Cursive and Multiplication Tables Survey - Due December 17th

Each year, districts and charter schools are asked to complete a survey regarding the measures taken by each school to implement the requirements regarding cursive writing and memorization of the multiplication tables pursuant to § 115C-81.81. The law states, "The State Board of Education and the Department of Public Instruction shall report to the Joint Legislative Education Oversight Committee by March 30 of each year on the compliance of each local school administrative unit with the requirements regarding cursive writing pursuant to G.S. 115C-81.75 and the memorization of multiplication tables pursuant to G.S. 115C-81.80." 

“115C-81.75 Cursive Writing. - The standard course of study shall include the requirement that the public schools provide instruction in cursive writing so that students create readable documents through legible cursive handwriting by the end of fifth grade.”     

“115C-81.80 Multiplication Tables. - The standard course of study shall include the requirement that students enrolled in public schools memorize multiplication tables to demonstrate competency in efficiently multiplying numbers.”     

To complete the survey for your school, use the guidance below:

1. Work with the appropriate person/people in your school to gather the requested information.  

2. Designate one person from your district or charter school to complete the online survey.  

3. For questions regarding the cursive portion, please contact Dr. Stacy Daniel at stacy.daniel@dpi.nc.gov.  For questions regarding the multiplication portion, please contact Dr. Kristi Day at kristi.day@dpi.nc.gov.      

The survey should take less than 10 minutes to complete.  A PDF of the survey is attached for your convenience. Please submit by December 17, 2021. The final report will be shared with the State Board of Education in February 2022 and submitted to the Joint Legislative Education Oversight Committee by March 30, 2022.      

Thank you in advance for your help in meeting these deadlines.  Should you have any questions about the survey please feel free to contact Dr. Stacy Daniel at stacy.daniel@dpi.nc.gov or (984) 236-2829. 

School Business Division STATE FISCAL RECOVERY FUND PREMIUM PAY BONUS FAQ: as of 12/06/2021   SL 2021-180 Section 39.2 (c-h): The State Fiscal Recovery Fund Premium Pay Bonus is for ALL permanent State employees regardless of funding source employed on December 1, 2021.  (The technical corrections bill (SL 2021-189: HB334) has both portions of this bonus tied to the December 1, 2021 as of employment date).   ALL PSUs: Anyone who was employed on December 1, 2021 receives a lump-sum one-thousand dollar ($1,000) bonus. This would include anyone retiring with an effective date of January 1, 2022. Per the Office of State Human Resources (OSHR), they will be applying the $75K language related to salary based on the salary in effect as of December 1, 2021, BEFORE the legislative increase. Section (d) covers this additional $500 bonus payment and the criteria. Per (h) these bonuses are to be pro-rated for permanent part-time employees. The bonus must be paid no later than January 31, 2022. Use PRC 141 for ALL PSUs --- including Charter Schools, innovative schools, and regional schools, see section 39.2 (e). This is part of the State Recovery COVID funds. The Division of School Business will provide information in January related to monitoring and compliance. Please be reminded these funds will have additional audit requirements to ensure compliance. Charter Schools, Regional Schools, Innovative Schools ONLY: Request State CASH through your normal SPSF request mechanism to cover these payments in PRC 141. Division of School Business will provide an INITIAL Authority to Draw for the $1000 bonus payment based on estimated FTE. Funding for the additional $500 bonus for those less than $75K will be in January after required information is provided. Should funding in this initial allocation not be sufficient, please use other available funds until DPI is able to provide the supplemental funding based on the required report below. Each school is required to report to NCDPI the staffing who qualify for each bonus category. This is due January 7, 2022.  After the Division of School Business receives this report, your allocation in PRC 141 will be updated.  Funds will not be provided if you fail to report this information. We will provide you with a template for this reporting requirement by December 17, 2021.

New Charter School Nurse Consultant - Western Region

The newest member of the Charter School Health Community is Amy Johnson, and she will serve as the Charter School Health Nurse Consultant for the Western half of the state (Districts 5-8). Annette Richardson will continue to serve the Charter School Health Community for the Eastern half of the state. The school nurse consultant map is here for your convenience when determining which consultant serves your charter school.

