June 2019

SESSION ADJOURNS
Lawmakers adjourned the legislative session this afternoon and are returning to their home districts for the summer.  The adjournment resolution sets November 27, 2018, as the date they will return to Raleigh.  During this post-Thanksgiving session they will likely work on the constitutional amendments that are approved on November 6 and define them/write them up in the appropriate form.  They could also take up any of the remaining bills that are eligible this session, including bills that have been vetoed but have yet to receive override votes (such as HB 131 and HB 1055, see below).

NCSBA will be holding a legislative webinar July 2 at Noon that includes a review of the 2018 session.  Register here!

CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT – SB75 LOWER THE TAX CAP
The Constitutional Amendment lowering the income tax cap, SB 75, was revised and passed this week  Instead of the cap being lowered to 5.5%, as the amendment originally proposed, the maximum rate under the amendment will be 7%.  The amendment will appear on the November 2018 ballot.

SB 75 with the max rate of 5.5% was originally on the House calendar for Tuesday and then Wednesday.  At the behest of House leadership, the amendment was pulled from the Wednesday calendar and sent back to the House Finance Committee, where the revision was made to increase the cap from 5.5% to 7%.  This cap will be less restrictive.  The amendment went back to the House floor Wednesday and narrowly received the necessary three-fifths support (73-45). Despite some concerns, Senators followed suit and approved the amendment on Thursday (34-13).

SB 75 was the topic of discussion on the latest episode of the NC Public School Forum’s Education Matters television program.  Richard Bostic, NCSBA Assistant Director of Governmental Relations, was a featured speaker on the panel.  You can watch the episode here.

You can read more coverage of the tax cap amendment here.

STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION NOMINEES
A House-Senate joint session was held Thursday to take action on Governor Cooper’s 3 nominees to the State Board of Education.  Two of the nominees were rejected: Ms. Sandra Byrd of Asheville (nominated to replace Wayne McDevitt representing the Western Region); and Mr. J.B. Buxton of Raleigh (nominated to take Trish Willoughby’s at-large seat).

Gov. Cooper’s 3^rd nominee was a re-appointment- Mr. Reginald Kenan (representing the Southeast Region).  Mr. Kenan is a member of the Duplin County local board of education and has been on the State Board for 9 years.  His re-appointment was approved.

With two nominees having been voted down, Gov. Cooper will now have to resume the process of searching for new nominees.  The terms of both Mr. McDevitt and Ms. Willougby expired in March 2017 but both of them have been continuing to serve through their expired terms while replacements are sought.  Mr. McDevitt and Ms. Willoughby are the longest serving members of the State Board, having both served for 16 years.

You can read more coverage here.

NOTABLE BILL ACTION THIS WEEK

Vetoed by the Governor 
Overridden by the General Assembly
Have Become Law

• HB374- Regulatory Reform Act of 2018 (S.L. 2018-114)
  • Section 26 repeals a section in a different bill that got rid of protections for public schools where road improvements are occurring.  The protection prevented cities from putting conditions on zoning or permit request approvals from schools to get around the requirement that they reimburse LEAs, charter schools, or private schools for road improvements around schools.  A budget technical corrections section repealed this protection.  Section 26 restores the original budget language.
  • Section 27(b) directs the SBE to put all its policies through rule-making; policies not put through rule-making expire May 30, 2019.  Section 27(a) directs the SBE to repeal a couple policies setting out its authority in relation to the State Superintendent.
• HB 382- DOI Omnibus – AB (S.L. 2018-120)
  • Part 6 amends the bail bonds law to relieve sureties of their financial obligations solely because a defendant is arrested in another jurisdiction at any point before final judgment of forfeiture (up to 150 days after the failure to appear).  The prior law allowed for relief of the financial obligation only when the defendant was arrested in another jurisdiction on the day they failed to appear.
  • This relief does not provide any incentive to sureties that will make defendants’ return to court more likely, nor does it represent an appropriate excuse for missing court in the first place.  The only purpose of this change is to reduce the financial burdens on sureties when they fail to uphold their end of the bail bond contract.  The changes fly in the face of well-settled court precedent and provide no benefit whatsoever to the State.

Vetoed by the Governor
Override Vote Has Yet to Occur

• HB 131
  • This is another bail bonds bill which the NC Council of School Attorneys, on whose behalf we lobby, had opposed.
  • It would further expand the situations where a surety is relieved of their financial obligations.
  • It has been sent to the House Rules Committee and could be taken up when lawmakers reconvene in November.  You can read the Governor’s veto message here.
• HB 1055
  • This makes changes to the Teachers’ and State Employees retirement system.  Gov. Cooper vetoed HB 1055 because he believed it unnecessarily takes away retirement options from teachers/state employees.  It has been sent to the House Rules Committee and could be taken up when lawmakers reconvene in November.  You can read the Governor’s veto message here.

Signed By Governor/Enacted Into Law

• HB1031- Local Ed. Funding Dispute Process (S.L. 2018-83)
  • Removes the option for local school boards to file lawsuits over current expense if mediation fails.  It would continue the mediation process but if the mediation is not successful instead of the board filing suit, an automatic funding formula would be triggered.
  • The formula is: Per-student local appropriations from the previous school year X 1+ the Employment Cost Index (ECI) for primary and secondary education X the ADM for the upcoming year.  If this formula is used 3 years in a row there would be an additional 3% added to the ECI.  It would not alter any existing local funding formulas.
  • Creates a working group to study a mechanism to resolve disputes related to capital outlay, which will include representatives from NCSBA and the Association of County Commissioners.
• HB611- Employment Contract Exception (S.L. 2018-26)
• HB670- Protect Educational Property  (S.L. 2018-72)
• HB986- Various Changes to Education Laws  (S.L. 2018-32)

Resolutions That Passed

• HB1102- Study Best Practice/Advanced Ed Opportunities
  • This resolution sets up a special House committee tasked with researching ways to help improve opportunities for high achieving economically disadvantaged students.

NCSBA Bill Tracking: click here.

SESSION TIMELINE
House leadership announced earlier this week that they anticipate the 2018 short session will be adjourning next Friday, June 29.  Republican leaders said both chambers will spend next week debating and voting on local bills, 5 or 6 constitutional amendments, and Governor vetoes.  After last week’s whirlwind of committee meetings and late night voting sessions, Speaker Tim Moore and President Pro-Tem Phil Berger assured their respective chambers that they will not be taking up anything controversial that could be vetoed for the remainder of the session.  Remember that constitutional amendments do not go to the Governor, they instead go to the voters (statewide referendum).CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT – SB75 LOWER TAX CAP
The Constitutional Amendment to significantly lower the personal and corporate income tax rate cap- SB75– passed the House Rules Committee Wednesday after a lengthy debate.  Republican leadership wants to let the voters decide whether to decrease the maximum allowable income tax rate from 10% to 5.5%.  The current personal income rate is 5.49% and is scheduled to go down again next year to 5.25%.  The corporate rate is 3% and will go down to 2.5% next year.  Supporters make the case that the NC economy has been strong since enactment of recent tax cuts and that future sessions of the General Assembly cannot raise income tax rates above what they deem to be appropriate levels.

NCSBA has several concerns about this amendment.  Such a restrictive cap would tie the hands of the State to respond to economic recessions or other events that cause State revenue to drop.  It could also negatively impact debt service and make bond issues more expensive by jeopardizing NC’s AAA bond rating.

