State Board Sends Budget Requests to General Assembly for Short-Session Revisions

With the General Assembly having convened for its 2022 short session, the State Board of Education earlier this month adopted requests totaling $60 million in additional spending aimed largely at the state’s ongoing initiative to strengthen early literacy instruction, turnaround efforts for low-performing schools and additional supports for students in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In addition, the board is requesting that the legislature hold in reserve $32 million for rising fuel prices districts and schools are facing because of inflation and the war in Ukraine.

Board member Wendell Hall, who serves as chairman of the board’s Government and Community Affairs Committee, reiterated his appeal from the board’s April meeting, when he called for additional requests, for recurring or continuing funding, for more social workers and district improvement specialists.

Both items, totaling $33 million, were endorsed by the board as part of its total request to the legislature, but State Superintendent Catherine Truitt raised objections to the two additional requests because of the availability of federal COVID-relief funds as well as the department’s limited capacity to fill the new positions. She said she doesn’t dispute the need.

“There is still $3 billion in federal funds in the districts, 80% of which can be used to hire social workers,” Truitt told the board. “The idea that we leave billions of dollars on the table because we say we need to ask for this now does not sit well with me. We need to be willing to spend every single dime that we have right now.” She noted also that $19 million in the state’s Governor's Emergency Education Relief Fund (GEER) designated for mental health support in the schools.

“It doesn’t strike me as strategic or fiscally responsible – in a short session – when we have money to move us even past the next long session to make this ask now,” Truitt said, adding that since 300 more social workers have been hired during the last year, the need for additional positions is uncertain.

Board Vice Chairman Alan Duncan said North Carolina’s ratio of social workers to students remains far below the national recommendation of one for every 250 students.

“We do know there’s a significant need for social workers,” Duncan said. “Our kids are in need, and they have suffered badly through this [pandemic], and we need our social workers to help alleviate some of that suffering during this time.”

Truitt also questioned the timing of the funding request for the additional 51 district improvement specialists since they’d be deployed to help implement a support model for low-performing schools that is still being piloted, and the department’s capacity to hire and support those additional personnel is limited.

Eric Davis, board chairman, said nearly all the funding requests for the short session tie into the court-ordered Comprehensive Remedial Plan under the Leandro lawsuit over school funding.

“That’s also a basis for these recommendations,” Davis said. “We would call on the General Assembly and the governor to work together to figure out how to fully fund Year 3 of that plan. That would overshadow all of this discussion we just had.”

Davis added that neither the board nor the department has time to fully resolve challenges with hiring or identifying the specific needs of individual districts.”

“If we don’t act now, we essentially lose a year.”

Board Approves District-Level Positions to Support State’s Early Literacy Initiative

Included in the State Board of Education’s funding requests to the General Assembly during this year’s short session is the addition of 115 district-level early literacy specialists to support strong implementation of “science of reading” instructional methods teachers are now learning through Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling or LETRS.

The proposed positions, which would cost an estimated $14 million a year, would help ensure that teachers are able to put into action in their classroom what they’re learning through the LETRS training, Office of Early Learning Director Amy Rhyne told the board this month.

“This will allow every district to have a high-quality representative to attend virtual or in-person meetings monthly led by the OEL as we continue to provide ongoing supports and resources for aligned and effective district and school implementation practices,” Rhyne said.

She said that based on feedback from districts, the department heard a clear message: “We really need an additional full-time person to lead this charge,” she said.

Rhyne said the early literacy specialists, who would DPI staff located in each of the state’s school districts, would help align implementation across North Carolina, in a way similar to that of Mississippi, which has shown success with a similar “science of reading” approach to early literacy instruction.

In addition, she explained, the additional positions would help support the department’s efforts with chronically low-performing schools by helping to target resources and assistance to those schools.

Schools to Begin Testing for Lead, Asbestos Under Procedures Approved by State Board

The State Board of Education this month ratified a set of temporary rules developed in conjunction with the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services to begin state-funded testing of lead in drinking water, lead-based paint and asbestos in school buildings statewide.

The testing program is being funded from an $150 million appropriation by the General Assembly from federal Coronavirus recovery funds to establish programs for the detection and remediation of lead and asbestos in public school units and child-care facilities.