Amy Johnson is a nationally certified school nurse with experience as a lead nurse. Over the past two years, Amy has been a regional nurse consultant for the Piedmont-Triad District providing technical assistance and guidance to school nurses and other school health professionals. As staff in the School Health Unit, her responsibilities include 1) program assessment, planning, and development, 2) program implementation, monitoring and quality assurance, 3) clinical and program consultation, 4) coordination and collaboration, and 5) training and resource development. The Charter School Health Nurse Consultant position continues as a member of the regional nurse consultant team. Amy received her BSN from Western Carolina University and MSN from Appalachian State University with a concentration in Nursing Education.

North Carolina’s charter schools are required to comply with the Care of Students with Diabetes law (G.S. 115C-375.3.) and with the School Supply of Epinephrine Auto-Injectors law (G.S. 115-375.2A.), as well as charter specific state board policies regarding some student health services. Annually, charter schools report on compliance with these, providing information that identifies staff educational and support needs related to compliance and student safety. Amy will provide support and assistance to the charter schools in Districts 5-8 to ensure these requirements are met. Her email address is amy.t.johnson@dhhs.nc.gov.

Recent Memos and Need to Know

If a Charter does not fully complete the setup in the two CRDC screens at the school level and then re-run the report at the LEA Office level, little to no data will be transferred into the federal tool after next Friday, December 17, 2021.   

In some cases, the user has already approved the report.  They just need to unapprove in PowerSchool and re-run the report at the LEA Office level once they have completed the setup.

The setup instruction document link is:  https://www.dpi.nc.gov/setting-powerschool-crdc

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If the charter does not complete the PowerSchool setup,  they must record the data in the federal tool on their own by February 28, 2022.   After the data transfer, DPI may not be able assist them with this collection.  They will have to wait in the que for the federal level partner support helpdesk along with the rest of the nation.

Terra Dominguez has offered webinars, documentation, and individual meeting times.  The webinars have been recorded and are located here: https://www.dpi.nc.gov/data-reports/data-reporting-and-program-monitoring/civil-rights-data/crdc-documentation-and-webinar-events#webinar-preparing-civil-rights-data-collection

The user can pick any one of the recordings, the message and functional process are the same in each session.  The only difference in the webinars were the time-frame for completion and any issues identified that needed to be addressed by the vendor.  The fixes are in, the PowerSchool deadline is December 17, 2021.

ESSR Reminder

As a reminder, 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 here.

OCR/CRDC - Approve PS Reports and Federal Account Information

Note:  PSUs which were not open in the school year 2020-2021 are not required to participate in this collection.

PSUs May Now Approve the PowerSchool CRDC Preview Report

The CRDC Preview Period ends Friday, December 17, 2021.  PSUs may now approve the LEA Office Level CRDC PowerSchool Preview Report.  Make sure to verify the CRDC Setup has been completed for each school within the PowerSchool instance.  Incomplete setup means the school will have little to no data transferred to the Federal Submission Tool.  If setup has been completed, run the LEA Office Level to ensure the updates were captured.

Accounts to the Federal Submission Tool

Accounts to the Federal Submission are in progress.  Accounts will be provided to staff on the PSU contacts list:  https://www.dpi.nc.gov/crdc-psu-demographics-and-contacts.  

There is no need to log in at this time.  Do not add data to the system until notified that NCDPI has completed the transfer of CRDC data to the Federal Portal. 

Please submit questions or issues as soon as possible to Terra Dominguez at terra.dominguez@dpi.nc.gov.  

Other Important MEMOs from DPI:

• MEMO - ACT Minimum Composite Score Update 12/13/21
• MEMO: Lawful Student Absence 11/8/2021
• MEMO: Legal Restrictions for Cancelling School Days for Students and Staff 10/29/2021
• Important Notice from Karl Logan: Senate Bill 654 and Drivers Ed
• Economically-Disadvantaged-Student Count Guidance from Karl Pond 12/9/21

Monthly NCDHHS/DPI Joint Call If you were unable to attend December's monthly DHHS/DPI COVID Call, please email communications@dpi.nc.gov for a recording of the webinar with integrated chat.    Find DHHS' slide deck from the call with helpful resources here.    Weekly Top Ten - December 9, 2021

New Guidance: Maintenance of Public and Student Records 

School leaders, the new retention and disposition schedule for Local Public School Units has been released, and this schedule also applies to charter schools. You can find it here. LPSUs will also need to use the General Records Schedule: Local Government Agencies to find the appropriate retentions for common records like HR and Legal, and this schedule is available here. 