Having already passed the Senate, the amendment would need to receive support of three-fifths of the House, or 72 members, in order to go to the voters.  It is unclear when it will be put on the House calendar.  Please contact your House member(s) in opposition.  Click here 

Media Coverage
Note that this weekend’s episode of Education Matters will focus on education and business community concerns with this const. amendment.  NCSBA will be represented by Assistant Director of Governmental Relations Richard Bostic on the panel.

Education Matters will air at these times:
Saturday at 7:30 PM, WRAL-TV (Raleigh/Durham/Fayetteville)
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)

BILLS OF NOTE

HB131/HB382- BAIL BONDS
Last week two bills passed the General Assembly that make significant changes to the bail bonds forfeiture laws.  Provisions were added in the Senate to H 131 and H 382.  On behalf of the NC Council of School Attorney we have asked the Governor to veto both bills.  The purpose of the bond forfeiture system is to ensure the appearance of the bonded defendant in court and facilitate the administration of justice.  The amendments to NCGS §15A-544.5(b) and §15A-544.8(b) in House Bills 382 and 131 are contrary to that purpose and will significantly increase the likelihood that defendants will not appear in court to face justice.  They have the ancillary consequence of further burdening financial planning for school systems.  State law creates seven specific grounds upon which sureties may seek relief from their financial obligations on a forfeited bond.  These options are carefully balanced to ensure that sureties only receive relief when the defendants’ failure to appear has been remedied in a timely fashion or was impossible due to incarceration in another jurisdiction on the scheduled court date.  House Bills 382 and 131 upend this balance by providing gratuitous relief to sureties with no attendant benefit to the administration of justice.  The added language in NCGS §15A-544.5(b)(6a) and (b)(7) relieves sureties of their financial obligations solely because a defendant is arrested in another jurisdiction any time before final judgment of forfeiture (up to 150 days after the failure to appear).  This relief does not provide any incentive to sureties that will make defendants’ return to court more likely, nor does it represent an appropriate excuse for missing court in the first place.  The amendments’ only purpose is to reduce the financial burdens on sureties when they fail to uphold their end of the bail bond contract.  The changes fly in the fact of well-settled court precedent, and provide no benefit whatsoever to the State.  Finally, House Bill 131 also amends NCGS §15A-544.8(b) to provide broad relief to sureties for up to three years after final judgment.  That statute had provided a narrow justification for such relief if the surety could show “extraordinary circumstances.”  Courts have, appropriately, held that such language sets a high bar.  House Bill 131 removes the word “extraordinary” from the statute, upending decades of case law and leaving relief entirely to the discretion of judges with no guiding standard.  This will result in wildly disparate results across counties and drastically reduce the efforts sureties will put into finding missing defendants, all of which burdens the courts and hinders the administration of justice.  In addition, because of the time delays involved in relief under section 544.8 and the much lower standard created in these bills, school boards around the state will be left with no choice but to create trust accounts to hold bond forfeiture proceeds for three years, in case they have to pay them back years after collection.  This will be a massive administrative burden, especially on smaller counties.

SB15- ISD Changes and Capital Grant Clarification     In Senate Rules 
At the time we published last week’s update, it was uncertain what would happen to SB15.  We noted in previous updates the two major concerns with this bill- raising the cap on 5 schools that can be put into the ISD and making Reform Model and other turnaround schools eligible for inclusion in the ISD.  We were anticipating SB15 might come up on the Senate floor Friday for a concurrence vote.  Instead it was sent to the Senate Rules Committee.  Since the Senate has said no statewide bills will be considered for the rest of the session, we do not expect any further action on this bill.

HB374- Regulatory Reform Act of 2018     Awaiting action by the Governor
This bill was among the flurry of bills that passed last week while legislators were finishing up statewide bills.  There are a few education provisions.  The most notable is Section 26, a provision that repeals a section in a different bill that got rid of protections for public schools where road improvements are occurring.  The protection prevented cities from putting conditions on zoning or permit request approvals from schools to get around the requirement that they reimburse LEAs, charter schools, or private schools for road improvements around schools.  A budget technical corrections section repealed this protection.  Section 26 restores the original budget language.

Section 27 of HB374 deals with the SBE.  It directs the SBE to put all its policies through rule-making; policies not put through rule-making are expired May 30, 2019.  It also directs the SBE to repeal a couple policies setting out its authority in relation to the State Superintendent.

HB1031- Local Ed. Funding Dispute Process  Awaiting action by the Governor
This would remove the option for local school boards to file lawsuits over current expense if mediation fails.  It would continue the mediation process but if the mediation is not successful instead of the board filing suit, an automatic funding formula would be triggered.

The formula is:
Per-student local appropriations from the previous schoolyear X 1+ the Employment Cost Index (ECI) for primary and secondary education X the ADM for the upcoming year.  If this formula is used 3 years in a row there would be an additional 3% added to the ECI.  It would not alter any existing local funding formulas.

There is also a provision to have a working group study a mechanism to resolve disputes related to capital outlay, which will include representatives from NCSBA and the Association of County Commissioners.

Below are bills mentioned in previous updates that are still awaiting action by the Governor:

• HB611- Employment Contract Exception
• HB670- Protect Educational Property 
• HB986- Various Changes to Education Laws 

ONLINE SALES TAX
In a 5-4 decision on June 21, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that states canrequire e-commerce companies to collect sales tax on purchases made by their state residents.  Prior to this ruling, a business had to have a physical presence in the state before it was required to collect sales taxes.  This case was prompted by the passage of a 2016 South Dakota law that required companies registered with the state to collect and remit sales tax if it had annual remote sales exceeding $100,000 or had more than 200 separate remote transactions in the state in a calendar year.  South Dakota sued four retailers for not complying with the law, thus the name of the court case, South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc., et.al.

North Carolina may need to update its sales tax statutes before implementing the sales tax on internet sales.  While still in session during the last week of June, the General Assembly could take up Senate Bill 81 that was modeled after the South Dakota internet sales tax law.  This bill passed the Senate in 2017 and is in the House Finance Committee.

This decision could generate additional sales tax revenue at the state and local level.  An estimate from the federal Government Accountability Office projected that the potential revenue gains from expanded remote sales tax collection for North Carolina could be $223M (low-end estimate) to $358M (high-end estimate).

SESSION WINDING DOWN
Lawmakers are holding a rare Friday session today as they work to finish up the 2017-18 session soon.  Activity on Jones Street was busy throughout the week, with dozens of bills moving out of committees and both chambers.  The plan is to finish up statewide bills that go to the Governor today, consider local bills and constitutional amendments next week, and do any veto overrides the following week.

Make sure to pay attention to your emails for action alerts as bills move throughout the day today. 

CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT – LOWER THE TAX CAP
A Senate proposal to let the voters decide on lowering the maximum income tax rate allowed by the NC Constitution cleared a House committee this week.  SB75 would lower the income tax cap in the NC Constitution from 10% to 5.5%.  The current rate is 5.49% and is scheduled to go down more next year to 5.25%.  If the amendment goes to the voters and passes it would mean that no future session of the General Assembly could raise the rate higher than 5.5%.  The Senate passed the amendment last year so if the House successfully passes it before session ends it would go on the November 2018 ballot.  Constitutional amendments do not go to the Governor.

