Section Two – Legal Requirements for School Improvement Planning

Legislative Beginnings

In 1996, the North Carolina General Assembly established the School-Based Management and Accountability Program with the overall purpose of improving student performance (G.S. §115C- 105.20). All school districts in North Carolina are required to participate in the program (G.S. § 115C-105.21 (a). The law (G.S. §115C-105.27) specifies that each school shall develop a school improvement plan (SIP) that considers the goals set out in the mission statement for the public schools adopted by the State Board of Education (SBE), and the annual performance goals for that school as established by the SBE under G.S. §115C-105.35, which states annual performance goals shall:

● Focus on student performance in the basics of reading, mathematics, and communications skills in elementary and middle schools,

● Focus on student performance in courses required for graduation and on other measures required by the State Board of Education in high schools, and

● Hold schools accountable for the educational growth of their students.

Public Records

According to G.S. 115C-105.27 (a2), the school improvement plan, except for the school safety components of the plan, is a public record subject to Chapter 132 of the General Statutes and shall be posted on the school Web site. The names of the members of the school improvement team, their positions, and the date of their election to the school improvement team shall also be posted on the Web site. The school safety components of the plan are not public records subject to Chapter 132 of the General Statutes.

School Improvement Team

G.S. 115C-47 (38) mandates the duty of local boards to ensure each principal establishes a school improvement team and that the composition of the team complies with G.S. §115C-105.27 (a). (See also GS §115C-288 (l) – Powers and Duties of Principal.) G.S. §115C-105.27 (a) directs schools to establish a School Improvement Team (SIT) to develop a plan to improve student performance. School improvement teams shall consist of the following members:

● the principal of the school;

● representatives of the assistant principals;

● representatives of instructional personnel;

● representatives of instructional support personnel;

● representatives of teacher assistants assigned to the building; and

● representatives of parents of children enrolled in the school.

Representatives of the assistant principals, instructional personnel, instructional support personnel, and teacher assistants shall be elected by their respective groups by secret ballot. Participation in the school improvement planning process by the personnel noted above is a legal requirement. Principals do not have discretion to choose school improvement team representatives.

Parent Representation

G.S. §115C-105.27 states that unless the local board of education has adopted an election policy, parents shall be elected by parents of children enrolled in the school in an election conducted by the parent and teacher organization of the school, or, if none exists, by the largest organization of parents formed for this purpose. Parents serving on school improvement teams shall reflect the racial and socioeconomic composition of the students enrolled in that school and shall not be members of the building-level staff.

Parental involvement is a critical component of school success and positive student achievement. The law explicitly states “it is the intent of the General Assembly that parents, along with teachers, have a substantial role in developing school improvement plans. To this end, school improvement team meetings shall be held at a convenient time to assure substantial parent participation.”

These are non-negotiable, legal requirements. Schools not following these mandates of the law may be subject to legal action.

Principal's Role

General Statute §115C-105.27(c), states that the principal of the school shall present the proposed school improvement plan to all of the principals, assistant principals, instructional personnel, instructional support personnel, and teacher assistants assigned to the school building for their review and vote. The vote shall be by secret ballot. The principal shall submit the school improvement plan to the local board of education only if the proposed school improvement plan has the approval of a majority of the staff members who voted on the plan. There should be an understanding that with school improvement being a continuous improvement process, that the plan will be modified as needed throughout the year in order to ensure student success.

GS § 115C-105.27 (a1) requires the principal to ensure the school’s compliance with state open meetings requirements. These requirements are outlined in Article 33C of Chapter 143 of the NC General Statutes (see Appendix A). Please note that teams and boards are permitted to hold closed sessions for the purpose of formulating and adopting the school safety components of school improvement plans by a local board of education or a school improvement team. Unlike the rest of the school improvement plan, safety components are not considered public records under Chapter 132 of the General Statutes.

Instructional and Support Staff Role

Staff members tasked with plan implementation are essential to improving student performance through the school improvement plan. Building staff support is best accomplished through active participation of the staff representatives in researching and developing the plan. NCDPI- recommended guiding principles found in Section Three of this document provide additional information about the value of distributed leadership. Staff representatives on the School Improvement Team can support this process by building support among the rest of the staff through information sharing and by soliciting ideas and feedback from colleagues.

Role of Data in Developing School Improvement Plans

G.S. §115C-105.27 (b) focuses school improvement teams on understanding and using relevant data. Specifically, this section directs that “…school improvement plans shall be, to the greatest extent possible, data-driven. School improvement teams shall use the Education Value-Added Assessment System (EVAAS) or a compatible and comparable system approved by the State Board of Education to (i) analyze student data and identify root causes for problems, (ii) determine actions to address them, and (iii) appropriately place students in courses…. School improvement plans shall contain clear, unambiguous targets, explicit indicators and actual measures, and expeditious time frames for meeting the measurement standards.”

