districts-schools/federal-program-monitoring/federal-program-data-collection

5/20/21 Charter Leader's Call Recording

Attention AP Coordinators: SBE Policy Update- GRAD-008 and CCRE-001

Dear AP Coordinators,

At the May 13 meeting of the North Carolina State Board of Education, there were revisions made to two SBE policies of which we wanted to be sure you are aware, as they are in place for the 2021-22 school year.

GRAD-008

In the GRAD-008 policy, the revision approved by the SBE regarding advanced courses satisfying graduation requirements includes: 

  • AP Government and Politics will now satisfy the requirement for the Founding Principles of the United States of America and North Carolina: Civic Literacy course, as long as all of the founding principles from the legislation are covered in the curriculum.

Important information regarding teacher preparation for GRAD-008 

Due to this NEW opportunity, we hope your school will consider training additional staff in AP U.S. Government and Politics this summer at a virtual AP Summer Institute (APSI) through our NC AP Partnership scholarships (free to districts).

The attached flyer shows which North Carolina institutes are offering AP U.S. Government and Politics. The guidelines and other forms for scholarships are attached for your use. The NC AP Partnership will use the same process as they have for the APSI scholarships you have already submitted this school year.

**We are extending enrollment deadlines through the end of May, but be advised that institutes are filling quickly, so teachers should enroll immediately.**

If you have any questions, please contact beth.cross@dpi.nc.gov (SBE policy) or kkoch@collegeboard.org (APSI)

CCRE-001

In the CCRE-001 policy, revisions approved by the SBE regarding high school courses in middle school include:

  • placement as part of acceleration plan;
  • alignment with the new Social Studies courses;
  • clarification of when this policy is available for students (prior to grade 9);
  • inclusion of all college-level options; and
  • clarification when graduation requirements change (when a student enters grade 9).

Thank you for all you do for students in North Carolina Public Schools! 

Sincerely,

Beth Cross

NCDPI Consultant

Division of Advanced Learning and Gifted Education

Note: While the AP Government & Politics course (which will now satisfy the Civic Literacy graduation requirement course, through NC SBE GRAD-008) exam will be funded for students, the PD for the teachers, called the AP Summer Institutes (APSI) will not be.

School Financial Reporting Section

Phase II. Final Verification: Initial ADM is open now - June 1, 2021 through June 14, 2021.


Charters with current enrollment, regional, UNC Lab schools and new charters approved by the State Board of Education to open July 1, 2021 are required to submit. 

 

New charters approved to open July 1, 2021 will only display during Phase II. 

 

The Phase II, ADM submission, will be used for the first installment of the annual allotment.

 

Please do not hesitate to call or email if you have any questions.

 

Thank you,

 

Angela Harrison
NC Department of Public Instruction
School Business
984-236-2449 NEW

Read this bulletin: School Business Newsletter: Final Verification of Initial ADM for SY 2021-22 in CSADM

 

Important -

May 28, 2021 -Charters.docx

CharterSchoolClosing_2020_2021_Final1.pdf

 

 Budget

School Mental Health Policy Report

Dear Charter School Leaders, 

As you may know, all charter schools are required to report their progress on meeting the guidelines set forth by the NC State Board of Education's SHLT-003:School-Based Mental Health (SBMH) Policy.  This is a new reporting requirement, and we have included the required reporting questions in the Healthy Active Children's (HAC) policy report.  You will be able to complete your report online. In the online reporting portal, you will indicate that you are a charter school, and you will be directed to the SBMH policy questions.  To make it easier for you to assemble your report information prior to going online, a Word version of the online survey is attached to this email. Please complete the online survey to submit your report.  

The information needed to complete the SBMH progress report will come from your School Mental Health Improvement Plan, which is required to upload and must include the mental health training program and suicide risk referral protocol.  

Please note the deadline to complete the HAC Progress Report / School Mental Health Policy Report is September 15, 2021. 

You can access the reporting portal through the link below.   

2021 Healthy Active Children Policy Report Survey

If you have questions or challenges in completing this online survey, please contact Les Spell at Les.Spell@dpi.nc.gov.  

We appreciate the time and energy spent in completing this report and look forward to reading each submission. The Healthy Active Children Report / School Mental Health Policy Report is a valuable tool in efforts to provide quality school health systems that will raise academic achievement and promote physical and mental health among North Carolina’s schoolchildren.  

Thanks for all you do.

 

Les Spell

Data and Policy Consultant

NC Healthy Schools

North Carolina Department of Public Instruction

984-236-2815

Les.Spell@dpi.nc.gov

School Mental Health Policy Report pdf

School Mental Health Policy Report doc

Reporting Discipline Data to the State

Per SBE policy (SSCH-000), incidents of certain behaviors and disciplinary actions must be submitted to the state within 5 business days of occurrence (see pages 4 - 6 on the North Carolina Discipline Data Reporting Procedures Manual). All discipline data must be submitted by June 30th of each year when the window for reporting closes.