NCSBA has several concerns about such an amendment.  Chiefly, a drop of this magnitude (4.5%) would tie the hands of the State to respond to economic recessions or other events that cause a drop in State revenue.  Such a restrictive cap could also negatively impact debt service and make bond issues more expensive by potentially jeopardizing NC’s AAA credit rating.  NCSBA believes that at the very least the tax cap should be set at 7.75%, which is what the top marginal rate had historically been before the General Assembly collapsed the marginal rates down to a flat rate in 2013.

The amendment is now in House Rules.  NCSBA is working with members of the committee to try to change the amendment to get it up to 7.75%.  Please contact members of the House Rules Committee and ask them to oppose the amendment or increase the cap to 7.75%.  Click here to find and contact members of that committee.

Click here to read more about the House Finance Committee’s discussion.

BILLS OF NOTE THIS WEEK 

Still Need Legislative Action as of 1:00 PM 
HB1031- Local Ed. Funding Dispute Process.  The bill to change the current budget dispute process between boards of education and county commissions passed the House floor Wednesday and Senate Rules today.  It is on the Senate calendar for today.

The bill would remove the option for a school board to file suit in superior court over current expense if mediation fails.  The new process under the bill would continue the mediation process but if the mediation is not successful instead of the board filing suit an automatic funding formula would be triggered.  The formula would be the amount appropriated per student the previous school year multiplied by 1+ the Employment Cost Index (ECI) for primary and secondary education x the ADM for the upcoming year.  If this happens 3 years in a row there would be an additional penalty of adding 3% to the ECI.  It would not alter any existing local funding formulas.  Disputes over capital could still go through the court process after mediation.

NCSBA had expressed concern on the original bill that if the commissioners gave nothing for school capital then the formula would derive nothing.  HB1031 was revised to include a provision to have a working group study a mechanism to resolve disputes related to capital outlay, which will include representatives from NCSBA and the Association of County Commissioners.

SB15- ISD Changes and Capital Grant Clarification.  This makes various changes to the ISD statute.  It narrowly passed the House yesterday and is likely to be taken up by the Senate today.  The original version ALSO had a provision on LEAs employing superintendents’ spouses.  This language was stripped from this and put into another bill instead (HB611 see below).

NCSBA has concerns about 2 provisions in SB15:

• There is language that removes the cap of 5 schools and allows the ISD superintendent the option of selecting up to two additional low-performing schools for the ISD beginning 2021-22.  We have no idea if this model works or not.  This upcoming school year will be the first for a school to operate under this model.  We have a couple of years in which this provision could pass once they have shown they can be successful.  This expands what should be a pilot before it has even started.
• It also allows for schools that adopted a turnaround model such as a Restart to be put into the ISD. This means the LEA may not have a chance to try to improve the school on it’s own.

We are working to try to get these provisions changed.  The only way the bill can be changed is if the Senate votes to not concur in the House changes (the House added this language) and the bill gets sent to a conference committee.

SB15 also makes some other changes to the ISD law dealing with career status teachers, the selection timeline, and other areas of the ISD law.

Passed Both Chambers and Sent to Governor
SB335- Budget Technical Corrections
Lawmakers quickly put out and passed the annual budget technical corrections bill this week.  There are several areas that impact public education.  One that caused great alarm was Section 7.4(a) and (b) would strike language that protected LEAs in their request to cities for reimbursements for road improvements.

This is being repealed in HB374.

Click here to read more on this issue.

SB125- Various Changes to Education
The House Education Committee stripped out the original language of this bill and inserted an item on public education.  The provision encourages local boards of education to adopt student attendance recognition programs and establish guidelines for those programs.

HB611- Employment Contract Exception
This bill legalizes employment relationships between any NC local school board and the spouse of the superintendent, if that employment relationship has been approved by that board in an open session.  Earlier versions of this language, including a provision in SB15, had limited this authority to counties/cities below a certain population level.  That language was stripped out of SB15 and this version moved instead.

HB670- Protect Educational Property
This would make it a Class H felony to communicate a threat of mass violence on educational property.  NCSBA supports this bill in line with the school safety survey that was sent to school board members in March.

HB986- Various Changes to Education Laws
The Senate Education Committee took the original contents of the bill- to establish DPI reporting requirements on LEAs complying with the cursive writing and multiplication table curriculum mandates- and tacked on several additional K-12 provisions.

• Direct SBE to repeal the existing mental health policy and then have DPI develop a content standard for a mental health training program that includes the provisions of HB285.  This would create one set of school employee training requirements for youth mental health/suicide awareness instead of multiple training requirements.  It would also allow for remote training programs.
• Require LEAs to place students who score a level 5 on end-of-year math tests in be placed in an advanced math course the following years.  This was put in on the House side. 
• Direct the State Board of Education to provide information from annual performance reports for educator preparation providers in a user-friendly format that allows comparability of data, and remove requirements for UNC to incorporate that information into the Teacher Quality Dashboard.
• Require the State Superintendent of Public Instruction to study and make recommendations on ways to reduce testing not otherwise required by State or federal law.
• Create a “Renewal School System” model that authorizes Rowan-Salisbury to apply to the SBE to have all its schools operate with various charter-like exemptions from State laws/regulations.

NCSBA MONDAY LEGISLATIVE WEBINAR CANCELLED
Please note that there will be NO LEGISLATIVE WEBINAR on Monday, June 18.

BILLS
Click here to access all the NCSBA-tracked bills that had action this week as of this morning.

ARMING SCHOOL EMPLOYEES
HB960, which was scheduled Thursday for a vote on the House floor, was removed from the calendar because of an amendment Rep. Larry Pittman put forth to allow armed school employees to voluntarily provide security services if they are trained and possess a concealed carry permit.  NCSBA opposes this amendment per the results of the survey sent to school board members in March when 70% said they opposed arming teachers.  This bill is back on the calendar for Tuesday, June 12.  Please contact your House member(s) before Tuesday and let them know that you oppose arming school employees except SRO officers.  Click here to find your House members and contact information. 

As currently written, HB960- Local Law Enforcement/Citizen Academies, would authorize local programs for citizens to do specific tasks for their law enforcement agencies to help with community safety and security.  The citizens would have to go through a training program and background check.

BUDGET VETO/OVERRIDE 
On Thursday the Senate quickly overrode Governor Roy Cooper’s Wednesday veto of the 2018-19 budget.  This came less than 24 hours after the veto was issued.  The override margin was 34-13.  It is expected that the House will override the veto Monday or Tuesday.

Governor Cooper cited the public education section as one of the problematic areas, calling the funding inadequate.  “We have to invest more in public education,” Gov. Cooper said during a news conference announcing his veto.

This is the second consecutive year that Gov. Cooper has vetoed the General Assembly’s budget bill.  If you want to read more and watch the Governor’s news conference on his decision to veto click here. If you want to read about the leadership of the General Assembly’s response to the veto click here.

MUNICIPAL CHARTER BILL
HB514, which allows four Charlotte suburbs to apply to run charter schools, is now law (SL 2018-3).  The bill passed a final Senate vote 27-17 Monday night and then was approved in a concurrence vote by the House 64-53 on Wednesday.  Since the bill was a local bill it did not go to the Governor.

HB514 will set a new precedent for the state by letting the towns of Matthews, Mint Hill, Cornelius, and Huntersville apply to be chartering entities.  If approved to run a charter school, the town could use tax money to fund both current operations AND capital.