The NCDPI-recommended process identified in this document fully support and align with these legal requirements.

Required Strategies for Improving Student Performance

Per G.S. §115C-105.27 (b), strategies for improving student performance:

● Shall include a plan to address school safety and discipline concerns;

● May include a decision to use state funds in accordance with G.S. §115C-105.25 (budget flexibility);

● Shall include a plan that specifies the effective instructional practices and methods to be used to improve the academic performance of students identified as at risk of academic failure or at risk of dropping out of school;

● May include requests for waivers for state laws, rules, or policies for that school. A request for a waiver shall meet the requirements of G.S. §115C-105.26;

● Shall include a plan to provide a duty-free lunch period for every teacher on a daily basis or as otherwise approved by the school improvement team;

● Shall include a plan to provide duty-free instructional planning time for every teacher under G.S. §115C-301.1, with the goal of providing an average of at least five hours of planning time per week: and

● Shall include a plan to identify and eliminate unnecessary and redundant reporting

requirements for teachers and, to the extent practicable, streamline the school's reporting system and procedures, including requiring forms and reports to be in electronic form when possible and incorporating relevant documents into the student accessible components of the Instructional Improvement System.

On June 2, 2015, the General Assembly enacted Session Law 2015-46, An Act to Repeal Personal Education Plans and Modify Transition Plans. S.L. 2015-46 modified G.S. 115C-

105.41 (b) and “Local boards of education shall adopt policies that direct school improvement teams to develop plans to include successful transition between elementary and middle school years and between the middle school and high school years for students at risk, as defined by the State Board of Education.” While the law does not require transition plans to be included in the School Improvement Plan, inclusion in the plan ensures that that strategies to improve student achievement are addressed within a comprehensive approach.

School Safety Requirements

GS §115C-105.27 (c1) requires superintendents to review and assess the school safety components of each school improvement plan and to make written recommendations to the local board. Local boards must review the safety components as well and develop findings on these components. The safety components as well as the local board’s findings should not be documented in the meeting minutes.

“School safety” is a broad term and might be interpreted to include facilities-related information that directly addresses physical safety of staff and students on campus as well as incident response procedures and other safety-related items. This information is appropriately part of the publicly available portion of the school improvement plan and discussion of the plan. Review and discussion of incident-response-related portions of school improvement plans shall occur in closed session, and this shall not be part of the publicly released improvement plan for each school. NCDPI legal staff recommend that local boards consult with their local attorney(s) anytime they have questions about what to include as part of the public portion of the plan.

Local Board Acceptance

Local boards of education must either accept or reject the school improvement plan for each school within its jurisdiction. (G.S. §115C-105.27 (d)). The local board shall not make any substantive changes in any school improvement plan it accepts. If the local board rejects a school improvement plan, the local board must specify its reasons for rejecting the plan. The school improvement team may then prepare another plan, present it to the principal, assistant principals, instructional personnel, instructional support personnel, and teacher assistants assigned to the school building for a vote, and submit it to the local board once again. If the school improvement plan is not accepted within 60 days after initial submission to the local board, the school or the local board may ask to use the process to resolve disagreements recommended in the guidelines developed by the SBE under G.S. §115C-105.20 (b)(5). If this request is made, both the school

and local board shall participate in the process to resolve disagreements. If there is no request to use this process, the local board may develop a school improvement plan for the school. The General Assembly urges the local board to utilize the school’s proposed school improvement plan to the maximum extent possible when developing such a plan.

General Plan Submission Requirements

In general individual school improvement plans are not required to be submitted to the NCDPI. State of North Carolina legal requirements for SIP submission are met upon acceptance of a school's plan by the local board of education. This should not be confused with the requirement specified in General Statute 115C-105.37 and 115C-105.39A, regarding low performing schools and low performing administrative units. (See Exceptions to Plan Submission Requirements section)

Exceptions to Plan Submission Requirements

If a school has been identified as low-performing as provided in § 115C-105.37. and the school is not located in a local school administrative unit identified as low-performing under G.S. 115C- 105.39A, within 30 days of the initial identification the superintendent shall submit to the local board of education a preliminary plan for improving both the school performance grade and school growth score, including how the superintendent and other central office administrators will work with the school and monitor the school's progress. Within 30 days of its receipt of the preliminary plan, the local board shall vote to approve, modify, or reject this plan. Before the local board votes on the preliminary plan, it shall make the plan available to the public, including the personnel assigned to that school and the parents and guardians of the students who are assigned to the school, and shall allow for written comments.

