NCAEN E W S B U L L E T I NN E W S B U L L E T I NOctober 2011 Volume 42, No. 3N O R T H C A R O L I N A A S S O C I A T I O N O F E D U C A T O R S

School’s success rests on data, urgency and high expectationsEducation is an urgent

matter at Oak Hill Elemen-tary. It’s a place where every-one has high expectations, the principal prioritizes visiting classrooms each day, and staff and students welcome challenges, growth and accountability.

A school that is part of the NEA Priority School campaign, its approach to learning is reaping rewards for students and teachers. The campaign effort works with high-needs schools to encourage transformation, collaboration and to attract and retain high-quality educators and needed resources. Stacy Brady and Sabrina Peacock are NCAE members who work at the school, and the two educators talked about how the day-to-day environment is the foundation of the school’s burgeoning success.

“We all know that every minute is important — we give them 100 percent every minute,” said Brady, who teaches third grade. “We’re taking out things that don’t show growth or help make students well-rounded. There is a real sense of urgency here and everyone, from the custo-dian to the principal, are given high expectations.”

“And there is follow-through on those high expectations,” said Peacock, also a third-grade teacher. “No one is babied here. The kids know that they need to take ownership of their own learning, and everyone is held accountable.”

‘’Every student deserves to have a year’s growth,” said Patrice Faison, the school’s principal, recently named the 2011 Guilford County Principal of the Year. “We use data weekly, daily — common core assessments, data notebooks we ask teachers to keep — and know where our kids are at all times. The students know about the benchmark data and where we want them to go. Teachers and students set goals together. And students know it’s not about achieving a certain score, but about growth.”

The school strongly ties support to accountability for growth goals, putting emphasis on getting things right and ensuring that teachers have the tools, time and information to succeed. A School Improvement Grant (SIG) from the federal government has helped in this capacity-building effort.

“They make allowances for us to observe other teachers,” Pea-cock added. “Because of the grant, we have extra hands and tutors here every day. And our school day is 45 minutes longer (than the state requires); I use that time as intervention and enrichment time to work with my kids and build unity in the classroom.”

“It’s never like, ‘this is wrong,’ Brady said, referring to how feedback is offered. “It’s more about ‘here’s what you should do and if you want a model look at this person, talk to this person.’ Utilizing

each other’s strengths among the staff is pretty much the key. And when the administration visits my room, they ask the children what are they learning and why are they learning it. It’s not about memorization. All of this accountability drives my instruction.”

“It’s a challenging job,” Brady added. “But at the end of the day, I wouldn’t feel right if I did not take on the challenge. I have grown as a teacher — the easy road keeps you mediocre.” Peacock echos Brady’s sentiment of enjoying the challenge — “it keeps you on your toes,” she said — and she described the experience as equal to the hard work and learning experience of earning National Board Certification.

In addition to its emphasis on accountability and support, Faison said that as a principal there are two things she put at the top of her to-do list. “Visibility in the classroom is critical,” she said. “I am constantly visiting the classrooms. I know what’s going on and can dialogue with teachers and students. But I also empower my teachers. I tell them all the time that we have the standard course of study and the curriculum guide, but I want you to be the vehicle for how the students get there. I want to give teachers the autonomy to do some things their own way.

“Everything you see, it’s not just me, Patrice Faison, it’s everyone, “ she added. “My philosophy is that a teacher will never be able to look across the table and say ‘I don’t have this or this.’ It’s my job as principal to make sure teachers get what they need to help students grow. And I’m happy to say our kids are getting a year or more of growth each year. We’re a great team.”

Karen Archia, media-PR coordinator

Stacy Brady works one-on-one with a student.

Principal Patrice Faison

Sabrina Peacock hands out �ignments.

Straight talk about the North Carolina State Lottery

2News Bulletin October 2011

Now, more than ever, NCAE members — both active and retired — have to stand strong to protect public education. Our retired members are ready to lend a helping hand and share experiences

about some of the public education battles they’ve fought and won over the years. Read why it’s time we all support one another in this month’s message from Vice President Rodney Ellis by clicking http://www.ncae.org/Images/Users/17/vpmessage1011.pdf

In an exclusive interview with NCAE, Alice Garland, executive director of the North Carolina Education Lottery, discusses facts about the lottery and how it helps fund public education.

NCAE: When was the lottery established and which areas in public education receive lottery money?

GARLAND: We just turned five years old. The first ticket was sold on March 30, 2006. Since then, we’ve earned more than $2 billion for the state and education. We serve four education initiatives. The first is teachers’ salaries in grades K-3 with the goal of keeping class sizes low. The second is school construction, from new roofs to debt payments for construction programs. The third was the More at Four program (eliminated recently by the NC General Assembly) and we will continue funding pre-kindergarten programs as that program goes through a transition. And finally, we provide college scholarships on a financial need basis and also help fund the UNC Need-Based Financial Aid program.