The Senate Education Committee had added an amendment to allow employees of these “municipal charter schools” to participate in the Teacher and State Employees Retirement System (TSERS).  Concern was later raised this provision made the bill a statewide bill that would have to be sent to the Governor.  In an effort to keep HB514 a “local” bill, the employee eligibility language was removed on the Senate floor.  Ultimately, six Republican Senators joined all of the Democrat Senators to vote against HB514.  They were Senators Dan Barrett, Tamara Barringer, Kenny Earl Britt, Rick Horner, Tom McInnis, and Jerry Tillman.  On the House side, Republican House members William Brisson, Ted Davis, Josh Dobson, Jeffrey Elmore, Kyle Hall, Craig Horn, Julia Howard, Stephen Ross, and Mitchell Setzer broke ranks to join the Democrats to vote in opposition.

NCSBA is concerned that this is a concept that other towns and cities could pursue in future years.  Now that this law has been enacted, it is going to be difficult, if not impossible, for future legislatures to tell local delegations that their municipalities cannot have the same authority to create their own “municipal charter school.”  Additionally, Section 38.8 of the State budget act now authorizes cities to use tax dollars for public schools including to enter into leasing agreements for real property and mobile classroom facilities.  HB 514 takes it a step further and permits specified municipalities to open/operate public charter schools. There are also a number of unanswered questions and potential consequences, including, but not limited to:

• What, if any, retirement plan will employees of the municipal charter participate?  What other benefits would or would not be available to employees of the municipal charter?
• What happens if there is a time when less than a majority of student enrollment live in the municipality?   Is this a violation of the public purpose clause in the constitution?
• Can the town contract with an Education Management Organization (EMO) to run the school or must all employees be employees of the town?
• What would this do to pre-existing schools run by the LEA that are located in or near the municipality that taxpayers have already paid?
• What effect would this have on traditional charter schools in the area?
• Do the citizens of the municipality have a voice in whether the school is established or not?

This issue has made the national news in an article published this week by US News and World Report.  Click here to read that report.

INNOVATIVE SCHOOL DISTRICT CHANGES/SUPERINTENDENT SPOUSES
A bill to make some changes to the Innovative School District (ISD) and allow qualifying local school boards to employ the spouse of the local superintendent passed the House K-12 Education Committee Tuesday.  ISD Superintendent Dr. Eric Hall requested several amendments to the existing ISD statute, and SB15 includes these provisions.  They include:

• Removes the cap of 5 schools and allows the ISD superintendent the option of selecting up to two additional low-performing schools for the ISD beginning 2021-22.  (NCSBA has concerns about this section).
• Schools that adopt a turnaround model such as a Restart are no longer exempt from inclusion in the ISD.  (NCSBA has concerns about this section).
• Career status teachers in an ISD school will now retain his/her career status once the school goes back to the governance of the LEA.
• Change the dates for the SBE to select an ISD school and for the local board of education to respond.  Currently, the SBE must select an ISD school by December 15 of the calendar year and then the local school board has two months to decide to accept the transfer or close the school.  SB15 changes those dates so that the SBE must select a school by November 15 and then the local board must make a decision on accepting the transfer or closing the school one month later- December 15.
• If the local school board decides to close the school instead of accepting the ISD transfer, SB15 would require the board to submit a closure plan to the SBE.
• Give the ISD operator first priority in using funds for capital at the school.
• Expand the timeline for the ISD operator and the local school board to adopt a memorandum of understanding to 45 days (from, 30 days).
• Allows, instead of requiring, innovation zone schools to become an ISD school if they do not meet certain benchmarks.

As noted above, NCSBA has concerns about two of the sections in this part of the bill.  We are working with Dr. Hall and the SBE to modify the language but still achieve the identified goals.

SB15 also contains a separate provision that clarifies the law surrounding employment by the school district of a superintendent’s spouse.  SB15 would specifically allow for employment of superintendents’ spouses in county LEAs with a population of 65,000 or fewer and in city LEAs with a population of 15,000 or fewer.

SB15 could be taken up in the House chamber as early as Monday night.  If passed it would need to go to the Senate for a concurrence vote.

OTHER NOTABLE BILLS
Omnibus School Safety Legislation
The House on Monday unanimously passed HB938, a comprehensive bill to try to improve school safety.  HB938 would:

• Require peer-to-peer support programs in all schools with grade 6 and above.
• Mandate that all public school buildings undergo annual facility vulnerability assessments.
• Require each LEA to submit an annual report on school resource officers (SROs).
• Establish training requirements for SROs.

Threat Assessment Teams
HB934 passed the House Wednesday.  This bill would require all local school boards to pass policies creating and providing for threat assessment teams in the LEA.  A threat assessment team would include individuals with expertise in counseling, instruction, school administration, and law enforcement that
conducts threat assessments in the LEA.  It also contains the same language on peer-to-peer support programs in grades 6 and above as is contained in HB938.

National/State Mottos in Schools Act
HB965 passed the House 94-15 Wednesday.  This bill would require all public schools to prominently display both the State motto “To Be Rather Than to Seem,” and the National motto “In God We Trust.”  Examples of “prominent” places where the mottos should be displayed would be an entry way, cafeteria, or other common area.  Only $25,000 would be appropriated to LEAs for this mandate in 2018-19.

Advanced Math Courses
HB986 would require LEAs to offer advanced math courses in grades 3 and up.  It would direct that if a student scores a level 5 on their EOG/EOC they shall be placed into this advanced math course for the next academic year.  This bill passed a House committee and the House floor.  It is now under consideration in the Senate.

NCSBA LEGISLATIVE WEBINAR JUNE 11
Registration is open for NCSBA’s next legislative webinar on June 11 at Noon.  During this free webinar we will give an update on recent legislative activity and look ahead to the coming week.  Click here to register for the June 11 webinar.

BILLS
Click here to see a list of bills with action this week that NCSBA is tracking.

BUDGET
Lawmakers completed their work on the 2018-19 budget this morning, as the House gave final approval to the package by a vote of 66-44.  The Senate voted separately to give final approval to the plan on Thursday morning 36-14 mostly on party lines (one Democrat voted yes).  Because the budget was put into a conference report (SB99), there were several unique features to this year’s budget process- the various spending subcommittees did not meet to take up their sections (there was just one joint meeting of each chamber’s full appropriations committees); each chamber voted separately on the full package (as opposed to the first chamber sending it over to the other chamber); and no amendments were allowed. This allowed for a quick process where the budget was sent to the Governor less than 96 hours after being released.

Each chamber spent multiple hours debating the measure, with most of the Senate debate occurring Wednesday afternoon and most of the House debate occurring Thursday afternoon.  The House debate in particular featured a few tense moments of heated discussion.  You can read more about the debate here and here.

It is unclear what Governor Cooper will do now that the budget is heading his way but he has 10 days to sign, veto, or let it become law without his signature.

Attached please find a review of the major budget provisions for K-12 public education.

