Friday Report - May 18, 2018 - Public School Forum

The Friday Report

May 18, 2018

Forum News

Fighting for Their Students: NC’s Teachers Descend on Raleigh to Ask for More Resources

Educators march to the statehouse in Raleigh. Photo Credit: Lindsay Wagner, Public School Forum of NC.

By Lindsay Wagner

Following a wave of teacher demonstrations across the United States, roughly 20,000 educators from across North Carolina converged in downtown Raleigh on Wednesday to ask their state’s leaders to do more for public schools.

John Fischer, a retired veteran from Cumberland County who has spent the last six years as a second career elementary school visual arts teacher, was one of those thousands who made the drive to Raleigh from Hope Mills so that he could tell his lawmakers why he needed their help.

When Fischer decided to go into teaching six years ago, he had a classroom of his own. But for the last three years, he’s had to put his art supplies on a cart and move around from classroom to classroom and school to school. And he rarely sees a teacher assistant in his classes, making it challenging to teach his young students effectively.

To continue reading the complete article, click here.

Excerpt from:

Wagner, L. “Fighting for their students: North Carolina’s teachers descend on Raleigh to ask for more resources.” Public School Forum of North Carolina. 5/17/18.

On the opening day of the General Assembly’s Short Session, approximately 20,000 educators converged on the legislative complex in support of public schools and children, making education front and center as the legislature comes back to town.

For this year, it appears that the House and Senate are attempting a novel budget approach – leaders in both chambers are working out as many differences on budget provisions as possible ahead of time. This could result in the Senate releasing a budget bill that House leadership has already agreed to in an effort to quell any protracted debate or litany of amendments to any new proposed budget. There appears to be an appetite for the House and Senate to work together on the front end so that actually passing the budget bill, on the back end, goes more efficiently and with less controversy.

The education bills introduced on Wednesday and Thursday of this week are primarily focused on school safety – a critical subject that legislators have been working on since February. Another much-anticipated bill, SB 718 “Revise Principal Compensation,” is the current Senate frontrunner solution to address the deficiencies contained in the new principal pay plan enacted in 2017. Generally, SB 718 seeks to accomplish the following:

Maintain principals’ current salaries for the rest of this 2018 calendar year;
However, for calendar year 2019, a principal would “receive the State-funded portion of his or her salary pursuant to the teacher salary schedule, principal salary schedule, or assistant principal salary schedule, as appropriate, enacted for the 2018-2019 budget year;” (this essentially extends the “hold harmless” clause into the 2019 calendar year)
For purposes of calculating a principal’s compensation, the school growth scores from the 2017-2018 school year would become effective January 1, 2019;
In calculating a principal’s salary for calendar year 2019, the highest of 3 different salary calculations would apply;
During calendar years 2019, 2020 and 2021, principals could receive the “exceeded growth” column of pay if their school, in fact, exceeds growth, or if they move to a low-performing school during the latter half of 2018, or if they continue to work in a low-performing school;
A reduction in pay under these new principal pay laws would be excluded from the legal definition of a “demotion”;
Combine the former separate bonuses almost into one program for the 2018-19 school year for eligible principals whose “school was in the top fifty percent (50%) of school growth in the State” in the prior school year (from $2,000-$6,000) and potentially doubles that bonus if the school had a D or F School Performance grade in the prior year.

Please see the below list of education-related bills filed this week.

HB 932 Anonymous Safety Tip Line Application

HB 933 Reciprocity/School Psychologist Licensure (passed the House unanimously; now goes to the Senate)

HB 934 Threat Assessment Teams/Peer to Peer Counsels

HB 935 Add Piedmont Community Charter School to SHP

HB 936 Allow Durham Public Schools to Provide Housing (identical to SB 725)

HB 937 SROs Defined/Training Standards

HB 938 Expand Use/School Risk Management Plans

HB 939 School Building Vulnerability Assessments

HB 940 SRO Report by Local Boards of Education to Center for Safer Schools

HB 941 Increase Funding for SRO Grant

HB 951 Permit Lincoln County Schools & Community College Align

HB 953 Support Multiple Recesses for Lincoln County Schools

HB 954 Rockingham County School Board/Chair Term

HB 962 Expand Use/School Risk Management Plans (identical to SB 720)

HB 965 National and State Mottos in Schools Act

SB 713 Reenact School Sales Tax Holiday

SB 718 Revise Principal Compensation

‘Listen to Your Teachers’ Is Always Good Advice

Photo Credit: Robert Willett, The News & Observer.

By Keith Poston

Teachers all across the country – first in West Virginia, then Kentucky and Arizona – have been lifting their voices and taking to the streets for better pay and more support for public schools.

