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 State Board of Education Vision: Every public school student in North Carolina will be empowered to accept academic challenges, prepared to pursue their chosen path after graduating high school, and encouraged to become lifelong learners with the capacity to engage in a globally-collaborative society.
State Board of Education Mission: The mission of the North Carolina State Board of Education is to use its constitutional authority to guard and maintain the right of a sound, basic education for every child in North Carolina Public Schools.
Friday, December 8, 2023
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Highlights
North Carolina State Board of Elections - Running for Office - 2024 Candidate Filing Begins at noon, December 4, 2023, and ends at noon, Friday, December 15, 2023: Filing details.
The 2024 primary election is March 5, 2024. The general election is Nov. 5, 2024.
NC DPI Press Release | Dec. 6, 2023: Beginning-of-Year Reading Assessment Shows Growth for Early Grades Students - North Carolina’s investment in early literacy is paying off. New data presented today to the State Board of Education shows that elementary school students continue to make significant improvements in their reading skills.
NC DPI Press Release | Dec. 7, 2023: New Round of Grants for Digital Teaching and Learning Available for 2024-2025 - Digital Teaching and Learning in North Carolina’s public schools will benefit from a new round of competitive grants that were approved December 7, 2023 by the State Board of Education. Up to $1.25 million in grants funded by the General Assembly through the state’s Digital Learning Initiative will be available to school districts, charter schools, lab schools and regional schools during the 2024-2025 school year.
U.S. News & World Report - Best High Schools in North Carolina - We reviewed nearly 25,000 U.S. public high schools; 563 North Carolina schools made our rankings. To see how schools in the state’s top metro areas ranked, check out the pages for Charlotte, Raleigh, Greensboro and Durham.
Top Elementary Schools | Top Middle Schools | Top High Schools
WUNC 91.5 Liz Schlemmer | Dec. 4, 2023: NC students must study computer science to graduate under new law - Beginning in Fall 2026, North Carolina high school students must complete at least one computer science course to graduate, with exemptions for students with learning disabilities.
Center for Safer Schools - December Newsletter: The North Carolina Center for Safer Schools (CFSS) serves to promote safe learning environments for North Carolina K-12 schools. Center staff are available to provide trainings, guidance, resources, and technical assistance upon request for school faculty and staff, and those working with children and adolescents.
North State Journal A.P. Dillon | Dec. 2, 2023: Teacher and principal receive national education award-Pitt County and Durham County educators experienced a delightful surprise when they were awarded the prestigious Milken Educator Award during what initially appeared to be routine school assemblies. Ainsley VanBuskirk, a first-grade teacher at Pactolus Global School in Pitt County, and Aisa Cunningham, the principal of Pearsontown Elementary School in Durham County, were both named winners of the Award, each receiving a $25,000 prize. | Milken National Educators Award
Carolina Journal Zach Rounceville | Dec. 6, 2023: NC Virtual Academy student medals at 2023 Parapan American Games - Evan Wilkerson, a 17-year-old Wake Forest student of the NC Virtual Academy, recently competed in the 2023 Parapan American Games held in Santiago, Chile, from Nov. 17-26, taking home silver and bronze medals as a member of Team USA. The Parapan American games, a multi-sport event for athletes with disabilities, was held in Chile for the first time in history. The event brings together individuals from North and South America to compete in 17 sports every four years. Reflecting on the competition, Wilkerson was ecstatic after earning medals in two swimming events.
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State Board of Education December Meeting
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Wednesday, December 6th
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Thursday, December 7th
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Superintendent's Report
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Catherine Truitt, Superintendent of Public Instruction
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Report: Pilot Program to Raise the High School Dropout
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Karen Fairley, Executive Director, Center for Safer Schools
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New SBE Policy: Parents' Guide to Student Achievement
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Sneha Shah-Coltrane, Director, Advanced Learning and Gifted Education
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Report: Rowan-Salisbury Schools - Renewal School System
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Dr. Kelly Withers, Superintendent, Rowan-Salisbury Schools
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Extended Learning and Integrated Student Supports (ELISS) Allotment Policy & Grant RFP and Application
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Susan Brigman, Section Chief - Specialty Programs, Office of Federal Programs, DPI
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Digital Learning Grants (DLI): Request for Proposals (RFPs)
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Lindsey Sipe, Southwest Regional Consultant, Office of Digital Teaching and Learning
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Monthly Budget Report (GOVR-007) - December 2023
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Alexis Schauss, Chief Financial Officer, NC DPI
YouTube recordings of SBE meetings HERE.