MUNICIPAL CHARTER BILL
HB514 passed out of the Senate Education Committee this week.  This bill allows a handful of cities/towns to establish and run charter schools.  When the House passed it last year the bill only gave this authority to the towns of Matthews and Mint Hill.  The Senate Education Committee added the towns of Cornelius and Huntersville to the bill before sending it to the Senate floor.  It passed an initial vote in the Senate Thursday by a vote of 30-20.  Senators Dan Barrett (R-Iredell), Tamara Barringer (R-Wake), Danny Earl Britt (R-Columbus), Tom McInnis (R-Richmond), and Rick Horner (R-Nash) joined all Democrats in opposing the bill.  It will be taken up for a final vote on Monday.  If passed, it would need to go back to the House for a concurrence vote.

NCSBA has significant concerns about this bill.  In conjunction with a provision in the budget (see budget summary attachment), HB514 would create a significant policy shift in the operation and funding of our state’s public schools.  It would set a precedent that impacts students, districts, and communities across the state.

Sec. 38.8 of the budget allows cities to levy property taxes to enter into leasing agreements for real property or mobile classroom units for use as school facilities for public schools.  Currently, cities are not authorized to use property tax revenue for schools.  HB514 then permits the city to operate a public charter school.  Additionally, it has been the policy of this state to bar governmental entities from appropriating taxpayer dollars for capital for charter schools.  This concept has not been properly vetted and has too many potential risks and unintended consequences.

SCHOOL SAFETY LEGISLATION
A comprehensive bill to try to improve school safety passed out of the House K-12 Education Committee Wednesday.  HB938 includes many of the recommendations from the House Select Committee on School Safety.  It is scheduled for a vote in the House today.  HB938 would:

– Require peer-to-peer support programs in all schools with grade 6 and above.

– Mandate that all public school buildings undergo annual facility vulnerability assessments.

– Require each LEA to submit an annual report on SROs.

– Establish training requirements for SROs.

NCSBA LEGISLATIVE WEBINAR – JUNE 4
Registration is open for NCSBA’s next legislative webinar on June 4 at Noon.  During this free webinar we will give an update on the budget and recent legislative activity.  Click here to register for the June 4 webinar.

The State budget for 2018/19 was released on Monday night. House and Senate spending committees took up the measure this morning and it is expected that votes in the House and Senate will occur on Wednesday and Thursday. Remember that since the budget has been put into a conference report (SB99) it cannot be amended. House and Senate members will have to take an up or down vote on the full package as written. It is probable that a budget technical corrections bill will move through the General Assembly later this session. While it is unclear whether Governor Cooper will sign the budget if it passes, Republicans likely have enough numbers in the General Assembly to override a possible veto.

NCSBA is in the process of analyzing the budget. We will have full details about what is in the budget in our Friday update. For now, here are some brief highlights:

Teacher Salaries
The budget sets a base annual salary of $50,000 for teachers in years 15-24. Then increases the salary to $52,000 from year 25 and on. On average teacher salaries would go up 6.5% under the proposal. The proposal pretty much keeps in place what is already set to go into effect for teacher salaries for 2018/19.  The main difference is that the annual salary for teachers at year 25 and up is increased over what the biennium budget had planned.

Principal Salaries
Principals would see their salaries go up 6.9% on average over 2017/18 levels. No change is made to the new principal salary structure but the base salaries on each of the rungs is increased.  Below is a comparison of the salary levels from last year and the levels proposed for 2018/19.

2017/18:

Avg. Daily Membership              Base                      Met Growth         Exceeded Growth

0-400                                       $61,751                 $67,926                 $74,101

401-700                                   $64,839                 $71,322                 $77,806

701-1,000                                $67,926                 $74,719                 $81,511

1,001-1,300                             $71,014                 $78,115                 $85,216

1,301+                                     $74,101                 $81,511                 $88,921

2018-19:

Avg. Daily Membership              Base                      Met Growth         Exceeded Growth

0-400                                       $66,000                 $72,611                 $79,212

401-700                                   $69,311                $76,242                  $83,173

701-1,000                                $72,611                $79,872                  $87,133

1,001-1,300                             $75,912                $83,503                   $91,094

1,301+                                     $79,212                  $87,133                 $95,054

The budget also makes fixes to the principal salary and bonus structure that NCSBA identified.  NCSBA worked with Senator Jerry Tillman and others on this issue since November.  Working with the State Board of Education representative, most of the changes that NCSBA has talked about are included in the budget.  These changes do the following:

• Include the hold harmless to 2016-17 pay.

• Simplifies how principals receive increases and decreases in pay so that there is less volatility, no pay backs, and less of an administrative burden.  Principals will receive the increase in the schedule on July 1 based on the 2017-18 ADM and 2014-15, 2015-16, and 2016-17 performance scores.   January 1 adjustments will be made based on the 2018-19 ADM and 2015-16, 2016-17 and 2017-18 performance scores.  Without this provision adjustments would have to be made twice after scores come out in September and then with ADM in November.  Additionally, this eliminates the need for LEAs to recoup pay if overpayments were made.

• Includes a change to the definition of “demotion” so that principals who move from a higher to a lower salary level are not considered “demoted.”’

• Changes the bonus program so that going forward there will only be one bonus.  The bonus going forward will be the one for the top 50^th percentile. Increases are made at each of the rungs except for the bottom rung. Additionally, a principal can earn double the amount if they are in a D or F school. This eliminates the bonus program that was only for principals that had not met/met in year 1 and then exceeded in year 2.

What is not included in the budget but was included in Senator Tillman’s bill is the three-year hold harmless for principals who are paid on the exceed rung of the salary schedule who move to a low performing school.  Thank you for your help locally on communicating with lawmakers and pointing out these concerns.

Other Salaries and Benefits
Money would also be appropriated for a 2% salary increase for noncertified personnel and salary increases for school bus drivers.

Other Provisions

– The budget contains most of the language from HB600, the school leasing bill. This bill would authorize local school boards to enter into arrangements where a third party can build schools and then lease them back to that school board.

– Maintains the $4 million in additional cuts to DPI that were in the biennium budget bill last year.

– Increases the Needs-Based grants for school construction from $75 million to over $117 million.

– Eliminates $18 million in appropriations that were scheduled to go to school technology from the fines and forfeitures fund.

– Allows cities to appropriate money to public schools.

– Directs $25,000 to a charter school for school construction. This is significant because it would set a precedent for charters accessing school capital.

– There is also $28 million in new money for school safety provisions as we noted in our Friday update last week.

Click here to see the budget bill.

BUDGET TIMELINE
House and Senate leaders have been meeting for weeks on the 2018/19 State budget and plan to have the budget passed by June 1.  The full package is expected to be made public Monday evening.  House and Senate spending committees are scheduled to jointly meet to take up the budget on Tuesday, May 29 at 10AM.  Look for a special update from NCSBA when budget details are released.

As part of budget negotiations, House and Senate leadership have agreed to present a budget that cannot be changed.  Because the budget will be placed in a conference report (for Senate Bill 99), it cannot be amended because legislative rules prohibit amendments to conference reports.  Therefore, each chamber will have a simple up or down vote next week.  If both chambers adopt the SB99 conference report it heads to the Governor.  If it fails lawmakers go back to the negotiating table.

School Safety Budget Provisions
A press conference was held Thursday to announce some one-time school safety grants that will be included in the 2018/19 budget.  The funds are targeted at priority areas identified by the House Select Committee on School Safety during the interim.  Below is a picture tweeted out by Rep. David Lewis highlighting the school safety budget items.

The school safety provisions add up to a total of $35 million but only $28 million is new funding; $7 million can already be found in the budget.  We will provide additional details on these items next week.