When North Carolina lawmakers gavel into session on Wednesday, thousands of teachers will be here too. One thing they will be fighting for is better pay. While recent pay increases are welcomed, North Carolina still pays its teachers less than 36 other states.

But what you will hear most from teachers is that they’re fighting for their students, because they’ve got a front row seat to the impact of underfunding our public schools.

And they’ve had enough.

To continue reading the complete article, click here.

Excerpt from:

Poston, K. “This week, let’s listen to teachers’ stories.” The News & Observer. 5/11/18.

In This Issue

Fighting for Their Students: NC’s Teachers Descend on Raleigh to Ask for More Resources

Legislative Update

‘Listen to Your Teachers’ Is Always Good Advice

Support the NC School Bond Bill

This Week on Education Matters: Should Towns Be Allowed to Create Their Own Charter School Districts?

Ann Goodnight to Be Honored Monday Night at Public School Forum Gala

NC Teacher Marched on the Streets. Now What?

Top Republican Legislators Promise Average Teacher Salary Will Exceed $53,000 Next Year

NC Public Schools Would Have to Post ‘In God We Trust’ Signs Under Proposed Bill

NC’s Average Teacher Pay Is $51,214. How Many Teachers Make That?

North Carolina’s School Voucher System Continues to Grow: How Did We Get Here?

Why the Teacher Walkout Movement Won’t Reach Every State

North Carolina Teachers Protest, Exposing a Rural-Urban Divide

How Unequal School Funding Punishes Poor Kids

Applications Open for 2018-19 NC Education Policy Fellowship Program (EPFP)

Burroughs Wellcome Fund Career Awards for Science and Mathematics Teachers

NCSSM Seeking Teacher Development Specialist

Women in Educational Leadership Symposium

Public School Forum Programs

Download the Forum’s 2018 Local School Finance Study

Download the Forum’s 2018 Roadmap of Need

Nominate a Leader for Children in Your Community

Do you know a leader in your community supporting our schools and making a difference in the lives of children both in and out of school? The Public School Forum is seeking nominations for individuals to be highlighted on our weekly statewide TV show, Education Matters. Click here for an example of a recent spotlight.

Nominees could be principals, superintendents, teachers, teacher assistants, guidance counselors, parents, students, business leaders, community volunteers, afterschool providers, and the list goes on!

To nominate someone, please fill out the form here.

Support the NC School Bond Bill

For new buildings, repairs, and renovations, North Carolina’s public schools need $8.1 billion to adequately address the reality that our children are being taught in overcrowded classrooms, deteriorating buildings and mobile units. The NC School Bond (HB 866/SB 542) would invest $1.9 billion to begin addressing these critical needs without increasing taxes.

Show your support for a statewide school construction bond in North Carolina by signing up online to join the effort. Please visit https://www.ncschoolbond.com/ to learn more and lend your voice.

This Week on Education Matters: Should Towns Be Allowed to Create Their Own Charter School Districts?

Note: Education Matters will be preempted on WRAL-TV on Saturday due to network programming. FOX 50 and the NC Channel will air an encore episode. New shows return next week with a focus on principal pay.

A bill passed introduced last year by Rep. William Brawley (R-Mecklenburg) would allow two communities outside Charlotte to create a system of separate public charter schools for their residents. This week in an encore showing of our April 7, 2018 show, we explore what’s next this session and the possible impact on school districts, students and the state.

Guests:

Monika Johnson-Hostler, Chair, Wake County Board of Education (pictured above, left)
Rep. Chaz Beasley (D-Mecklenburg) (pictured above, right)
Mark Dorosin, Co-Director, Julius L. Chambers Center for Civil Rights

When and Where to Watch Education Matters

Sunday at 8:00 AM, FOX 50

(Raleigh/Durham/Fayetteville)

Sunday at 6:30 AM and Wednesday at 9:30 AM, UNC-TV’s North Carolina Channel (Statewide)

The North Carolina Channel can be found on Time Warner Cable/Spectrum Channel 1277 or check your local listing and other providers here.

Online at https://www.ncforum.org/.

Education Matters is also available as a podcast on iTunes, SoundCloud, Stitcher, PodBean, Overcast, and Google Play Music.

Ann Goodnight to Be Honored Monday Night at Public School Forum Gala

Ann Goodnight will be honored at a gala event on Monday, May 21, at the Raleigh Convention Center. Mrs. Goodnight will receive the 2018 Public School Forum of North Carolina Jay Robinson Education Leadership Award for innovative, creative, effective leadership for public education in North Carolina. Look for full coverage in next week’s Friday Report.

Featured Speakers:

More information about this year’s event, as well as previous award recipients, can be found at ncforum.org/events/jay-robinson-education-leadership-award.

