Friday Report – November 16, 2018

The Friday Report

November 16, 2018

Church-State Challenge Forces Huntersville Charter School to Find New Graduation Site

University Park Baptist Church on Beatties Ford Road has hosted Lake Norman Charter School’s graduation ceremonies for seven years. Photo Credit: Ann Doss Helms, The Charlotte Observer.

Lake Norman Charter School, one of the biggest and oldest charter schools in the Charlotte region, is scrambling to find a site for its 2019 graduation after an advocacy group challenged its longstanding arrangement with a church.

For the last seven years, the Huntersville charter school has hosted its commencement ceremony at University Park Baptist Church in north Charlotte. Americans United for Separation of Church and State, an advocacy group based in Washington, D.C., challenged that arrangement after someone complained about seeing banners sporting Bible verses at the 2018 ceremony.

To continue reading the complete article, click here.

Excerpt from:

Doss Helms, A. “Church-state challenge forces Huntersville charter school to find new graduation site.” The Charlotte Observer. 11/12/18.

Durham’s Next District Attorney Wants to Stop Prosecuting Most Students Charged in School

Satana Deberry is set to become Durham County’s district attorney in January after winning the Democratic primary with no Republican opponent on the ballot this fall. Photo Credit: Virginia Bridges, The Herald Sun.

She hasn’t been sworn into office yet, but Durham County’s next district attorney is already talking about bold changes that she hopes will disrupt the school-to-prison pipeline.

Satana Deberry, who was elected this month on promises of progressive criminal justice reform, has said she does not want her office to prosecute misdemeanors or low-level felonies that originate in schools. That means students who get into a fight or are caught with a small amount of marijuana would avoid the formal court system.

“Just from a perspective of a prosecutor, I think moving forward we would like to move to not accepting any referrals from the schools,” Deberry said at a recent political forum. “We think there are better ways to deal with those issues than giving kids a criminal record.”

To continue reading the complete article, click here.

Excerpt from:

Bridges, V. “Durham’s next district attorney wants to stop prosecuting most students charged in school.” The Herald Sun. 11/14/18.

Greene County’s Superintendent Named NC’s 2019 A. Craig Phillips Superintendent of the Year

Dr. Patrick C. Miller, Superintendent of Greene County Schools, was named the 2019 A. Craig Phillips North Carolina Superintendent of the Year at an awards presentation and reception held Tuesday, Nov. 13 at the Joseph S. Koury Convention Center in Greensboro. The award was given jointly by the North Carolina Association of School Administrators (NCASA), North Carolina School Superintendents’ Association (NCSSA) and the North Carolina School Boards Association (NCSBA).

To continue reading the complete press release, click here.

Excerpt from:

“Greene County’s Superintendent Named NC’s 2019 A. Craig Phillips Superintendent of the Year.” NC Association of School Administrators. 11/13/18.

Randolph County Native Name NC Counselor of the Year

Beth Embree holds her plaque surrounded by, from far left, father Jack Embree, mother Jayne Embree, friend Roger Stout; second row, stepmother Holly Embree, St. Stephens principal Kathy Keane, counselor Liz Jaynes, Maria Ballard of Catawba County Schools, and Dr. Matt Stover, Superintendent of Catawba County Schools.

Education is a family heritage for Beth Embree. Her parents, grandparents, stepmother, brother and sister-in-law, aunt and uncle have all been teachers. So when it came time for her to choose her life’s work, she knew one thing: “I couldn’t have chosen another career.”

Embree was honored last week as the School Counselor of the Year during a convention in Greensboro of the N.C. School Counselors Association. On hand were Mark Johnson, superintendent of the N.C. Board of Education, and Rebecca Atkins, chair of the N.C. School Counselors Association.

To continue reading the complete article, click here.

Excerpt from:

Penkava, L. “Randolph County native named N.C. Counselor of the Year.” The Courier-Tribune. 11/12/18.

National News

Voters Widely Support Public Schools So Why Is It So Hard to Pay for Them?

Thousands of educators and their supporters in Colorado this spring protested low teacher pay and school funding. Photo Credit: Hugh Carey, Summit Daily News via Associated Press.