NCAE: Overall, what do you think are the biggest misconcep-tions about the lottery or how lottery money is spent?

GARLAND: The first occurs when people ask why school budgets are getting reduced when we have an Education Lottery. Our annual contribution has been $400 million or more since fiscal year 2008, but that amounts to only 4 to 5 percent of the dollars spent overall on education. The second misconception is that lottery dollars have been spent on other things besides education. Despite changes in how lottery dollars are allocated, there’s only been one time when lottery dollars were not used to support education. That time occurred last fiscal year when the Legislature directed that any excess revenues from fiscal year 2010 and half of any unclaimed prize money in fiscal year 2011 go to help cover a shortfall in federal Medicaid monies. Overall, of the more than $2 billion earned so far, 98.6 percent of it went to education. The third miscon-ception is that the lottery makes the decisions about where the money goes and disburses the funds. We do neither. Once we make the transfers on a quarterly basis to the Office of State Budget and Management, our job is done. The Legislature directs where the money goes and the administering agencies disburse the funds.

NCAE: Over the years, the media has reported changes in where the money goes. What’s the real story? Give us a breakdown of how lottery money is spent overall — administrative costs, advertising, prizes, etc.

GARLAND: Think of a dollar spent on a lottery ticket. Fifty-eight cents goes to prizes for the people who play. Thirty cents goes to education. Seven cents goes to the retailers who sold the ticket. A bit more than one and a half cents goes to the company that provides the technology that we use to operate the lottery. One cent goes to advertis-ing. And the rest, less than two and a half cents, goes for wages and benefits for lottery employees, offices, vehicles, IT equipment and other administrative costs.

NCAE: Has that breakdown changed at all over the years? How?

GARLAND: Yes. To increase the amount of money we earn for education, the Legislature gave us the flexibility in 2007 to up the amount of money we pay in prizes. Instead of allocating 50 percent to prizes we began allocating 58 percent to prizes. The change paid off for educa-tion. Every year since then our return to education has increased.

NCAE: What do educators need to know about the lottery?GARLAND: They need reassurance that wherever they teach

in the state lottery dollars have flowed into their com-munities to support education. The money has not disappeared. We can help anyone with a question about their county track those dollars. You’ll find the dollars in teachers’ paychecks, in the new roofs over their class-rooms, in the paychecks of pre-kindergarten teachers, and in the tuition benefits for students going to a state university or community college.

(See NC Education Lottery on page 3)

3News Bulletin October 2011

NC Education Lottery really does help education (Continued from page 2) NCAE: Does the state Legislature have any say in changing

how lottery money is allocated? What changes have they made recently?

GARLAND: The Legislature can and has in almost every year changed the way net proceeds are allocated as it approves a new version of the state budget each year. The biggest change just happened. Originally, under the State Education Lottery Act, 50 percent of the lottery’s net proceeds went to teachers’ salaries and the former More at Four program, 40 percent went to school construction and 10 percent to college scholarships on a financial need basis. This year, as directed by the budget recently passed by the Legislature, 51.9 percent, or $220.6 million, will go to teachers’ salaries in grades K-3; 23.5 percent, or $100 million, will go to fund school construction projects; 14.8 percent, or $63 million, will go to pre-kindergarten programs; 7.2 percent, or $30.4 million, to scholarships based on financial need; and 2.5 percent, or $10.7 million, to UNC Need-Based Financial Aid.

NCAE: How does the North Carolina lottery compare to other state lotteries?

GARLAND: We have the lottery that the people of North Caro-lina wanted. In several ways it is a more conservative lottery than what you see in other states. We limit how much we can spend on advertising to 1 percent of our revenues. There’s no question that if we spent more on advertising we would make more money for education. We’re especially careful to make sure our advertising doesn’t entice people to play. In other states, you might see lottery advertise-ments showing people getting rich. We don’t run ads like that. Other states have a wider array of games, from video poker to keno. We have two basic types of games, instant scratch off tickets and the number games with drawings, from Carolina Pick 3 to Powerball and Mega Millions. We believe we can be successful by working to have a greater number of people play a little rather than a few play a lot.

NCAE: What makes you the most proud about North Carolina’s education lottery?

GARLAND: We have operated the lottery with security and integrity and we have a clean track record. We have in-creased sales every year for the first five years and are one of eight lotteries out of 44 to do so. We have earned five clean financial audits and four clean security audits. We have done all of this while steadily increasing the dollar returns to education. Every employee at the lottery is focused on maximizing our return to education.

NCAE: Ms. Garland, tell us a bit about your background. How did you come to serve as director of the North Carolina lottery?

