NCSBA Legislative Update - February 4, 2022 - North Carolina School Board Action Center

Joint Legislative Commission on Governmental Operations, Subcommittee on Use and Distribution on Federal COVID Funding

The Subcommittee met on Tuesday to hear a presentation on K-12 Learning Loss and Federal COVID Relief Funds from Senate Governmental Operations Evaluators, as well as testimonies from State Superintendent Catherine Truitt and Dr. Michael Maher, Executive Director of DPI’s Office of Learning Recovery and Acceleration. The presentation covered how federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) I, II, and III funds were used in the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 school years to address learning loss. Presenters concluded that DPI and LEAs did not urgently respond to learning loss as it was occurring.

Following this presentation, Superintendent Truitt began her testimony by stating that there were many inaccuracies in the data and analysis that was presented by the Senate Governmental Operations Evaluators. Truitt then explained strategies to combat learning loss and improve student performance, including the science of reading, social-emotional learning, modifying the formula for school grades, and adding indicators to the school accountability model. Superintendent Truitt was followed by Dr. Maher who emphasized the amount of work that his team has done and continues to do to combat learning loss due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Click here for an article on the Subcommittee meeting, which includes more on the testimonies of Superintendent Truitt and Dr. Maher.

HB 605: 2022 Primary Date

On Friday, January 28, Governor Roy Cooper vetoed HB 605: 2022 Primary Date. This bill would have pushed the primary election date from May 17 to June 7 and changed the candidate filing period for all offices on the 2022 ballot to begin on March 24 and end on April 1. HB 605 passed both the House and Senate on party-line votes, and Republicans do not have a veto-proof majority.

Governor Cooper stated, “This bill is an additional attempt by Republican legislators to control the election timeline and undermine the voting process. The constitutionality of congressional and legislative districts is now in the hands of the North Carolina Supreme Court and the Court should have the opportunity to decide how much time is needed to ensure that our elections are constitutional.”

The State Supreme Court heard arguments on the newly drawn State legislative and congressional district maps on Wednesday, February 2, and a decision is expected to be made soon. In December 2021, the Supreme Court pushed back the primary election date from March 8 to May 17, as redistricting litigation progressed. Additionally, last month the State Board of Elections announced new candidate filing period dates, which will begin at 8:00 am on February 24 and end at 12:00 pm on March 4.

Click here and here for articles on the Governor’s veto of HB 605.

SB 219: Surveyor Lic. & Ed. Req’s/Constr. Contract Rev’s

Last week Governor Cooper signed SB 219: Surveyor Lic. & Ed. Req’s/Constr. Contract Rev’s (sponsor: Senator Tom McInnis, R-Richmond) into S.L. 2022-1. This bill impacts governmental entities, including LEAs, that engage in either (i) design-build or design-build bridging methods of public contracting, (ii) certain construction or design professional agreements, (iii) construction lien disputes.

Section 2 – A LEA that intends to use design-build or design-build bridging methods for construction projects on or after March 1, 2022, would have to comply with changes in the statutory requirements pertinent to that method as set out in Section 2. It also applies to contracts that are amended or renewed on or after March 1, 2022.
Section 3 – LEAs that include a provision in their construction or design professional agreements that conditions interim and progress payments on a waiver or release of liens or claims will be automatically void and unenforceable, except in certain situations. It applies to liens attached on or after March 1, 2022.
Section 4 – Changes the rules for how a presiding judge or arbitrator awards attorneys’ fees in construction lien disputes. Effective March 1, 2022.

The State Board of Education met for its monthly meeting on Wednesday and Thursday and heard presentations on the following:

DHHS COVID-19 update: The Board received a presentation from DHHS showing that although NC is considered to have a high level of transmission, many metrics are starting to decrease, including daily positive cases and daily number of people currently hospitalized. The presentation includes graphs specific to case rates among children and educational clusters. Slide 11 provides data on LEA mask policies, including the number and percentage of students affected by differing mask policies.

Additionally, DHHS is continuing to make N95 masks available for K-12 schools, and districts must fill out this survey by today, February 4, to receive a shipment of masks. If you have questions about the N95 mask distribution, please contact OEMSSupportCell@dhhs.nc.gov.