State News

NC Teacher Marched on the Streets. Now What?

From left, Melodie Bryant from Shallotte, Carol Cosetti from Clayton and Sandra Thornton from Willow Spring cheer on the speakers during the Rally for Respect at Bicentennial Plaza in Raleigh, N.C., Wednesday, May 16, 2018.

Photo Credit: Ethan Hyman, The News & Observer.

A day after thousands of educators took to the streets in Raleigh, the question turned Thursday to how best to support North Carolina’s public school teachers.

Between 19,000 and 30,000 people marched in Raleigh on Wednesday to demand that state lawmakers do more to raise teacher pay and per-pupil spending. The “March for Students and Rally for Respect” was the largest act of organized teacher political action in state history and has caused people to ask what the next steps should be for public education in North Carolina.

To continue reading the complete article, click here.

Excerpt from:

Hui, K. “NC teachers marched on the streets. Now what? ” The News & Observer. 5/17/18.

Top Republican Legislators Promise Average Teacher Salary Will Exceed $53,000 Next Year

Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, (left) and House Speaker Tim Moore, R-Cleveland, speak on teacher pay and May 16 teacher rally. Photo Credit: Liz Bell, EducationNC.

Republican leaders are promising an average 6.2 percent increase in teacher pay for the 2018-19 fiscal year.

At a press conference Tuesday afternoon, House Speaker Tim Moore, R-Cleveland, and Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, said part of the adjustment to the 2017 biennium budget will bring average teacher salary to about $53,600 next year. Berger said per-pupil spending will also increase but did not give specifics.

To continue reading the complete article, click here.

Excerpt from:

Bell, L. “Top Republican legislators promise average teacher salary will exceed $53,000 next year.” EducationNC . 5/15/18.

NC Public Schools Would Have to Post ‘In God We Trust’ Signs Under Proposed Bill

North Carolina public schools could soon become a little more religious, if the General Assembly passes a new bill that would force schools to display signs saying “In God We Trust.”

The bill would require all public schools, both traditional and charter, to put a sign displaying both the national motto of “In God We Trust” and the state motto of “To Be Rather Than To Seem” in a prominent place on campus.

The legislation comes at a time when similar measures requiring “In God We Trust” signs to be placed in schools have passed in other Southern states.

To continue reading the complete article, click here.

Excerpt from:

Doran, W. and Hui, K. “NC public schools would have to post ‘In God We Trust’ signs under proposed bill.” The News & Observer. 5/17/18.

NC’s Average Teacher Pay Is $51,214. How Many Teachers Make That?

Photo Credit: Element5 Digital, Unsplash.

In March, the state education department released the new figure – North Carolina’s average teacher pay reached $51,214 this year, the first time it has surpassed $50,000.

Media outlets, including WRAL News, reported the salary estimate. Soon after, comments came streaming in to the WRAL newsroom, disputing the number and questioning the math.

To continue reading the complete article, click here.

Excerpt from:

Hinchcliffe, K. “NC’s average teacher pay is $51,214. How many teachers make that? ” WRAL. 5/14/18.

North Carolina’s School Voucher System Continues to Grow: How Did We Get Here?

Students at Yadkin Valley Community School, a private Montessori School in Elkin, crowd around school choice advocate Darrell Allison in celebration of National School Choice Week. A number of the school’s students receive vouchers for tuition assistance. Photo Credit: Liz Schlemmer, WUNC.

Darrell Allison is on the road again, taking a final long trip to visit private schools across North Carolina. He’s used to traveling – to small towns, suburbs, down east and to the mountains to talk to parents and legislators across the state.

“We like taking these jaunts, it’s a little labor intensive, driving, but it really rejuvenates us,” said Allison, speaking for the staff of Parents for Educational Freedom in North Carolina, or PEFNC. Allison is the recent past-president of the school choice organization.

To continue reading the complete article, click here.

Excerpt from:

Schlemmer, L. “North Carolina’s School Voucher System Continues to Grow: How Did We Get Here? ” WUNC. 5/14/18.

National News

Why the Teacher Walkout Movement Won’t Reach Every State

Teachers marched in Raleigh, N.C., on Wednesday, as North Carolina became the sixth state where educators have left their classrooms to protest low pay and school funding. Photo Credit: Caitlin Penna, EPA via Shutterstock.

The nationwide teacher protest movement spread to a sixth state on Wednesday as thousands in North Carolina rallied at the Capitol for higher pay and more money for schools. It was the first mass walkout for teachers in the state.

In the months since the movement began, teachers have walked out in deep-red states and purple states; in states with booming economies and ones that are struggling; in states where school funding scrapes the bottom, and others where the numbers are closer to the national average.