To meet this requirement, the data must reside in the state database where it can be viewed in state reports. For these offenses to be pushed into the state database and be viewed in state reports, you must not only enter the offenses in PowerSchool but also run the State Discipline report in PowerSchool.  If you are using 3rd party software to enter your data, please verify with your vendor that your data is being submitted to PowerSchool in a timely manner. You should also verify that these data are accurate by running the state level reports periodically throughout the school year.

Also, please review the disciplinary data manual found on the NCDPI website and make sure your staff understands the definition of each of the reportable acts and consequences to ensure you are reporting them both correctly.

 

Please update your Discipline Data Coordinator Contact Information by filling out the Qualtrics Survey found here:

https://ncdpi.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_1FVZftpuoO7Ul14

 

ALTERNATIVE LEARNING PROGRAMS & SCHOOLS (ALPS)

To help us maximize our support, we request your assistance in updating the ALPS District Data Coordinators Contact List and the ALPS Directory. To make it easy for you to provide your updates, we are utilizing Qualtrics Survey and Google Sheets (see links below). Once we receive your input, we will post the updated ALPS Directory on the NCDPI website. 

 

To update the ALPS Data Coordinator Contact List, click the link to the update form provided below:

https://ncdpi.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_3RgXSJfQuv2zyse

 

 

 

To update the ALPS Directory, click the following link and make any necessary changes to the spreadsheet:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ayLmUbYY94ix83N9HZrV8SJ1N1HeJoVZE5Vz-sAJq38/edit?usp=sharing

 

 

Superintendents and Charter School Directors, 

Please find the attached memo on Testing and Accountability Training. 

Thank you, 

Dr. Catherine Edmonds, Deputy Superintendent
Office of Educational Equity

Dr. Tammy Howard,  Director
Division of Accountability Services

Dave Machado, Director
Office of Charter Schools

Home Base Opt-In Tool and Pricing for 2021-22

Superintendents, Charter School Administrators and other school leaders,

The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI) is pleased to announce that the Home Base Opt-in Tool is now available for PSUs to opt into the full suite of Home Base for the 2021-22 school year at an opt-in price of $1/ADM.

Please see the attachment for full details and access.

Rob Dietrich, Home Base Manager

Home Base Opt-in Reminder

Finance Officers and Charter School Principals/Directors,

 

The deadline for opting into Home Base is fast approaching.  Please remember to opt into Home Base for the 2021-22 school year by June 15, 2021 to prevent loss of access to Schoolnet and NCEES PD.  For complete information on opting into Home Base, visit our Home Base Opt-in page that includes the Home Base Pricing Memo, a link to the Home Base Decision Tool, and FAQs.

 

If you have questions pertaining to the Home Base Opt-in process, please contact Yolanda Wilson at yolanda.wilson@dpi.nc.gov.

EOY

NCEES End of Year Guidance

End of Year is Wednesday, June 30, 2021. PSUs should plan to be fully complete in the evaluation component of NCEES prior to 6/29/2020.

  • The vendor will archive all 2020-21 Plans beginning at 5pm EST on 6/30/2021. Complete and Incomplete plans will be archived. 
    • It is important to have plans completed as NCDPI will pull Summary Evaluation Standard Ratings reports on June 30, 2021 to inform EVAAS.
  • All Plans (Evaluations, Professional Development Plans) should be completed prior to June 30, 2021.
    • Once the plans are archived they cannot be updated/worked in.
  • PSUs should run all locally required 2020-21 reports prior to 6/30/2021
    • Any reports that will be needed to inform next school year during summer or fall 2021-22 SY.
    • Waiting to run reports for 2020-21 during 2021-22 fiscal year pulls correct standards ratings and correct staff UID number, but will report 2021-22 staff location, plan type, name changes. To report staff location, plan type, staff name as of current school year, run your reports before June 30th.
  • As your PSU adds new Staff for 21-22 make sure HR/Payroll sets Active Status to Inactive (NO) for the upload to NCDPI Staff UID (Cedars) until after July 1, 2021. After July 1 payroll can then activate Staff.
  • NCEES Professional Development (Course Modules) will be available while the Evaluation component is archiving 20-21 plans and while testing and then targeting the 21-22 plans.
  • Date for System to be targeted to new plans & accessible to set staff plan types is tentatively July 9, 2021.

Here are the end of year webinars and presentation slides held this year:

And Home Base Meet-ups covered EOY in February and reviewed EOY in April:

NCEES - Premium Library Live for Districts to Plan for Professional Development.

 

Premium Library is now live in NCEES. 

 

Premium Library consists of high-quality, self-paced professional development courses from trusted professional learning vendors. 

 

Located in the NCDPI Home Base NC Educator Effectiveness System (PowerSchool Unified TalentTM Professional Learning) the Premium Library offers topical trainings. 

 

Select free or pay-by-seat courses that address the needs of all learning environments including Remote Online Teaching, Social Emotional Learning, Compliance and Classroom Technology. Learn how to easily search, purchase, assign, and track professional development that will meet your educator's growth goals.

 

Recorded Premium Library Q&A Webinars:

Questions? Please contact Cami Narron, cami.narron@dpi.nc.gov.