If it were going to happen any year, it should have been this one. After a wave of teacher walkouts fired up people on both sides of the party line, the time seemed ripe for big investments in public schools.

In reality, the results for school funding after the midterm elections last week were mixed, and illustrate a paradox in how Americans view education.

Polls showed that the public supported the picketing teachers across the country who protested low pay and classroom funding. And a diverse group of candidates, Democratic and Republican, were elected after casting themselves as education champions. But many voters, particularly in conservative and swing states, were unwilling to open their wallets to send state tax dollars to educators and classrooms.

To continue reading the complete article, click here.

Excerpt from:

Goldstein, D. “Voters Widely Support Public Schools. So Why Is It So Hard to Pay for Them?” The New York Times. 11/14/18.

Armored School Doors, Bulletproof Whiteboards and Secret Snipers

Superintendent Randy Russell checks camera feeds at Freeman High School in Rockford, Wash., which spent about $200,000 on new security after a deadly shooting last year. Photo Credit: Rajah Bose, The Washington Post.

Billions are being spent to protect children from school shootings. Does any of it work?

The expo had finally begun, and now hundreds of school administrators streamed into a sprawling, chandeliered ballroom where entrepreneurs awaited, each eager to explain why their product, above all others, was the one worth buying.

Waiters in white button-downs poured glasses of chardonnay and served meatballs wrapped with bacon. In one corner, guests posed with colorful boas and silly hats at a photo booth as a band played Jimmy Buffett covers to the rhythm of a steel drum. For a moment, the festive summer scene, in a hotel 10 miles from Walt Disney World, masked what had brought them all there.

This was the thriving business of campus safety, an industry fueled by an overwhelmingly American form of violence: school shootings.

To continue reading the complete article, click here.

Excerpt from:

Woodrow Cox, J. and Rich, S. “Armored school doors, bulletproof whiteboards and secret snipers. ” The Washington Post. 11/13/18.

Should Childhood Trauma Be Treated as a Public Health Crisis?

Photo Credit: fzant, Getty Images.

When public health officials get wind of an outbreak of Hepatitis A or influenza, they spring into action with public awareness campaigns, monitoring and outreach. But should they be acting with equal urgency when it comes to childhood trauma?

A new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association suggests the answer should be yes. It shows how the effects of childhood trauma persist and are linked to mental illness and addiction in adulthood. And, researchers say, it suggests that it might be more effective to approach trauma as a public health crisis than to limit treatment to individuals.

The study drew on the experiences of participants from the Great Smoky Mountains Study, which followed 1,420 children from mostly rural parts of western North Carolina, over a period of 22 years. They were interviewed annually during their childhood, then four additional times during adulthood.

To continue reading the complete article, click here.

Excerpt from:

Blakemore, E. “Should Childhood Trauma Be Treated As A Public Health Crisis?” NPR. 11/9/18.

Opportunities

Public School Forum Seeking a Policy Analyst

The Public School Forum of North Carolina is seeking a Policy Analyst. This individual will contribute to policy analysis and research efforts on a number of key educational issues in North Carolina. This position would be an excellent early career opportunity for an individual interested in education policy. Reports to the Senior Director of Policy.

Primary Job Responsibilities:

• Monitor, document, and provide analysis of current education policy issues in North Carolina, with a focus on school finance, teacher pipeline, and education data systems.
• Conduct and interpret quantitative and qualitative research on K-12 education policy topics.
• Attend state legislative convenings and committee meetings.
• Contribute to the Forum’s communications efforts including op-eds and guest columns, newsletter articles and social media efforts addressing current policy issues and initiatives impacting education in North Carolina.

To learn more about this position and how to apply, click here.

UNC-Chapel Hill Invites Educators to ‘Summit on Student Safety and Wellbeing’

Educators are invited to register to attend a “Summit on Student Safety and Wellbeing,” held Friday, Nov. 30, and Saturday, Dec. 1, in Chapel Hill. The event is free. Register online.