There were no changes to the StrongSchoolsNC Toolkit for the Board to approve at this month’s meeting.

Modifications to the NC Benefits Policy Manual: The Board approved modifications to the NC Benefits Policy Manual regarding teacher personal leave. These modifications are a result of a provision included in the State budget (S.L. 2021-180) that allows teachers to take personal leave at no cost if the teacher provides a reason for the leave. If a teacher does not provide a reason, the full cost of hiring a substitute teacher will be deducted from the teacher’s pay. Previously, DPI had included in the proposed policy modifications that a LEA would be responsible for determining what constitutes a “reason”, and a teacher who fails to provide a locally approved reason may be charged the full cost of hiring a substitute. That section was stricken prior to Board approval. Click here to see the approved policy modifications in red.

Rules for interscholastic athletics: The Board approved rules for interscholastic athletics. These rules implement provisions of S.L. 2021-184 that require the SBE to either enter into a memorandum of understanding with a nonprofit to administer high school interscholastic athletics (which could be the NC High School Athletic Association but is not required to be) or assign administration to DPI. Click here to read the rules.

Consolidated data report on school crime & violence, suspensions & expulsions, use of corporal punishment, reassignments for disciplinary reasons, alternative learning placements, and dropout rates: The Board was presented with this 2020-2021 school year data report, which will be approved at the March meeting and submitted to the Joint Legislative Education Oversight Committee by March 15. Presenters noted that there are significant decreases in the data due to the closing of schools in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and that making comparisons to data from prior years should be done cautiously. The following are key findings in the statewide data report:

There were 1,535 acts of reportable crimes, with the crime rate of 1.04 crimes per 1000 students
There were 19,482 short-term suspensions as a result of criminal or non-criminal acts (unacceptable behaviors)
Of the 19,482 short-term suspensions, 18,290 (94.0%) were given as a result of an incident involving unacceptable behaviors (non-criminal acts)
82 long-term suspensions were reported
There were 6 expulsions in North Carolina schools
Zero school districts reported the use of corporal punishment

Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) update: Board members were presented with DPI’s progress on drafting and submitting an addendum, waiver, and amendment to the U.S. Department of Education (USED) regarding the effect of federally required assessments and accountability on the State’s ESSA Plan. DPI is drafting an addendum to the ESSA Plan for the 2021-2022 school year because of the impact of COVID-19 on data calculation and reporting. DPI is also seeking a possible waiver from the USED to mitigate the negative impact on school performance grades caused by not reaching the 95% participation requirement in the 2020-2021 school year. Lastly, DPI is working on an amendment to the ESSA Plan that would address lasting changes to the State’s accountability system based on lessons learned over the past two years. Click here for DPI’s presentation.

Click here to access all meeting materials. Click here for an article on the meeting.

The latest COVID-19 data may present an exit strategy from universal masking in school districts. Click here to listen to the discussion with a leading expert in pediatrics and infectious diseases in the latest episode of The Board Table.

As of February 4,

28 school districts have mask optional policies (five have mask optional policies with certain stipulations and one has a pending effective date)
87 school districts have mask mandates (three have mask mandates because the district reached a certain positivity rate)

The number of districts that require masks has decreased by two since last Friday, January 28.

NCSBA continues to track local school boards’ mask policies as districts vote monthly on whether to modify their current policy (required by Section 10 of SB 654/SL 2021-130). Click here to access a chart of school board actions. If your school district changes its mask policy or you have corrections to the chart, please email information to Rebekah Howard at rhoward@ncsba.org.

Monday, February 7

1:00 pm – House Select Committee on An Education System for North Carolina’s Future – Legislative Offices Building, rm 544 (live stream)

Wednesday, February 9

9:00 am – Joint Legislative Commission on Governmental Operations, Subcommittee on Use and Distribution of Federal COVID Funding – Legislative Building Auditorium (live stream)

Bruce Mildwurf
Director of Governmental Relations
N.C. School Boards Association
bmildwurf@ncsba.org

Rebekah Howard
Governmental Relations Research Specialist
N.C. School Boards Association
rhoward@ncsba.org