State law requires that the local board shall submit a final plan to the State Board within five days of the local board's approval of the plan. The State Board shall review the plan expeditiously and, if appropriate, may offer recommendations to modify the plan. The local board shall consider any recommendations made by the State Board and, if necessary, amend the plan and vote on approval of any changes to the final plan. Beginning with the 2016-17 school year, the plans for state-identified low-performing schools will be submitted through NCStar.

More information on state requirements for low-performing schools may be found in Appendix B.

G.S. 115C-105.39A Within 30 days of the identification of a local school administrative unit as low-performing, the superintendent shall submit to the local board of education a preliminary plan for improving both the school performance grade and school growth score of each low- performing school in the unit, including how the superintendent and other central office administrators will work with each low-performing school and monitor the low-performing school's progress and how current local school administrative unit policy should be changed to

improve student achievement throughout the local school administrative unit. Within 30 days of its receipt of the preliminary plan, the local board shall vote to approve, modify, or reject this plan. Before the local board votes on the plan, it shall make the plan available to the public, including the personnel assigned to each low-performing school and the parents and guardians of the students who are assigned to each low-performing school, and shall allow for written comments.

State law requires the local board to submit a final plan to the State Board within five days of the local board’s approval of the plan. The State Board shall review the plan expeditiously and, if appropriate, may offer recommendations to modify the plan. The local board shall consider any recommendations made by the State Board and, if necessary, amend the plan and vote on approval of any changes to the final plan.

Both district or school plans shall be accessible through their website and the Department of Public Instruction’s website.

Allowable Waivers

Effective July 1, 2015, the State Board of Education is only permitted to grant waivers for the following:

● Class size requirements only as provided in G.S. 115C-301(g); and

● School calendar requirements in order to provide sufficient days to accommodate anticipated makeup days due to school closings only as provided in G.S. 115C-84.2(d).§ 115C-105.26.

Except as otherwise provided for in this section, the State Board of Education shall not grant waivers of State laws or rules to local boards of education.

Waiver Requests

Waiver requests of state laws, rules, or policies as part of a school improvement plan permitted in General Statute §115C-105.26 shall be submitted to the State Board of Education (G.S. §115C-

105.26 (a)) and include:

● Identify the school making the request;

● Identify the state laws, rules, or policies that inhibit the school’s ability to improve student performance;

● Set out with specificity the circumstances under which the waiver may be used; and

● Explain how the requested waiver will permit the school to improve student performance.

The State Board shall act within 60 days of receipt of all requests for waivers under this section (§115C-105.26 (f)). In addition, the State Board shall, on a regular basis, review all waivers it has

granted to determine whether any rules should be repealed or modified or whether the Board should recommend to the General Assembly the repeal or modification of any laws (G.S. §115C-

105.26 (g)).

Waiver Timelines

Approved school improvement plan waivers are valid for the duration of the relevant school improvement planning cycle. For example, a waiver request submitted and approved in August 2014 for the 2014-2016 cycle will expire at the end of the 2015-2016 school year. A waiver request submitted in January 2016 also will expire at the end of the 2015-2016 school year and must be re- submitted during the next planning cycle if the conditions motivating the request have not changed.

Duration, Amendments, and Revisions of Plans

School improvement plans shall remain in effect for no more than two years (G.S. §115C-105.27 (e)). However, the school improvement team may amend the plan as often as is necessary or appropriate. If, at any time, any part of a school improvement plan becomes unlawful or the local board finds that a school improvement plan is impeding student performance, the local board may vacate the relevant portion of the plan and direct the school to revise that portion. The procedures set out in this subsection shall apply to amendments and revisions to school improvement plans. Changes to an accepted school improvement plan – for instance, a change to strategies for a particular goal – do not have to be re-submitted to the local board for approval.

School administrators and improvement teams should be aware that state law allows for the fact that a school improvement plan may include information, goals, and strategies that address other requirements or plans. G.S. §115C-105.27 (f) states that if a school improvement plan adequately covers another required plan, there is no need to complete an additional plan.

Compliance with Planning Laws

G.S. §115C-105.27 (g) encourages any employee, parent, or other interested individual or organization to notify the principal of any concerns regarding compliance with the law. In addition, any employee, parent, or other interested individual or organization may submit in writing to the superintendent concerns regarding compliance with this section. The superintendent shall make a good- faith effort to investigate the concern. The superintendent shall provide a written response to the concern upon request.