UNC-Chapel Hill’s Schools of Education, Medicine, Public Health and Social Work are co-hosting the event to engage a range of educators, policy-makers, researchers and others in discussions around student well-being. While issues of basic school safety are a focus of the event, organizers recognize that important issues of student well-being also need attention from various disciplines to address needs in areas such as:

• Bullying and sexual harassment
• Discrimination
• Isolation and depression
• Suicidal thoughts and actions

Effective interventions aimed at making schools places of safety and health-promotion require solutions implemented at multiple levels. They require input from teachers, school counselors and psychologists, principals and assistant principals.

Seating is limited, so we urge you to register. Click here to register. For more information on the program schedule, speakers and topics, visit https://studentsafety.web.unc.edu.

NC Supreme Court Historical Society Presents ‘150th Anniversary of North Carolina’s 1868 Constitution’

This event will feature a discussion with Senior Associate Justice Paul Newby and Professor John V. Orth about how this important document was framed in accordance with the Reconstruction Acts after North Carolina was readmitted into the Union.

This event will also feature ‘Constitutional Tales,’ a live, full production presentation, created by Ann McColl, an attorney practicing in the field of education law since 1991. Constitutional Tales is a multimedia presentation that uses actors to recreate debates and other important events about the 1868 Constitution of North Carolina and is adapted to the interests of judges, lawyers, historians, educators, students, advocates, legislators, and policy-makers. For more information, click here.

Date: Monday, November 19th, 2018
Time: 5:00pm
Location: North Carolina State Capital, One East Edenton St. Raleigh, NC 27601
Cost: Presentation is FREE and open to the public!
Guest Speaker: Paul M. Newby – Senior Associate Justice Supreme Court of North Carolina
Guest Speaker: John V. Orth – Professor of Law University of North Carolina School of Law

NC Teaching Fellows Applications Are Now Open

NC Teaching Fellows applications are now open. All applications must be submitted online by 11:59 PM (EST) on Monday, January 7, 2019.

• Receive up to $4,125 per semester for up to eight semesters.
• Study at a premier educator preparation program in North Carolina.
• Benefit from meaningful program activities to enrich your studies.
• Teach in a Special Education or STEM field in a North Carolina public school.

To learn more visit: https://myapps.northcarolina.edu/ncteachingfellows/ . 

FAST NC Fundraising Drive to Aid Public Schools

A historic storm has devastated parts of North Carolina. In response, a historic, bipartisan coalition of current and former state education leaders presented their effort to aid schools to the State Board of Education, promoting Florence Aid to Students and Teachers (FAST NC) as a drive to help North Carolina’s public schools as students and educators struggle to return to normal.

Hurricane Florence caused at least 1.2 million, or about 80 percent, of North Carolina’s public school students to miss some school. Many school buildings are damaged, and several school districts are still closed due to displacement, flooding and storm-related disruptions. Now, FAST NC has brought together an illustrious steering committee for the effort to help schools recover.

To learn more about FAST NC and how to donate, click here.

Biogen Foundation Spark Video Contest

The Biogen Foundation is inviting middle and high school students in Massachusetts and North Carolina to create videos on the topic of biotechnology in your life. These videos must be between thirty seconds and three minutes, accurate, and creative. We are accepting videos from September 14 through December 17. Work with a teacher at your school to submit your video (up to two submissions per school), because the first 200 schools to submit an eligible video will win $500! See spark.biogenfoundation.com for more information about the contest and to submit your video today!

Submissions are open until December 17th.  ALL NC schools are eligible to enter. Teachers MUST be the ones to submit the videos; students and parents are not allowed to submit videos.

Questions? Contact the Biogen Foundation here.

Upcoming Professional Development at NCCAT 

North Carolina educators have plenty of opportunities throughout the fall to attend the North Carolina Center for the Advancement of Teaching (NCCAT), a recognized national leader in professional development programming for teachers. Applicants are encouraged to register as soon as possible to ensure a spot. Programs are available to North Carolina educators at the Cullowhee and Ocracoke campuses, online and with NCCAT faculty visiting school districts. NCCAT provides food, lodging and programming. Teachers and or their districts are responsible for travel to and from the center and the cost of the substitute teacher.

For a complete list of upcoming NCCAT programs, click here.

For more information on how to apply for NCCAT programs, click here.

Synergy Conference 2019

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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