For up to the minute updates on budget developments next week, be sure to follow the NCSBA Governmental Relations Department on Twitter at @NCSBAGovtRel!

LOCAL EDUCATION FUNDING DISPUTE BILL APPROVED IN CMTE
A compromise bill to modify the process for resolving local education funding disputes was approved by the Joint Legislative Program Evaluation Oversight Committee on Monday.

The bill, based on a study of the issue by the Program Evaluation Division, would keep the current process of allowing for mediation if a local school board objects to the amount of local education funding appropriated by the county commissioners.  However, if the school board and county commissioners cannot reach an agreement through mediation the bill would eliminate the option for school boards to file a lawsuit and would replace it with a default funding formula. The formula would use the LEA’s student enrollment plus inflation, with funding increasing at a faster pace over three years if an agreement is not reached within the timeframe.  None of the bill language would impact or override existing local funding formulas already in place.  “Both sides are not entirely happy with this bill that’s before you, but they both seem to live with it,” Rep. Craig Horn (R-Union) told the committee.  You can read the recommended bill by clicking here.

A proposed amendment addressing disputes over school construction and facility funding was also discussed.  NCSBA Director of Governmental Relations Leanne Winner spoke against the amendment because “it puts the county commissioners completely in charge of capital without the school boards having any way of addressing health and safety, compliance with federal laws, or overcrowding in our schools.”  The committee decided to NOT take a vote on the amendment.  However, the amendment could reappear later in the process if the bill starts moving through the General Assembly.

Click here to see the full report on the local education funding dispute process published by the Program Evaluation Division.

NOTABLE BILLS THIS WEEK
SB737- Safer Schools, Healthier Kids Act.  This bill is a large package of measures designed to reduce school violence.  Among the provisions in the bill are a few items that were included in the Governor’s budget addressing school safety.  SB737 would provide $25 million to the SBE to enhance school security infrastructure, $40 million for additional school support personnel to help students struggling with mental health challenges (counselors, school nurses, etc.), and $7 million for additional SROs.

SB756- School Security Act of 2018.  This would offer a path for teachers to go through the same training process as SROs and become a “teacher resource officer.” These individuals would have “the same powers as municipal and county police officers to make arrests for both felonies and misdemeanors and to charge for infractions.”  Funding would be set aside for a 5% salary boost for up to 3,000 teachers to go through this process.  The decision as to whether a teacher resource officers could carry firearms would be left to the individual school.  A teacher’s identity as a school resource officer would be confidential.

NCSBA LEGISLATIVE WEBINARS
NCSBA’s legislative webinar for May 28 has been cancelled due to the Memorial Day holiday.  We will resume our weekly free webinar series on Monday, June 4.  Click here to register for the June 4 webinar.

BILLS
Click here for the list of K-12 bills filed this week that NCSBA is tracking.

SESSION BEGINS
Lawmakers returned to Raleigh Wednesday to begin the 2018 legislative “short” session.  The first day of session was accompanied by a rally of roughly 19,000-20,000 teachers and supporters asking for better teacher working conditions, improved teacher pay, and increased investments in public education.  You can find more coverage of the teacher rally by clicking here.

Things are expected to move quickly this session, as the Senate could roll out its version of the budget as early as next week.  The House went right to work moving new legislation on Thursday as they approved HB933, which will have NC accept the nationally certified school psychologist credential for licensure.  This was one of the recommendations of the House Select Committee on School Safety (see below).  Compelling information shared with lawmakers is that there are currently 12 LEAs that don’t have a full-time school psychologist and 75 vacancies.

GOVERNOR’S BUDGET PROPOSAL
Governor Roy Cooper rolled out his budget priorities for the 2018-19 fiscal year on May 10.  His budget invests heavily in K-12 initiatives.  Most notably, Gov. Cooper proposes to put a statewide bond of up to $2 billion for school construction and renovations on the November 2018 ballot.  Getting the General Assembly to allow a statewide school construction bond on the ballot is one of NCSBA’s top priorities for this session.  Learn more about the school bond coalition at www.ncschoolbond.com.

Gov. Cooper’s total State budget is approximately $600 million more than legislative leaders have agreed to budget.  Senate leader Phil Berger called Gov. Cooper’s budget “an unserious attempt to score political points in an election year.”

Below are other highlights of Gov. Cooper’s budget proposal for K-12 public education.

Salary/Retirement Proposals
– $98.7 million for an average 8% salary increase for classroom teachers in 2018-19.  This would be an increase from the 6% average raise teachers are already scheduled to get.  This comes as part of a four-year plan to hike average teacher salaries in NC to the national average by 2021-22.  There would also be a $150 stipend given to teachers at the start of the year to offset the cost of supplies that teachers purchase out of pocket.

– $13 million for principal salaries for 2018-19.  Also reforms the salary schedule so that principals go back to getting step increases based on years of experience, plus a salary supplement based on ADM of the school.  This would roll back the new principal salary model established by the legislature that sets salary based on school growth and ADM.

– The greater of $1,250 or 2% raise for central office and non-certified LEA employees.

– Provides a 1% COLA increase for retirees.

School Safety Investments
– $25 million to the SBE for building updates, equipment, and communications systems to improve security at public schools.

– $40 million for LEAs to hire more student support personnel such as nurses, counselors, psychologists, and social workers.

– $7 million for additional SROs.

– $3 million for the elementary and middle school SRO grant program.

– Additional funding for mental health training to support the mental health needs of students.

School Construction

– Put a bond of up to $2 billion on the November 2018 ballot for construction and renovations of schools.

– $69 million in lottery funds and $6 million from the Indian Gaming Fund to help LEAs build additional classrooms to meet the K-3 class size requirements.

Textbooks/Digital Materials
– $15 million for textbooks and digital materials.

AIG Grant
– $3 million for up to 10 LEAs to expand identification of and opportunities for AIG students.

Professional Development
– $5 million for teacher professional development.

DPI
– Elimination of the additional $4.1 million DPI cut that is set to go into effect in 2018-19.

School Vouchers
– Repeal of the automatic $10 million increase for the school voucher program that is right now written into law.

NC Pre-K
– Directs TANF funds toward creating 1,000 additional prekindergarten slots.

Click here to see the whole budget.

Notable Bills Filed
SB718- Revise Principal Compensation.  This bill was filed in the Senate on Wednesday by Senator Jerry Tillman (R-Randolph).  SB718 would fix some of the issues with the new principal compensation and bonus program that NCSBA has identified.  Specifically, it would:

– Set out January-December as the timeframe in which principal salaries are in effect (instead of July-June).  This allows time for reporting the previous year’s accountability data upon which the principal’s placement on the schedule will be based.

– Extend the hold harmless until 2020.

– Ensure that principals who see a drop in salary due to their school performance are not considered “demoted” under law.  This will ensure that LEAs do not have to supplement that principal’s salary out of local funds.

– Protect high achieving principals who move to a low-performing school so that their salaries don’t drop as they try to turn the school around for 3 years.

– Discontinuing the bonuses that go to principals who move from met or not met growth to exceed growth.  The money is rolled over into a new bonus that goes to principals of a top 50% performing school that is also a D or F school.   There would still be the bonuses for all principals of top 50% schools and those bonus levels would be increased by $1,000 from current levels.  This would get rid of the exceed-exceed/no bonus issue with the current program.

You can click here for the full legislative staff summary.