GARLAND: It has been an interesting road. The first executive director was looking for a deputy who had both govern-mental affairs and communications experience. This is a slightly unusual combination and I fit the bill despite the fact that I had never purchased a lottery ticket. I was the fifth employee to come on board and was involved in all the major decisions at the start. I discovered that I thor-oughly enjoyed the machinations of a lottery. I’ve loved math and numbers from grade school through William & Mary through my master’s work at UNC-CH. When the first executive director chose to leave to start a new busi-ness, the Lottery Commission asked if I would be willing to serve in an interim capacity and I thought, “Why not.” Turns out I really liked the job and commission members apparently were happy with what I had done, so here I am. I feel like I won the lottery.

Karen Archia, media-PR coordinator

Linda Forbes-Whitley joins NCAE as the supervisor of technology and data administration. Her primary job will be to develop ways for NCAE to better use technology, especially in the area of membership processing, recruiting and retention, as well as streamlining the membership reconciliation function.

“My goal is to ensure that the membership database is clean and dependable, and that work coming out of the office is efficient and effective. Also, I will work to introduce new products to the Association that will aid in the reliability of our data.”

Forbes-Whitley, who has extensive experience with technol-

ogy, worked for the Virginia Education Association as supervisor of membership records before coming to NCAE. She is a graduate of ECPI, where she studied computer information systems.

A newlywed, Forbes-Whitley has three adult children, two of whom are in college. During her leisure time, she enjoys riding her motorcycle, going to the movies and watching boxing matches. She also is a fan of superheroes and graphic novels.

4News Bulletin October 2011

Meet your NCAE Board Members

Get to know who represents you on the NCAE Board as the News Bulletin continues to highlight district directors, division presidents, and NEA directors/alternate directors in each issue and why they joined the Association. Please use this information in membership recruitment efforts.

Kathy Canuette, District 8-B director, Lenoir County “I became a member because it was made clear to me what NCAE stood for and how very important it was to us as educators to have solidarity with each other, representation, giving ourselves a voice and making a difference in our own profession. It was the first thing I did when I began working in the public school system and I have been a member for 25 years.” Canuette represents Carteret, Craven, Duplin, Greene, Jones, Lenoir, Onslow, Pamlico and Wayne counties, and Arapahoe Charter.

James Shaw, Cluster 6 director, Wake County “Twenty-four years ago the mentor I had my first year of teaching told me I needed to join the Association. I felt it was my duty to make a contribution, not just to teachers, not just

to students but to my profession.” Shaw represents Durham, Johnston and Wake counties.

Denise McCoy, president of the Education Support Professionals Division, Forsyth County

“I have been a member since 1997 and I joined because of the many opportunities that are available through NCAE. The benefits and resources are outstanding, and the staff

development has helped me become a better leader.”

David Beaver, Cluster 2 director, Davidson County “I joined because I was aware of SNCAE in college. I knew that being a part of your professional organization was the responsible thing to do as a teacher and to be around people who would work to make the profession better.” A member for 24 years, Beaver represents Davidson, Davie, Forsyth, Surry and Yadkin counties, and Elkin City, Iredell-Statesville, Lexington-Thomasville, Mooresville City, Mt. Airy City and Rowan-Salisbury.

NCAE is updating its database to better keep members informed. Each member has been sent a mailer requesting a current mailing address and other demographic information that should be returned as soon as possible using the provided postage-paid envelope. Current home addresses are also needed in order to distribute the 2011-12 NCAE mem-bership cards, which will be mailed directly to the address that appears in the NCAE/NEA Interactive Membership Services database. The information that you supply will help NCAE provide the best and most efficient methods of communication.

3News Bulletin October 2011 5News Bulletin October 2011

NCAE addresses the new Teacher Prepayment Law

These are the timelines for conferred degrees and when one is eligible for extra pay, per DPI’s Salary Manual.

D. ADVANCED DEGREE SUPPLEMENT – If an individual in a teaching or student personnel position has earned an advanced or doctoral license he/she will receive an additional monthly supplement of:• $126 per month for an advanced license and• $253 per month for both an advanced license and a doctorate licenseNOTE: An advanced degree is a sixth-year degree, 30 hours beyond the masters. The college/university makes the distinction if the degree qualifies as advanced.

Effective Date for Salary PurposesFor salary purposes, degrees above the bachelor’s level that are earned:• On or after April 1 of the current school year will become effective

July 1 of the upcoming school year or• Prior to April 1 of the current school year will become effective in

the same pay period as the license effective date.EXAMPLE: The license area effective date of a doctorate degree is 11/15 (as shown on the Employment Inquiry screen). For salary purposes, this doctorate degree will be effective for the entire month of November. All November paychecks, retroactive to 11/1, should reflect the pay increase. If the LEA pay period is from 10/15 – 11/15, the pay increase should only apply beginning 11/1 and not 10/15 as your degree was earned during the calendar month of November, not October. Center for Teaching and Learning

A new law, House Bill 720, passed in the 2011 legislative session, redefines how teachers will be paid. The law eliminates any and all prepayment of salary for teach-ers only and takes effect July 1, 2012.

