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Governor Cooper and members of the NC Coronavirus Task Force unveiled on Tuesday the COVID-19 County Alert System, a statewide data sharing tool aimed at helping community leaders make informed decisions based on local virus transmission metrics. According to Rebecca Planchard, Senior Early Childhood Policy Advisor at the NC Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS), the Alert System “pinpoints counties with the highest levels of viral spread and offers specific recommendations for individuals, businesses, community organizations, and public officials to bring numbers down.”
With the elections (mostly) behind us, Washington is watching closely as the Biden Administration and 117th Congress takes shape. At the moment, former Vice President Joe Biden is on a pathway to becoming the 46th President of the United States, although the process could drag on for some time as the Trump Administration is challenging the results in key states. Chris Rogers, Policy Analyst for AASA – The School Superintendents’ Association, updated executives of school administrator organizations from across the country last week on some key impacts from the recent elections. The update included expectations for the President-Elect’s education agenda, his potential nominees for Secretary of Education, and possible next steps on COVID-19 relief and federal appropriations that could come from the current lame duck Congress before the end of the year.
The State Board of Education (SBE) held its monthly meeting remotely on November 4-5. The pages that follow summarize highlights from the meeting and the Board’s actions for this month.
North Carolina’s 7,359,935 eligible voters followed those nationwide in unprecedented numbers casting ballots before Election Day, with 3,620,532 one-stop early votes cast by the 10/31 deadline and 977,186 mail-in ballots tallied by 5 a.m. November 4th. But as voting ended Tuesday night, 117,000 absentee ballots were outstanding, leaving many election outcomes unclear. The state’s 15 electoral votes are still up for grabs in the race for President, and U.S. Senator Thom Tillis holds a thin margin over Democratic challenger Cal Cunningham to help determine if the U.S. Senate will remain under Republican control. In races for state offices, voters re-elected Democratic Governor Roy Cooper and made history in choosing Republican Mark Robinson as the state’s first black Lieutenant Governor.