HB965- National and State Mottos in Schools Act.  This bill would require the display of the NC motto and National motto in at least one prominent place in each public school.  The NC motto is “To Be Rather Than to Seem.”  Since the National motto is “In God We Trust,” this bill could generate religion in school controversy and has already received some media attention.  Click here to read a recent story on this bill.

ED OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE
The committee approved its set of legislative recommendations for the 2018 session on May 1.  All these items could be taken up at any point during the short session.  Here are the notable legislative recommendations:

1. Extend the virtual charter school pilots for 4 additional years (through 2022-23).
2. Implement a cross-training program within the Licensure Section of DPI to improve timely processing of educator license applications.
3. Require SBE/DPI to submit an annual report on LEAs that are complying with the law on cursive writing and memorization of multiplication tables.

Click here to read the entire report of findings and recommendations.

HOUSE SCHOOL SAFETY COMMITTEE
The House Select Committee on School Safety held its final meeting on May 10. The committee approved its report of findings and recommendations.

Eight of the recommendations that impact K-12 had draft legislation attached. Those bills have all been formally introduced in the House and one- HB933- has started moving (see above).

Below are the notable recommendations for K-12 from the report.  The recommendations that have been introduced in bill form have the bill number in parentheses.
Rec 1.  Accept the nationally certified school psychologist credential for licensure in North Carolina (HB933).

Rec 2.  Continue working towards meeting national recommended staffing ratios for school mental health support professionals.

Rec 3.  Establish threat assessment teams in all public schools (HB934).

Rec 4.  Require LEAs to develop peer to peer counseling programs in middle & high schools.

Provide grants for training and materials (HB934).

Rec 6.  Provide funding for apps that allow anonymous reporting on bullying, weapons, potential threats, abuse, suicide and related issues (HB932).

Rec 8.  Study the expansion and requirements of the volunteer SRO program.

Rec 10.  Create training and continuing ed requirements for SROs (HB937).

Rec 11.  Increase the SRO grant by $1.8 million for elementary & middle schools (HB941).

Rec 12.  Require annual vulnerability assessments for each school building (HB939).

Rec 13.  Require local school boards to submit an annual SRO report (HB940).

Rec 14.  Support HB285, which requires most school personnel to be trained in student mental health and suicide prevention.

Click here to see the full report.

2018 PRIMARY
The 2018 primary was held on May 8.  There were 14 incumbents who chose not to run or were defeated.

There were three local school board members who successfully won primaries for General Assembly seats:

– Mr. Raymond Smith of the Wayne County school board won the Democrat primary for NC House District 21 (covering Duplin, Sampson, Wayne), which is being vacated by retiring Rep. Larry Bell.

– Ms. Barbara Yates-Lockamy, a member of the Columbus school board and a former member of the NCSBA Board of Directors, won an uncontested Democrat nomination for House District 46 (covering Bladen, Columbus, Robeson), and will face incumbent Rep. Brenden Jones in November.

– Mr. John Campbell of the Robeson school board won the Democrat primary for Senate District 13 (covering Columbus and Robeson), and will face incumbent Senator Danny Earl Britt in November.

Congratulations to Mr. Smith, Mr. Campbell, and Ms. Yates-Lockamy!

To find a full list of the lawmakers who did not run for reelection, ran for another office, or were defeated in the primary you can access the NCSBA legislative webinar from May 14.  That powerpoint is here and these lists are on slides 14 and 15.

NCSBA LEGISLATIVE WEBINARS
Registration is open for NCSBA’s weekly legislative update webinar on Monday, May 21.  This free webinar, which will be at Noon on Monday, will review the opening days of the legislative session and preview the week ahead.  Click here to register.

LEGISLATIVE WEBINAR SERIES

NCSBA’s weekly Noon legislative webinar series is ongoing. Our next FREE webinar will be Monday, May 7 and will review NCSBA’s efforts on school safety issues for the 2018 session.  These webinars are free and no CEU is given.  Registration is now open for the May 7 webinar. Click here for that registration link.  The following week on Monday, May 14 there will be a webinar previewing the 2018 session.  We will continue to offer weekly free Monday webinars throughout the legislative session to keep school districts up to date on the latest from Jones St.

You can find the previous legislative webinars and register for future ones at https://www.ncsba.org/governmental-relations/webinars

JOINT LEGISLATIVE EDUCATION OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE
The General Assembly’s Joint Legislative Education Oversight Committee held its sixth meeting of the interim on April 3.  The Committee heard from UNC President Margaret Spellings about the My Future NC Commission.  They also heard a report from the Joint Subcommittee on Medical Education and Medical Residency.

JT. LEGISLATIVE STUDY COMMITTEE ON THE DIVISION OF LOCAL SCHOOL ADMINISTRATIVE UNITS
This committee met on April 4 and April 11.

At the April 4 meeting the committee heard about innovative high school and STEM programs occurring in various school districts and charter schools.  Click here for the presentation materials.

At the April 11 meeting the committee reviewed and approved its final report to the General Assembly.  The report does not recommend breaking up any school districts.  It specifies that current literature and existing studies do not document a relationship between LEA size and student performance.  One of the other recommendations is to alert the House and Senate education appropriations committees of the 60 LEAs whose costs for exceptional children’s services exceed the cap on what an individual LEA can receive for EC funding.  You can read the full report here.

HOUSE SCHOOL SAFETY COMMITTEE
Two subcommittees of the House School Safety Committee met this month.

Student Health Working Group Subcommittee
This subcommittee met on April 9.  The subcommittee heard the following presentations:

– An update on the NC School Counselor Association
Materials: Click here

– An update on the NC School Psychology Association
Materials: Click here

– Current Needs and Licensure Reciprocity for School Psychologists
Materials: Click here

– Recommended Programs on School-Based Mental Health
Materials: Click here
Materials: Click here

The subcommittee met again on April 23 and heard a few more presentations and approved a set of recommendations to the full School Safety Committee.  The recommendations include creating threat assessment teams in schools and peer counseling programs in middle schools and high schools as well as exploring tools that allow for anonymous student reporting of suspicious behavior.  There is also a recommendation dealing with credentialing school psychologists to ease recruitment.  You can find all the findings and recommendations by clicking here.  You can see the presentations from the April 23 meeting here.

You can read more about the April 23 meeting by clicking here.

Student Physical Safety and Security Working Group
This subcommittee met on April 17.  They heard from the executive director of the NC Christian Schools Association, a member of the Governor’s Task Force on Safer Schools and a representative from the NC Center for Safer Schools.  They also heard from two county sheriffs.

In addition, Governor Roy Cooper this month announced that his budget proposal will include $130 million for school facility upgrades, school resource officers, mental health programs, school emergency planning and school nurses and counselors.  You can read more about that here.

JT. LEGISLATIVE TASK FORCE ON EDUCATION FINANCE REFORM
This Task Force met on April 25.  A presentation was given that examined the “weighted-student” funding formula for education and how states are using variations of that model.  You can read more coverage about the meeting here.  You can see the presentation materials here.

JOINT LEGISLATIVE EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE
This Committee met on April 12 to approve its draft findings and recommendations to the General Assembly.  Among the recommendations are for the legislature to consider ways that schools can increase the number of persons present at each school to perform security-related functions.  Another recommendation is to have State officials evaluate and recommend what changes can be made to school construction requirements to make them safer from man-made threats.