To continue reading the complete article, click here.

Excerpt from:

Goldstein, D. “Why the Teacher Walkout Movement Won’t Reach Every State.” The New York Times. 5/16/18.

North Carolina Teachers Protest, Exposing a Rural-Urban Divide

Thousands filled the streets of downtown Raleigh in a march and rally in support of increased education funding on May 16, 2018. Photo Credit: WRAL.

Thousands of teachers marched on the state Capitol in support of increased school funding on Wednesday, trying to harness momentum from protests in other states to draw attention to deteriorating buildings, fewer counselors and nurses, and salaries that lag the national average.

Teachers from across the state converged on downtown streets here in an intermittent rain, wearing red T-shirts as part of the “RedForEd” movement.

To continue reading the complete article, click here.

Excerpt from:

Bauerlein, V. “North Carolina Teachers Protest, Exposing a Rural-Urban Divide.” The Wall Street Journal. 5/16/18.

How Unequal School Funding Punishes Poor Kids

Photo Credit: Seth Wenig, AP.

While a wave of protests, teacher strikes, and student walkouts has exposed the outrageous inequality plaguing the public education system, the budget numbers reveal how unfair funding programs dictate what our children are worth, depending on where they live, the color of their skin, and their families’ wealth.

School funding levels, according to the analysis of the Education Law Center and the Rutgers Graduate School of Education, vary most dramatically along school-district lines, generally dictated by local property taxes, which renders the education of some wealthy children funded at double the rate of a poor kid’s. There are also stark disparities across state lines, with statehouses primarily managing education policy.

To continue reading the complete article, click here.

Excerpt from:

Chen, M. “How Unequal School Funding Punishes Poor Kids.” The Nation. 5/11/18.

Opportunities

Applications Open for 2018-19 NC Education Policy Fellowship Program (EPFP)

The Public School Forum is accepting applications for the 2018-19 cohort of the North Carolina Education Policy Fellowship Program (EPFP).

The North Carolina Education Policy Fellowship Program is the only statewide program of its kind that focuses on leadership and professional development in the context of education policy. Fellows come from public schools, higher education, community colleges, and a diverse array of education organizations across North Carolina. Each class includes a cohort of fellows who focus on education policy issues and the wide range of factors that influence education in North Carolina. Fellows will increase their awareness of how public policy is made, learn whom the key players are in the formation of this policy, and become more confident and involved in the policy-making process.

Application information for both EPFP Central and EPFP West can be found online at https://www.ncforum.org/education-policy-fellowship-program/. Applications are due by June 30, 2017. Contact Lauren Bock, Public School Forum Director of Policy & Programs, at [email protected] with questions.

Burroughs Wellcome Fund Career Awards for Science and Mathematics Teachers

The Burroughs Wellcome Fund Career Award for Science and Math Teachers (CASMT) application will be available on online this upcoming Monday, May 21st. The Career Award for Science and Mathematics Teachers is a five-year award available to outstanding science and/or mathematics teachers in the North Carolina public primary and secondary schools. The purpose of this award is to recognize teachers who have demonstrated solid knowledge of science and/or mathematics content and have outstanding performance records in educating children. The deadline for submission is September 24th, 2018.

For more information or to access the application, visit https://www.bwfund.org/grant-programs/science-education/career-awards-science-and-mathematics-teachers.

NCSSM Seeking Teacher Development Specialist

The North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics (NCSSM) invites applications for the Teacher Development Specialist position. Inclusiveness and diversity are integral to NCSSM’s commitment to excellence in teaching, engagement, and education. We are particularly interested in candidates who have demonstrated experience engaging with diversity through activities such as fostering an inclusive environment, working with students and teachers from diverse backgrounds, or incorporating diverse perspectives in teaching.

For more information, and to apply visit:
https://www.governmentjobs.com/careers/northcarolina/jobs/2071846/teacher-development-specialist

Women in Educational Leadership Symposium

Registration is open for the third annual Women in Educational Leadership Symposium (WIELS). The purpose of WIELS is to bring women together to share, learn, and grow in leadership. This conference aims to provide personalized learning and mentoring opportunities for those who aspire to become, or currently serve as educational leaders.

The symposium will be held October 5 through October 6, 2018. at Appalachian State University in Boone, NC. This year’s conference theme is Advancing the Leader Within: Building Capacity.

Registration for the conference is online at https://wiels.appstate.edu/about-us/registration. Additional information can be found at https://wiels.appstate.edu/.

The Friday Report is published weekly by the Public School Forum of NC and is distributed to Forum members, policymakers, donors, media, and Forum subscribers. Archived editions can be found at www.ncforum.org.

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