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The North Carolina Alliance for School Leadership Development (NCASLD) and the North Carolina School Superintendents' Association (NCSSA) has announced the selection of Dr. Ron Hargrave, Superintendent of Scotland County Schools, as the recipient of the Dr. Brad Sneeden Leadership Award. The award was presented on Sunday, June 23 at the NCSSA Superintendents' Summer Leadership Retreat in Asheville and is awarded in honor and recognition of a superintendent who has demonstrated a strong commitment to life-long learning, unwavering integrity in leadership and transformation of vision into action. READ MORE
This week was a slower week at the legislature, with the Senate taking the majority of the week off as budget negotiations reached an impasse. Lawmakers in the Senate did introduce their stopgap budget proposal, House Bill 961, in the Senate Appropriations/General Budget Committee on Monday, which would appropriate federal block grant funding while budget negotiations continue. Unlike the House stopgap budget bill, the Senate proposal does not include funds for school enrollment growth or any other K-12 items. Committee members unanimously passed H961 on Monday, and the bill is scheduled for another hearing in the Senate Rules Committee on Monday.
While Governor Cooper signed several pieces of education-related legislation into law last week, numerous other items currently await the Governor’s signature, including a bill making various changes to Educator Preparation Program (EPP) standards. The changes contained in House Bill 107, which was presented to the Governor last Friday, were recommended in a report by the legislative Program Evaluation Division to “enhance the effectiveness of the EPP data reporting system.” According to a summary prepared by legislative staff, H107 would do all of the following:
Last Thursday, Governor Roy Cooper signed into law Senate Bill 399: Rehire High-Need Teachers, allowing school districts to rehire certain retired teachers to work at high-need schools while still retaining their retirement benefits. These rehired teachers would be eligible to work full-time on one-year renewable contracts and be paid at either the first step of the teacher’s salary scale, or the sixth step if teaching in approved STEM or special education areas. The law creates two new definitions that school districts must meet in order to utilize the program — “high-need retired teacher” and “high-need school.”
Just ahead of Independence Day celebrations, Governor Roy Cooper signed Senate Bill 219 into law on July 1, making it easier for school districts to recruit and retain more of the licensed teachers they now are trying to place in classrooms for next school year. The bill was shepherded through the General Assembly by its primary sponsor, Sen. Tom McInnis (R-Richmond), and gained almost unanimous support in the N.C. House on June 20 and N.C. Senate on June 24 before moving to the Governor’s desk.
