With last week’s enactment of Senate Bill 621 into law, LEA superintendents and human resource directors had breathed a sigh of relief in knowing they can legally employ retirees under either of the following: 1) subject to an earnings cap to work part-time in any school, or 2) as a “high-need teacher” working full-time with no earnings cap or loss of pension when placed in a “high-need school.” However, guidance issued earlier this week by both the Teachers and State Employees’ Retirement System (TSERS) and the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) created confusion on these options statewide as the Sept. 15th deadline loomed for LEAs to notify TSERS on their plans on usage of the high-need teacher option.
After months with little progress on state budget negotiations, the NC House of Representatives successfully voted on Wednesday morning to override Governor Cooper’s veto of the previously-passed state budget. The final House vote, which split between party lines, was 55 members in favor and 15 members against, out of a total of 120 House members. The budget was then sent to the Senate for an additional override vote, but it was referred to the Senate Rules Committee before any votes were taken. Senate leadership has announced, as widely reported by statewide media outlets, that it will not vote on the veto override until next week. Senate Republicans will need at least one Democrat to join them in order to successfully override the veto.
The North Carolina State Health Plan for Teachers and State Employees (TSERS) has announced several noteworthy changes to the 2020 Plan, as well as an open enrollment period of Nov. 2-19. In guidance issued to the Personnel Administrators of North Carolina (PANC), an affiliate of the North Carolina Association of School Administrators (NCASA), Glenda Jones, NCASA President and PANC Public Information Officer, shared guidance regarding the following items
Governor Cooper signed the Testing Reduction Act of 2019 (S621 / Session Law 2019-212) this week, eliminating the use of NC Final Exams (NCFEs) as part of the statewide testing program to assess teacher performance and professional growth. The bill requires that the State Board of Education and Department of Public Instruction develop “a plan on how to use other means to accomplish the purposes for which data is collected by the NC Final Exam” to be presented to the Joint Legislative Education Oversight Committee not later than March 15, 2020.