These schedules are ready to be approved and implemented. Please contact Courtney Bailey (919-814-6918) if you have any questions.

NCEES Webinars

NCEES Webinars are held most Tuesdays from 4-5PM.

Click on the titles below to register. Navigate to Webinars 2021-22 to view webinar descriptions.

• Middle of Year Teachers/Support Staff 
  Tues. Dec. 7, 4-5PM

• Admin Reporting in NCEES  
  Tues. Dec. 14, 4-5PM

EdStar Courses now in Premium Library

Premium Library now has Edstar Analytics courses!

NCEES District Administrators can view Premium Library content by navigating to System Administration > Applications: Premium Library.

Learn more about purchasing Premium Library courses for your PSU:

• NC Premium Library One-Pager
• NC Premium Library webinar (password: y*6ko6!c)
• NCEES DAs - view Premium Library

Screenshot shows a sample of the 12 courses from EdStar Analytics in the NCEES Premium Library.

EC Division

Please see the attached parent newsletters.

• December 2021 Child Count Memo.pdf
• Monday Message 12.13.21.pdf
• TIP SHEET Child Count. Eligibility.pdf

• Autism Support Team Meeting

  Registration can be accessed at: https://ncdpi.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_2mZm5rMTfIMcOge and will close on January 5, 2022. Within the registration survey you will be able to indicate which meeting and which topic session you will be attending.

   

  • Weekly_Updates 12.8.21.pdf
  • Accessing the NC SIP Grant Application.pdf

Office of Charter Schools (OCS) Updates

COMING SOON: 2022 NC Charter Applications

The 2022 NC Charter School Application process will open on Friday, January 28^th at 5 pm (EST). The 2022 charter application window will close on April 29, 2022 at 5pm (EDT). Applicants who are interested in opening a charter school in 2023 under the accelerated timeline, or in 2024 under the standard timeline must submit their charter applications on or before the April 29, 2022 application close date.

Both the online application and $1,000 application fee must be submitted on or before April 29, 2022 at 5pm EDT.

The link to the 2022 NC Charter School application will go live on Friday, January 28^th at 5pm and will be posted on the NCDPI Charter Schools Application page found here.

2022 NC OCS PHP Scholarship Information

The 2022 NC Office of Charter Schools People Helping People Scholarship Application is now Open!  Final submissions should be returned to Dr. Darian C. Jones, darian.jones@dpi.nc.gov no later than March 18^th, 2022 by 5:00 p.m. with all of the requested information.  Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to Dr. Jones at the above email.

• 2022 NC OCS PHP Eligibility Criteria
• 2022 NC OCS PHP Consent Form
• 2022 NC OCS PHP Application

The Carolina Panthers Regional Spelling Bee

The Carolina Panthers invite you to register your school for the Scripps National Spelling Bee and your chance to qualify students for the Carolina Panthers Regional Spelling Bee presented by Bank of America!

The Carolina Panthers are excited to announce registration is open for the Scripps National Spelling Bee program and your opportunity to qualify students for the Carolina Panthers Regional Spelling Bee presented by Bank America. The Carolina Panthers Regional Spelling Bee will be held on a TBD date on either March 12, 13, 19 or 20, 2022 at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte. Final date confirmation will be provided by January 1, 2022. The top four North Carolina spellers and top two South Carolina spellers from the Carolina Panthers Bee will advance to the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C. in June 2022. Interested schools/districts can learn more and find registration information by clicking here. 

Click here for a special message from Carolina Panthers Head Coach Matt Rhule!

Key dates to consider:

January 31: Deadline for schools to register with Scripps for this year's Bee program.
February 18, 2021: Deadline for school districts to submit winning students who have earned the opportunity to advance to the Carolina Panthers Regional Spelling Bee.
March 12-13 OR 19-20, 2021: Carolina Panthers Regional Spelling Bee for designated NC/SC school district winners. Bee will be held at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte.

NC Charter Teacher of the Year – William Keenan Storrs, aka “Profe,” Roxboro Community School

This past Friday, OCS had the honor to award “Profe” as Mr. Storrs is affectionately called by all at Roxboro Community School, the 2022 NC Charter School Teacher of the Year.  This year’s nominations included some 40 teachers from across the state with 12 finalists selected for interviews.  While all were the very best we had to offer, two finalists emerged from the field of 12 to advance to the site-visit and interviews.  Ms. Amber Nead, agriculture educator at North East Carolina Prepartory and Mr. Storrs, world language Profe.

