CMS wants ability to start school three weeks earlier

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools has outlined a draft of its legislative priorities for next year, and topping the list: The ability to start schools three weeks earlier.

That would allow schools to get their first semester final exams done before winter break, CMS associate general counsel Jonathan Sink explained to the school board Tuesday. The board is scheduled to vote on the agenda Nov. 19.

The district has nine priorities for state government, and three for local government. Here's a full list, with some explanations offered by Sink.

State priorities

1) Calendar flexibility. At a minimum, the ability to open three weeks earlier than currently allowed.

2) Raise teacher pay to national average.

3) Get the authority to have complete control over local funds.

4) Restore state-funded growth formula. This is a response to a controversial measure passed this summer.

5) Restore state funding for driver's education programs. Otherwise, allow the district to charge students the full cost of the program, or end the mandate that schools provide it.

6) Get charter-like flexibilities. CMS would also like the ability to start its own charter schools. We are asking GA to serve as chartering authority. Further, CMS wants a mandate that parents choose where they will enroll their students (in public schools or charters) by April 1. This would help eliminate discrepancies in enrollment expectations.

7) Oppose mandated inter-county and intra-county student transfer legislation.

8) Fully fund pre-K programs. CMS says it currently gets money for 20,000 students, but says another 40,000 could potentially be eligible.

9) Change the grading formula for the upcoming A-F school performance grades. Right now, the formula is weighted 80 percent toward proficiency and 20 percent toward growth. CMS wants an even split.

Local priorities

1) Restore city of Charlotte funding for school resource officers in CMS.

2) Establish a collaborative inter-governmental committee to identify, prioritize, plan and fund operating and capital budgets.

3) Establish a collaborative inter-governmental committee of planning experts to analyze the impacts of development on CMS.

CMS faces driver's ed funding crunch

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools leaders are pushing the state to tap the brakes on changes to driver's education programs.

As part of the budget this year, the General Assembly cut off state funding for driver's ed. Instead, money will have to come from the school districts. In exchange, schools can increase the fee they charge from $55 to $65.

But CMS Superintendent Heath Morrison has begun sounding the alarm that the system will lead to a $2.7 million gap next year.

He said it costs about $300 to put a CMS student through driver's ed. A total of 11,328 students went through the program last year.

Morrison didn't say anything about where the money would come from. Instead, he said the district is trying to work with state legislators on a fix.

Two from CMS named to state commission on Common Core

Two Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools administrators have been included on the final 11-person team that will review what North Carolina will do with Common Core standards, the state said Tuesday.

The state legislature set up the Academic Standards Review Commission as a sort of compromise on what to do with the controversial standards. Plenty of legislators wanted to do away with the Common Core, and the N.C. House passed a bill that would not let any of the current standards be considered. The final outcome is a group that will study the standards and come up with a recommendation for a rewrite.

The final list of who's to serve was just released this week. From CMS: Deputy superintendent Ann Clark and Project LIFT zone supervisor Denise Watts.

Their appointments at least indicates that the outcome of the commission might not be predetermined. Superintendent Heath Morrison and other administrators in CMS have been on the record about supporting the Common Core standards.

A few other members have been upfront with their opposition to the standards. Retired math professor John Scheik, for example, told N.C. Policy Watch that he thinks they include "ludicrous" methods of teaching.

The group will meet for the first time Monday up in Raleigh. Here's the full list of appointments, courtesy of the N.C. Department of Administration. I've added in parentheses a brief description of how they ended up on the list.

House Appointments

Tammy Covil, New Hanover (New Hanover County school board member)

Dr. Jeffrey Isenhour, Catawba (principal of Bunker Hill High School in Claremont)

Katie Lemons, Stokes (South Stokes High School teacher)

Denise Watts, Mecklenburg

Senate Appointments

Ann B. Clark, Iredell

Dr. Laurie McCollum, Rockingham (assistant principal, Western Rockingham Middle)

Jeannie A. Metcalf, Forsyth (Winston-Salem/Forsyth County school board member)

Dr. John T. Scheik, Wake (retired UNC math professor)

State Board of Education Members

Chairman William “Bill” Cobey, Durham

Dr. Olivia Oxendine, Robeson

Gubernatorial Appointment
Andre Peek, Wake (IBM executive and leader of the N.C. Business Committee for Education)

Taking away master's pay for teachers

The supplement North Carolina teachers get for advanced degrees would disappear for teachers who earn those degrees in the future,  according to House and Senate budget plans.

Contrary to rumors,  those proposals wouldn't strip pay from teachers who have already earned the supplement.  According to an N.C. Association of Educators summary of how the budget plans would affect teachers,  anyone who gets the extra pay in 2013-14 would be grandfathered into the existing pay scale.  Under the 2012-13 pay scale,  a teacher with 10 years' experience and a bachelor's degree gets $37,110,  while a master's degree adds another $3,710 to the annual salary  (local supplements may push that higher). Neither proposal eliminates the additional pay for National Board Certification.

A petition on Change.org created by Bobby Padgett of Gastonia urges legislators to protect pay for advanced degrees as they work toward a final budget this summer. "This is a particular slap in the face to all NC educators who are in the middle of a master's program and cannot complete it by this arbitrary deadline,"  the petition says.  It had more than 1,000 electronic signatures as of Wednesday.

"Why wouldn't you want to give an incentive to the people you trust to educate your children to continue educating themselves?" wrote signer Gabriel Cohn of Davidson, a teacher who doesn't have an advanced degree.

"It's not just about the money; it's about valuing education,"  wrote Brittany Stone of Charlotte. "Eliminating master's pay is just another of the myriad ways in which North Carolina is devaluing education and educators."

Meanwhile,  Charlotte-Mecklenburg Superintendent Heath Morrison said Wednesday that district officials will keep lobbying for an employee raise in 2013-14,  even though neither the House nor the Senate budget calls for one.  He said studies that rank North Carolina as low as 48th in the nation in teacher pay are cause for alarm:  "It is going to be very hard to make the case for quality teachers to come and stay in North Carolina."

This week Gov. Pat McCrory charged his education cabinet with creating a plan to boost pay for good teachers, along with other strategies for improving public education. Their plan is due in time to be presented to the legislature in 2014.