JT LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM EVALUATION OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE 
Local Funding Dispute Resolution- The Joint Legislative Program Evaluation Oversight Committee met on April 9.  At this meeting the committee signed off on a draft bill modifying the dispute resolution and litigation process between school boards and county commissioners concerning local education funding levels.  The draft bill would continue allowing school boards to ask for an independent arbiter to look at the local funding dispute dispute and try to negotiate a funding level.  If the mediator cannot come to any settlement, the draft bill would establish a default funding formula that would determine what the local funding level should be.  This would replace the option for the school board to take legal action on local funding.  The draft bill would be eligible for consideration this session.  Click here for the draft bill.  Read the study of the local school dispute mediation process here.

Lottery- The committee also signed off on draft legislation with initiatives to increase lottery revenues.  Click here for the draft bill.

School Nurses- The Committee reviewed a report on increasing student nurses in public schools.  It found that it could cost as much as $79 million to get a nurse in every public school.  You can read the report here and a news story about the report here.

Principal Prep- The Committee also reviewed a report on improving the Transforming Principal Prep program.  That report is here.

JT. LEGISLATIVE OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE ON GENERAL GOVT
This Committee met on April 10, 2018.  Among the presentations given at this meeting was a follow up on the 234 seized vehicles that were unaccounted for in an audit last year.  State investigators located nearly all the 234 vehicles.  You can read more here.

GOVERNOR’S LEANDRO COMMISSION
This Governor’s Commission on Access to a Sound Basic Education met on April 10 in Greensboro.  DPI’s CFO Adam Levison gave a detailed analysis of NC’s allotment system for distributing funding to public schools.  The Commission also heard from a panel of school finance officers about what they feel are the strengths and weaknesses of the current allotment system.  During the afternoon portion of this meeting, the Commission moved worked with a representative from the organization that has been selected to serve as an independent court advisor on the Leandro litigation.  This organization is WestEd.  You can read more coverage of this meeting here.

Join us for the Let’s Break to Educate legislative webinar series. Starting April 16, these weekly Monday webinars will offer an opportunity to receive updates on the priority issues NCSBA will be focusing on for the 2018 legislative session. The cost to participate is free and there will be no CEU credits. Participants will get a chance to hear about NCSBA’s priority issues for 2018 and ask questions of staff. On April 16 we will focus on our efforts on the NC school bond and that will be followed by webinars on school calendar, principal pay and bonuses, school safety and a preview of the 2018 session. All webinars will start at Noon and last no more than 45 minutes. Registration is now open for the April 16 webinar. Click here for that registration link.

The other webinars will be at Noon on April 23, 30, May 7, May 14. Check www.ncsbac.org for ongoing updates on the webinar schedule.

JOINT LEGISLATIVE EDUCATION OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE
The General Assembly’s Joint Legislative Education Oversight Committee held its fifth meeting of the interim on March 6.

Innovative School District
Dr. Eric Hall, Superintendent of the Innovative School District, reported on the status of the ISD. He informed the committee that he was working with an outside evaluation firm to study the credentials of two education management groups that had applied to operate the selected ISD school (Robeson County’s Southside Ashpole Elementary).

*Note that a week after this meeting, a selection of an outside operator was made. The group that was chosen to run the school is Achievement for all Children, which is affiliated with a prominent school choice funder. The State Board of Education will be taking action on this at its monthly meeting this week.

To see the presentation materials click here.

Data Systems and Cybersecurity
Three presentations were given about various initaitives that have been implemented to enhance IT data systems and improve cybersecurity at K-12 schools. The presentation materials are below.

Data systems and cybersecurity presentation materials:
Click here
Click here
Click here

Cooperative Innovative High Schools
A presentation was given on the status of Career and College Promise/Cooperative Innovative High Schools around the state. Click here to see that presentation.

Next Meeting – Tuesday, April 3 at 10:00 AM in Room 643 LOB

JOINT LEGISLATIVE TASK FORCE ON EDUCATION FINANCE REFORM
This Task Force met for the fifth time on March 15. The meeting served as a follow up to last month’s meeting at which the committee discussed charter funding. A group of individual charter schools were invited to present on the funding challenges they are facing and reviewed what they think needs to be changed/improved about the current system of school funding. You can see the presentation materials here.

Next meeting – Wednesday, April 25 at 10:00 AM

HOUSE SCHOOL SAFETY COMMITTEE
This special committee formed to look at school safety issues held its first meeting on March 21. The committee heard several presentations on what is currently being done on school safety and then had a open-ended discussion. The presenters were as follows:

Sheriff Robert Holland, Task Force for Safer Schools Chairman and Kym Martin, Center for Safer Schools.

John Dorman, NC Emergency Management and Task Force for Safer Schools Member.

State Bureau of Investigation Senior Analyst Jody Marks and Acting Special Agent in Charge Elliott Smith.

Greta Metcalf, Meridian Behavioral Health Services and Chair of the Mental Health Committee of the Task Force for Safer Schools.

Dr. Jim Deni, N.C. School Psychology Association.

Caroline Daily, 8th Grade English Teacher, Vice-Chair of Task Force for Safer Schools.

Sarah Wallace Strickland and Riley Barnes, students and members of the Task Force for Safer Schools, on student perspectives on School Safety.

You can read more about this meeting here. You can find the presentation materials here.

JOINT LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM EVALUATION OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE 
The Joint Legislative Program Evaluation Oversight Committee met on March 26. At this meeting the committee signed off on recommendations from staff on how to modify the dispute resolution and litigation process between school boards and county commissioners concerning local funding levels. The recommendation is to keep the mediation process whereby a school board can ask for an independent arbiter to look at the dispute and try to negotiate an agreed upon funding level. If the mediator cannot come to any settlement, the staff recommendation is to establish a default funding formula that would determine what the local funding level should be. This would replace the option for the school board to take legal action. While draft legislation on this would still need to pass both chambers in 2018, a recommendation to move to this model would be eligible for consideration this session.

The committee also looked at a report on ways to increase education lottery revenues.

Read the study of the local school dispute mediation process here.

Read the study of increasing lottery revenue here.

STUDY COMITTEE ON DIVISION OF LEAS
This committee met on March 13 and March 28.

At the March 13 meeting the committee heard from legislative attorneys about some of the implementation, governance and constitutional questions surrounding smaller school districts. Bond and debt issues were also examined. Click here for the audio and presentation materials.

At the March 28 meeting the committee reviewed research findings on the relationship between school district size, student outcomes and finances. The study was conducted by the UNC college of public policy. Click here for presentation materials and audio from the meeting.

Next Meeting – Wednesday, April 4 at 9 AM.

CHILD FATALITY TASK FORCE
The Child Fatality Task Force met on March 7. Among the items discussed were recommendations from the group’s Intentional Death Prevention Committee. The subcommittee recommended:

– Continued support for required suicide prevention training and risk referral protocol in schools.

– Continued support for increasing the number of school nurses via increased funding to school nurse funding initiative.

– Continued support to fund a three-year lead suicide prevention coordinator position.

– Endorsement of funding for a School Social Worker consultant position at DPI.

Joint Legislative Emergency Management Oversight Committee
The Joint Legislative Emergency Management Oversight Committee met on March 15, 2018. The committee heard from an organization that aims to enhance cyber security of for schools and other groups that use connected devices. Find the materials here.