As state lawmakers prepare for next week’s launch of the General Assembly’s short session, local education leaders prepared a list of concerns they would like to have addressed, including funding for school nurses and accountability for private schools receiving voucher funds.
Those issues were among more than a dozen brought to the table during Monday’s Pitt County Board of Education legislative luncheon that also included a discussion of the state’s school calendar requirements, teacher recruitment and funding for school personnel.
The meeting followed a morning that state Sen. Kandie Smith and N.C. Reps. Gloristine Brown and Tim Reeder spent touring South Central High and Ridgewood Elementary schools as part of the second annual Bring Your Legislator to School Day. Newly appointed school board District 1 representative Mary Maultsby joined some of her fellow board members for the tour before taking the oath of office during the start of the luncheon at the Kathy Taft Center.
“We’re not solving problems,” Pitt County Schools Superintendent Ethan Lenker told lawmakers. “We’re bringing things to your attention just to have some dialogue.”
A primary subject of conversation was how to provide school nurses currently paid for with Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds, which are due to expire in September. Director of Student Services Karen Harrington told lawmakers that ESSER funds have allowed 11 schools in the district to have a nurse on campus every day, compared to three schools before the pandemic.
“In Pitt County, we have more students with chronic health needs,” Harrington said. “The mental health needs were increasing prior to COVID, and it just continues to escalate. If there’s anything we could do to just keep the nurses that we have. Again, we’re far away from the (recommended) rate.”
The school district currently has 26 nurses, including nine that are funded by ECU Health. The hospital has provided full or partial funding for as many as 19 nurses for Pitt County Schools, but that arrangement changed in 2023.
District 9 representative Benjie Forrest said retaining nurses is a must. “We are treating a different type of student post-COVID. There is no question about it,” he said. “Because of that, it’s critical that we have support from the North Carolina General Assembly in finding ways to create resources to add these nurses.”
Opportunity Scholarships
District 8 representative Melinda Fagundus questioned lawmakers about increased funding for Opportunity Scholarships, which have seen a surge in demand since the passage of a new law that made families eligible for the scholarship funding regardless of income and no longer required previous enrollment in a public school.
“If you’re going to give money to private schools then why are they not held accountable like we are?” Fagundus asked. “As a taxpayer, to give money for someone to attend a private school that can start when they want to, end when they want to, can not test if they don’t want to, that doesn’t have to prove anything is not really where you want your tax dollars.”
Reeder, a Republican who represents N.C. House District 9, said parents are the ones who hold private schools accountable.
But Brown, a Democrat who represents House District 8, said Opportunity Scholarships fail to provide opportunities for many low-income families because private schools are not required to provide transportation.
“All these years before I got where I am, I’ve been hearing about public schools needing help,” she said. “Then all of a sudden all this money comes up for private vouchers but our school systems are going lacking.”
Smith, a Democrat representing state Senate District 5, pointed out that a ruling in the longstanding Leandro case that ordered the state to fully fund its constitutional responsibility to provide students with equal public education continues to be challenged in court.
“It’s not just rules that are being made where we are in the House and the Senate,” she said. “Now the courts are involved. It’s a whole lot more political than it should be because we should be taking care of the students in these schools, the teachers.”
Other issues
Lenker shared concerns about fluctuations in low-wealth funding, which he said cost the school district 19 teaching positions last year. He also addressed the Department of Public Instruction’s model for funding assistant principals at a rate of one for every 1,000 students, resulting in PCS spending more than $1.6 million to fund assistant principal positions.
“Most of our schools wouldn’t even qualify for a full-time assistant principal (under the state formula),” he said.
Lenker said that besides spending on assistant principals, the school district pays an additional $2.1 million for instructional support positions not funded by the state. He added that the state allots no money for technology support positions.
Acknowledging local lawmakers’ support of a bill permitting an earlier start date for schools, Lenker said leaders “need to figure out how to get that past the next hurdle.” A longtime advocate for allowing local districts to set their own calendars, Lenker said high schools need to end the fall semester in December so that students can complete exams before Christmas break.
District 6 representative Worth Forbes agreed that the state law needs to change.
“What they passed (in 2005) is preventing us from having the flexibility to do what we need to do,” he said. “I hope that a few (members of the General Assembly) are not holding that up.”
Reeder responded: “Really it’s just one, Sen. (Phil) Berger. Every county in the state wants it.”
Reeder asked the school board how the changes requested at the state level would help achieve better results in the classroom, singling out fourth-grade reading proficiency.
“The role of the school system is to educate children,” he said. “We have a we have a huge deficit in learning. What is it that we’re going to do that’s going to improve the performance of the children?”
Lenker said the data that Reeder referenced is somewhat subjective and added that the state’s current school performance grades place too little emphasis on how much students progress. He added that ESSER funds that provided for extended summer programs are now gone.
Forbes said he would not favor extending the school day or the school year but said that what schools need are qualified teachers and principals.
Forrest said that one solution for alleviating the teacher shortage will not require any additional funding. He asked lawmakers to change a policy that requires a six-month wait for retired educators to return to work in public schools.
“If we would just tweak the formula, I know that it would gain for us some very, very experienced qualified teachers,” he said. “It won’t solve the issue of not having enough teachers, but it really will put a dent in it.”
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