Government Relations Specialist and NCAE Lobbyist Marge Foreman explains what this law does:

Teachers will be paid only for the days employed based on a set monthly pay date. Pay dates vary by LEA, based on the first day teachers are required to report to work. Example: If teachers return to work on August 16, 2012, the first pay check will be issued on September 16, 2012.

Payment for a full month will be awarded only when days employed equal a full month. Being paid for a full month when the employee has not worked a full month is prohibited as this constitutes prepayment. Teachers will not receive a full month’s salary on August 31 (as has been the practice), unless they have been employed for a full month. (Some counties require teachers to report to work at the end of July.)

Teachers will continue to be paid for all 10 months of employ-ment. Teachers (except for year-round) can still request and will be allowed to have their salaries spread out over 12 months. The request for 12 monthly pay installments must be made by the teacher on or before the first day of the school year.

Teachers employed by an LEA for less than 10 months cannot receive their salaries in 12 monthly installments.Note: Ten-month employees spreading their salary out over 12 months during the 2011-2012 school year (current school year) will receive their two summer month checks in June and July. Begin-ning the 2012-2013 school year (next year — when prepayment of salary for 10-month teachers is eliminated) the two summer month checks will be received (or paid to) employees in July and August.

No one will receive a salary check in August of 2012, unless they> go back to work in late July, > start employment on August 1 and set pay date is the end of

the month, or> are employed in a year-round school.

Why was salary prepayment eliminated? Foreman explains that school systems were losing money and

sought relief from the Legislature. “In school systems across the state, teachers were not completing their employment contracts and thus owed the school system money. They owed the school sys-tem money because they had been prepaid a portion of their salary at the beginning of the school year that they had not yet earned.

“In some scenarios,” Foreman explains, “school systems were able to recoup the unearned money. If employees who resigned or left had adequate accumulated ‘payout’ balances (annual leave,

Government Relations Specialist and NCAE Lobbyist Marge Foreman

Clarification on Master’s Pay

longevity, etc.) the school system could recoup the prepaid salary. However, if the employees had little or no accumulated leave bal-ances, longevity, or other ‘payouts’, the school system was left with a deficit and the state still required repayment.

“With the past four years of budget woes and discretionary cuts imposed by the General Assembly,” Foreman added, “prepayment of teachers’ salaries was becoming an additional economic hardship for school districts so they sought relief through legislation.”

This isn’t new!The prepayment practice has been in place for seven years.

Prior to legislation passed during the 2004 General Assembly ses-sion, prepayment did not exist. When what is commonly referred to as the Calendar Law passed in 2004 and took effect July 1, 2005, requiring that the opening date of school for students not occur prior to August 25 and the closing date not fall after June 10 this initiated the beginning of prepayment. Prior to July 1, 2005, teach-ers only received a full check after working a full month.

Note: Additional information is available from your UniServ direc-tor or in the Members’ Only section of NCAE.org

6News Bulletin October 2011

N C A E N E W S B U L L E T I N

Benefits for employees with reduced hours

Considering National Board Certification?

Have you thought about pursu-ing National Board Certification? NCAE is here to support you throughout your journey to become a National Board Certified Teacher!

Learn more about the NBC process and how NCAE can assist you, including eligibility standards, funding options, and available workshops and webinars, by clicking the following link, http://www.ncae.org/Images/Users/17/consideringnbc.pdf.

If your work hours have been reduced due to state budget cuts, following is a summary of benefits you can receive according to your employment status. A more exten-sive list is available at http://www.ncpublicschools.org/humanresources/district-personnel/key-information/ (click the Benefits Summary Sheet tab).

> Retirement – Permanent status employees working less than 30 hours per week cannot contribute to the Retirement System.

> Health Insurance – To qualify for health insurance, an employee must be in a permanent status and working at least 30 hours per week.

> Sick Leave and Annual Leave – To earn leave, an employee must be in permanent status and working at least 20 hours per week. An employee working between 20-29.9 hours per week will receive pro-rata benefits.

> Longevity – All permanent full-time or part-time (20 hours per week or more) employees who have at least 10 years of total qualifying state service are eligible for longevity payments.

NOTE: If you work less than 20 hours per week, you are not eligible for benefits.

Positions stated in this publication do not necessarily reflect the official position of NCAE unless so identified.

The NCAE News Bulletin, a journal of the Association, is published by the North Carolina Association of Educators, 700 S. Salisbury St., Post Office Box 27347, Raleigh, NC 27611, 1-800-662-7924.

Jacqueline Vaughn, Manager, Communications Department Linda Powell-Jones, Assistant Editor, Janice McNeill Baker, Graphic Designer www.ncae.org

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