New Technical Contact PowerSchool IPT Certification in August 2021

Exceptional Children Division


Corrective Action

Technical Assistance Materials Statewide corrective materials have been made available through the shared drive http://bit.ly/SEAcaFOLDER

Resources Galore

School Business Updates

CSADM Phase II Info

NC Center for Safer Schools NEWSLETTER_ June, 2021

June 2021 K-12 Monthly Mathematics Update

June First Tuesday Science Update

Consolidated Federal Program Updates May 21, 2021

NCDPI School Counseling Updates

Opportunity: Announcing the 2021 Injury-Free NC Academy on Comprehensive Suicide Prevention

Let’s Get Ready! A Family’s Guide to Support Kindergarten Readiness

2019-2022 Allotment Policy Manual for Funding that is Pandemic Related

Resources for GLE, NC's Seal of Biliteracy

Digital Learning Standards Course for 2021

Please be sure to keep EDDIE up to date!

 

Office of Charter Schools (OCS) Updates

logo

 

Planning Year Calendar 2021-2022

The Office of Charter Schools is pleased to release the dates for the 2021-2022 Planning Year Professional Development calendar. All schools (boards and school leaders)  in the Ready to Open process are required to attend five (5) planning year sessions as well as the New Charter Leaders Institute in June, 2022, as part of the successful completion of the Ready to Open and Planning Year process. While these sessions are mandatory for brand new charter schools, we invite those who may new to a leadership role at an established charter school to join the virtual sessions, or access the materials online, under the Planning Year tab of the Office of Charter School's website.

SLA 1 - Summer School Guidance & Policy Recommendations - 

SL2021-7 requires each LEA to develop a school extension learning recovery and enrichment program.  Charter schools are encouraged to submit a plan for grade levels served by the school.  The program is to exist outside of the instructional calendar, meaning it cannot be an extension of the 2020-2021 academic year and must conclude prior to the beginning of the 2021-2022 school year.  For year-round schools, the program can be extended through October 1, 2021 by providing the program during track-out periods.  

Graduation Requirements – Keep these up to date!

OCS recommends that each charter school serving high school grades levels review the state graduation requirements each year and make sure all school requirements are aligned. State graduation requirements are changed periodically as a result of statutory or SBE policy changes. Graduation requirements are based on the entrance year of students into 9th grade.

You can find the state requirements here. Our office recommends two years of foreign language as the University of North Carolina schools require two years of a foreign language during high school for admission. We also recommend mirroring your course names exactly as listed in the graduation requirements so there is no confusion. All schools are required to offer the Occupational Course of Study diploma.

OCS Consultant Sites:

Performance Framework Companion Site

 

Professional Learning 101

 

The Scoop With Coop-All Things Renewals 

 

Ready to Open/Planning Year

Other News about Our Charter Schools:

Alpha Drones

The Fayetteville Observer reports -
Fayetteville students train to become drone pilots at Alpha Academy
ACA Patriotic

Anderson Creek Academy Students Present -

April Military Child Event
LK

Perspective | During COVID-19, N.C. charter schools are helping to lead the way.
Purple Star Designation

OCS thanks and congratulates 5 schools recognized by the 2021 Purple Star Award for serving the families of those serving in our nation's armed forces:

  • Alpha Academy
  • Anderson Creek Academy
  • Northeast Academy for Aerospace and Advanced Technologies
  • Peak Charter Academy
  • Wayne Preparatory

Leadership Opportunities:

The brand new School of the Arts for Boys Academy (SABA) has several opportunities:

American Renaissance School Spanish Teacher for K-5 and 5-8

Cape Fear Center for Inquiry: School Director

Carolina International School Principal

Carolina International Art, PE, Biology, 6th Grade, Interventionist

Casa Esperanza Montessori Head of School

Casa Esperanza Montessori School Finance & Operations Director

Magellan Charter 5th Grade Language Arts/Social Studies Teacher

Chief Academic Officer for North Carolina Cyber Academy

Old Main STREAM Academy School Principal

Old Main STREAM Academy Staff

Pine Lake Prep - Multiple Opportunities!

Pine Springs Prep Middle School Principal

Raleigh Charter High School - Multiple Opportunities!

Rocky Mount Preparatory School - Multiple K-12 Opportunities

Socrates Academy - Multiple Opportunities!

Union Academy Charter School Middle School Principal and High School Guidance Counselor

Whom Should I Contact at the Office of Charter Schools?

 

Please note that response times to voicemails left on our phones will be much slower than usual due to the COVID-19 response efforts. Sending us an email is ideal.  Clicking the link on our names will bring up an automatic email prompt. Thank you!

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

Dave Machado         984 236 2702

Director of the Office of Charter Schools

Shaunda Cooper      984 236 2712

Consultant, Renewals & Stakeholder Support

Claire Porter              984 236 2707

Consultant, Planning Year & 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, Professional Development

Melanie Rackley     984 236 2712

Consultant, Charter Applications

Jay Whalen              984 236 2711

Program Administrator, NC ACCESS Program

Barbara O'Neal        984 236 2706

Program Coordinator, NC ACCESS Program

Davida Robinson   984 236 2878

NC ACCESS Subgrant Program Manager

Lakisha Robbins  984 236 2704

NC ACCESS Finance Administrator