NC Association of School Administrators - SBE Summaries
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Charter School Review Board - December Meeting
- Monday, December 11th - Agenda
- Tuesday, December 12th - Agenda
The submission period for the Purple Star Award is now open and will close February 1. Help honor those schools that go above and beyond to demonstrate their commitment to military students and their families by encouraging them to apply.
Learn more, see previous awardees and find the application here.
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K-12 Education Bills - LINK
K-12 Ed Bills Eligible for the 2024 Short Session - LINK
Bills eligible to be filed in 2023 with no deadlines
- Redistricting bills for House, Senate, Congress, or local entities.
- Ratification of amendments to the Constitution of the United States.
- Resolutions pertaining to the internal affairs of the House or adjournment resolutions.
- Bills introduced on the report of the House Committees on Appropriations, Finance, or Rules.
K-12 Educaton Bills that have become Session Law
K-12 Education Bills with Action
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Useful Information
This section includes details pertaining to acronyms referenced throughout the K-12 Education Legislative Update newsletters.
For the glossary of education acronyms/terms click here.
DPI = Department of Public Instruction
SBE = North Carolina State Board of Education
LEA = Local Education Agency
PSU = Public School Unit
For the glossary of legislative terms click here.
NCGA = North Carolina General Assembly
LB/LOB = Legislative Building/Legislative Office Building
HB/SB = House Bill/Senate Bill
JR = Joint Resolution
SL = Session Law
GS = General Statute
PCS = Proposed Committee Substitute
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FutureEd - Bella DiMarco and Maureen Kelleher
While school districts and charter schools nationwide have poured billions of dollars of federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds into their educator workforces to bolster learning recovery in the wake of the pandemic, they largely have failed to detail how they have spent the money. North Carolina is an exception, and a close look at the state’s spending reports provides the most comprehensive picture to date of local education leaders’ staffing strategies as they struggle to respond to the devastating consequences of the pandemic on the nation’s students.
Congress has given states and local education agencies $189 billion to respond to the pandemic through three rounds of ESSER grants. North Carolina has received $5.6 billion of those funds, including $3.6 billion under the third round, the American Rescue Plan. As of October 31, the state’s school districts and charter schools had spent or encumbered roughly $2.3 billion, or 70 percent, of the local share of that third-round money, including $1.2 billion on staffing.
Paying for Personnel - North Carolina school districts and charters have spent nearly $369.3 million of their third and final round of ESSER funding on staff salaries, with about one-third of the money going to classroom teacher salaries. An additional $50.2 million went for salary supplements, which are recurring extra payments given to teachers to attract and retain highly effective educators. Salary supplements are typically set at the local level and paid with local funds. Though bonuses represent North Carolina’s largest ESSER expenditure, teacher salaries emerged among the top spending priorities in two-thirds of local education agencies.
Looking Forward -It’s worth pointing out that the ESSER spending on staffing didn’t result in significant staffing increases in North Carolina’s schools. This raises the question of whether local education agencies are paying their pre-existing staff with federal funds, freeing up local money for other purposes. If so, they may be forced into layoffs after Covid-relief funds expire in September 2024. Some may face challenges retaining staff without ESSER money to pay for retention bonuses.
The North Carolina Department of Education has developed several tools to help local education agencies assess which of their investments are most important to sustain. For example, it created a framework for sustainability, called an “investment grid,” to help districts use performance data to gauge the value of their investments. State education officials are also helping school districts and charters find additional funding for summer learning, tutoring programs, and other priorities. They developed a strategy for districts to align their ESSER investments with existing federal funding programs so they can potentially transition support for ESSER initiatives to federal funding.
Ultimately, North Carolina’s local education agencies are going to face hard staffing choices as the deadline for spending the state’s remaining $1.2 billion in federal Covid school aid approaches. “If a district is going to use [federal] Title I, Part A funds [they receive every year] to continue with high-dosage tutoring, for example, then they are going to have to figure out what they’re going to get rid of that they were previously funding,” says Wright-Junio. That North Carolina’s local education leaders have spent the largest share of their last round of ESSER monies on bonuses and other short-term investments may make the task easier.
Read the entire article HERE.
Methodology note: North Carolina’s ESSER expenditure data is broken down into six categories: salaries, benefits, purchased services, supplies and materials, capital outlay, and other expenses. Each category has numerous sub-categories, such as teacher salaries, HVAC contracts, and purchased computer software. For this analysis, we combined several sub-categories to simplify the presentation. For example, there are several categories related to substitute teachers that we combined into one category. Here is a full list of the sub-categories used in our analysis.
OFFICE OF GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS CONTACT INFORMATION:
To view previous Weekly Legislative Updates click HERE.
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To subscribe to other NC Department of Public Instruction topics, click here.
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