There was not a dry eye on the panel as the students of Ms. Nead, present and past spoke about how she fundamentally transformed their lives with her commitment to seeing them for who they are and connecting them to their passion through all-manner of out of state excursions.  The young lady working in Kentucky on one of the most exclusive horse stables in the country while in college, “Ms. Nead brought us on a visit here solely because I said this was my dream and here I am.”  A veteran teacher of some 16 plus years, “Ms. Nead is my lighthouse of the possibilities of what teaching is supposed to be for our students.”

About Mr. Storrs, who teaches world languages and also transports students around the globe, “Profe changed the trajectory of my life, college sophomore studying Russian and Spanish.  I wasn’t really interested in school, let alone foreign language, and he loved it so and brought so much passion to our school, his subject, and willingness to get to know me, I found my passion and something I am really good at.”

These two educators, along with Mr. Jeremy White, who is nearing the end of his representation as the 2021 Charter Teacher of the Year, Black male kindergarden teacher who will be dressed as Santa this Friday, represent the absolute best of us – the amazing extraordinary work so many of our charter school teachers do each and everyday with minimal fanfare or notice.  We at the Office of Charter Schools salute each and every one of you and know that each of our finalists serve as lighthouses for the transformative power of this work and the dreams each of you keep and make each day in your classrooms!

Congratulatons Mr. Storrs, Profe!  Thank you Ms. Nead for your service.  Thank you Mr. White for your continued representation and advocacy for your state-wide charter colleagues and thank all of our teachers for showing up everyday in these most challenging of times in purpose, in passion, and in service of our kids.

Happy Holidays,

OCS

OCS Consultant Sites:

• The Scoop With Coop-All Things Renewals
• Ready to Open/Planning Year
• Performance Framework Companion Site
• Professional Learning 101

NC ACCESS ASPIRING MINORITY SCHOOL LEADERS PROGRAM

Other Resources from DPI:

• AIM Conference - K-12 Education Office of Government and Community Affairs Update
• AIM Legislative Update PPT.pdf
• Project-Based Learning Academy, applications due 1/5/2022
• School Business Website

• School Business – December 10, 2021

• Healthful Living Update December 2021
• NC SIS Weekly Email Bulletin, 12/10/21
• AP/CIE Bonuses, Course Codes Bulletin
• STEMtastic Newsletter - December
• December 2021 K-12 Monthly Mathematics Update
• NC Center for Safer Schools NEWSLETTER - December, 2021
• 2021-22 World Language Webinar Series
• TD Bank grant opportunity - TD 2021 Ready Challenge
• How to apply for a Transformational Scholarship from NC State
• Fresh Take Registration is Now Open, 2/4/22
• AP Exam Ordering - Reminders from the NC AP Partnership

Leadership Opportunities:

• American Renaissance School - Spanish Teacher for K-5
• Bonnie Cone Classical Academy - Multiple Opportunities!
• Bradford Prep School - Executive Director
• Carolina Charter Academy - 6th Grade Math Teacher
• Chatham Charter - Secondary Administrator/Principal
• Charlotte Lab School - Head of Finance
• Classical Charter Schools of America – Multiple K-8 Opportunities!
• Clover Garden School - Assistant Principal
• Community Public Charter - K-7 Math/EC Interventionist and MS ELA Teacher
• Lakeside Charter Academy - EC Teacher
• Mountain Discovery Charter School - Director
• NC Cyber Academy - Chief Academic Officer
• Old Main STREAM Academy - Multiple Opportunities!
• Paul R. Brown Leadership Academy - Superintendent
• Pine Springs Prep Academy - 8th Grade Math Teacher
• Raleigh Charter High School - Multiple Opportunities!
• Rocky Mount Preparatory School - Multiple K-12 Opportunities
• Telra Institute - Early Tenure Teacher

• The Expedition School - Administrative Specialist

• The Learning Center - MS EC Teacher

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 / Email: ocs@dpi.nc.gov

Dave Machado         984 236 2702
Director of the Office of Charter Schools

Shaunda Cooper      984 236 2707
Consultant, Renewals & Stakeholder Support

Claire Porter             984 236 2709
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

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