Under the legislation, $33 million is designated for testing and remediation of lead levels in drinking water and $117 million for inspection and abatement of lead paint and asbestos hazards in public school units and childcare facilities. The legislation also directs the agencies to develop a program for funding mitigation of lead in drinking water and abatement of lead paint and asbestos in those facilities.

The rules approved by both DHHS and the State Board also require district superintendents to prohibit use of water outlets with lead concentrations above standards for drinking or food preparation and restrict access to areas with an identified lead paint and asbestos hazards until the identified hazards are abated.  

The law requires the funds to be obligated by the end of 2024 and spent by the end of 2026.

Board members expressed concern that the law’s requirement that local districts provide a $1 match for every $2 in state funds for the abatement of lead paint or asbestos could prove to be a challenge for many districts.

“When it comes to certain school districts throughout the state – especially when we look at the age of these facilities – I’ve got a big concern about the match,” said board member Wendell Hall.

Dr. Robert Taylor, deputy state superintendent for school and student advancement, said that the department understands his concern.

“We know that we have buildings that are 50, 60, 70, 80 years old,” Taylor said. “Those issues are out there.”

In addition, board member Amy White cautioned that any needed abatement and remediation projects could force districts to relocate schools while the work is being completed.

“I’d encourage that we have early and often conversations with districts that should a school be identified, that it’s no longer safe for students to be in the building, that they have another facility ready to go,” White said, “and we know that is a very difficult task.

“You’re going to have a lot of upset parents, teachers and administrators if they cannot deliver instruction as they are required to do.”

Board Authorizes Review and Revision of Healthful Living and Science Standards

After receiving approval from the State Board, the Department of Public Instruction is beginning the extensive process of reviewing and revising the state’s academic standards for K-12 instruction in science and healthful living. Standards for both areas were last revised in 2010.

Dr. Mary Hemphill-Joseph, director of DPI’s Academic Standards division, told the board that the process will follow an updated procedures manual that the board adopted earlier this year to ensure broad participation and input.

“It’s really important to ensure that along this process, we’re bringing together not only representatives across our regions but those that represent the realities of how these standards will be implemented,” Hemphill-Joseph said.

She also stressed that DPI’s role is to set academic standards, or learning objectives for teachers and students, not to determine curriculum.

“We provide the foundational work and decisions upon which curricular decisions are made at the local level,” she said.

In terms of the timeline for the work, Hemphill-Joseph said, the review and revision process will continue through June or July of 2023, installation in the schools during the 2023-24 school year and initial implementation of the new standards starting in the fall of 2024.

Board Upholds Closure Decision for Torchlight Academy, Delays End Date until June 30

Based on a recommendation from a panel of the board’s Education Innovation and Charter Schools Committee, the State Board denied a request by Raleigh’s Torchlight Academy charter school to continue operation.

The Board approved a recommendation in March from the Charter Schools Advisory Board to revoke the school’s charter after the school failed to correct several non-compliance issues related to the provision of special education services. The school requested a hearing last month with the board committee to consider remedial measures that school had taken to correct the deficiencies that led to revocation.

The panel of the board committee voted to uphold the board’s prior decision, based on these grounds:

• Ongoing concerns with the current and future financial health of the school
• Continued concerns with the school board’s ability to provide the oversight and leadership necessary to correct the school’s contractual, educational and fiscal mismanagement
• Ongoing significant concerns with the school’s ability to meet and serve the needs of exceptional children, for both compensatory education and instructional delivery

The panel also recommended that the school remain open until the end of the current fiscal year, June 30, because of the temporary leadership from Dr. Randy Bridges, a well-known former schools superintendent. The panel concluded that DPI would be able to work with the school during the next few months to minimize disruption to students that would be caused by immediately closing the school before the end of the school year.

Board Welcomes New Member John Blackburn

Linville resident John Blackburn, who was appointed by Gov. Roy Cooper in March to fill the unexpired term of Northwest Region member Todd Chasteen, was formally sworn in during this month’s State Board meeting by Judge John S. Arrowood of the N.C. Court of Appeals.

Blackburn was the president and general manager of Linville Resorts, Inc. He serves as chair of the Linville Foundation and Linville Volunteer Fire Department Trust and previously served on the Appalachian State University’s Board of Trustees.

His term expires in March 2023.