North Carolina
Staffing, safety and academic recovery loom large as North Carolina’s students return
Monday is the primary day of faculty for many North Carolina college students. It’s a contemporary begin for college kids and lecturers, however loads of ongoing challenges and lingering questions will greet them.
Right here’s a have a look at 5 large questions dealing with households, educators and coverage makers.
The place will college students land?
Faculty districts throughout North Carolina have seen enrollment decline — slowly at first, and extra quickly when the pandemic disrupted in-person courses in 2020. Final 12 months didn’t carry the rebound district officers hoped for.
This 12 months will probably be a take a look at of whether or not pandemic shifts are lasting or non permanent. That gained’t be clear on the primary day, however this fall will carry state tallies for all public faculties. That features constitution faculties, the place enrollment has grown steadily for years.
Earlier than the pandemic, personal faculty enrollment in North Carolina had been flat or declining, however the final couple of years introduced a spike. State tallies present the state had roughly 115,000 college students in personal faculties final 12 months, up 7% over the earlier 12 months and 15% over 5 years. That complete consists of greater than 11,000 college students in Mecklenburg County.
These will increase have been much more pronounced in Union County (up 31% in a single 12 months and 47% in 5) and Iredell County (up 21% in a single 12 months and 18% in 5). After all, the totals in these counties are comparatively small (3,254 in Union and 1,430 in Iredell), so a brand new faculty or two can drive an enormous proportion enhance.
Dwelling-schooling surged greater than 20% within the 2020 faculty 12 months, when many public faculties opened with distant courses, then dropped again considerably final 12 months as in-person courses resumed. However the estimated variety of home-schooled college students in North Carolina is up 26% up to now 5 years.
What’s the security plan?
COVID-19 precautions are poised to fade into the background as faculties start, although a fall/winter surge or a brand new variant may change that. Regardless that many counties stay on the “excessive group transmission” stage, the North Carolina Faculty Boards Affiliation experiences that no districts plan to require masks at this level.
The Charlotte-Mecklenburg faculty board cut up this week over a procedural query about its masks coverage, however nobody argued for obligatory face coverings.
“Nobody, nobody on this board, is speaking about having a masks mandate now,” board member Margaret Marshall stated. “So masks are non-compulsory. Of us, do what it’s good to do to guard your well being or shield no matter state of affairs you’ve got at residence when faculty begins, and we’ll look ahead to that.”
Issues about weapons and violence stay excessive, with the reminiscence of the mass faculty taking pictures in Uvalde, Texas, nonetheless contemporary in reminiscence. Many districts are including armed faculty useful resource officers. In lots of counties regulation enforcement companies spent the summer season reviewing plans for coping with a faculty assault and educators bought coaching in learn how to reply.
In a video message to Union County Public Colleges households, Assistant Superintendent Jarrod McCraw stated the sheriff’s workplace, all of the municipal police departments and even state officers have visited faculties to verify they’re conversant in the structure and in contact with faculty officers.
“We worth these partnerships with state, native and federal companies and we guarantee that we hearken to them,” McCraw stated. “And something that they recommend, or in the event that they need to come into our faculties they’re all the time welcome to come back into our faculties.”
In Charlotte-Mecklenburg Colleges, which noticed a report variety of weapons on campuses final 12 months, the walk-through physique scanners that had been put in at excessive faculties final spring will go into Ok-8 and center faculties all through the approaching faculty 12 months. CMS devoted its Aug. 10 podcast to security measures.
Not all security measures will probably be seen. Colleges throughout North Carolina are utilizing Say One thing or related reporting methods to offer college students an nameless choice for reporting issues. These may embody rumors of somebody bringing a gun or planning an assault, however in addition they embody things like bullying and self-harm, that are way more widespread.
Will there be sufficient lecturers?
Emptiness numbers change every day, however districts within the Charlotte space and throughout the state are seeing considerably extra unfilled trainer jobs than they’ve in previous years.
“We’re seeing tales popping out of all sorts of districts throughout the nation that they’re seeing increasingly more lecturers go away the occupation, along with much less lecturers coming into the faculty of ed, which was in fact beginning to occur earlier than the pandemic,” CMS Human Sources Chief Christine Pejot stated lately. “I believe following the pandemic stakes turned a lot greater and strain was elevated on lecturers.”
The overwhelming majority of scholars will return to a classroom with a everlasting trainer, however a big minority will begin with a substitute or a trainer who has agreed to cowl an additional class throughout planning durations.
Bus driver vacancies are operating excessive too, which suggests the standard back-to-school delays could possibly be exacerbated.
What’s the plan to offset educational setbacks?
Final 12 months’s test-score launch introduced grim proof that distant studying got here with excessive educational prices. North Carolina will launch 2022 outcomes on Thu, Sept. 1. Faculty letter grades and “low performing faculty” labels that had been suspended through the pandemic will probably be again.
In the meantime, districts are utilizing federal COVID-19 support to increase current tutoring applications and launch new ones. Count on to listen to loads about “high-dosage tutoring,” which suggests frequent periods with tutors who construct a relationship with a person baby or a really small group. The problem to look at will probably be whether or not the scholars who had been most remoted and noticed the most important educational regression will be recruited to attend periods earlier than or after faculty and on weekends.
Many districts are additionally including counselors, psychologists and social staff to supply the assist college students want to have the ability to concentrate on schoolwork.
Ongoing efforts to assist younger kids learn higher will proceed. Final 12 months North Carolina started obligatory science-of-reading coaching for elementary faculty lecturers. That may proceed this 12 months, with some lecturers shifting into their second 12 months of this system whereas different districts start the primary spherical.
On Thu, Aug. 25, the Division of Public Instruction posted a report from Amplify, the corporate that conducts studying evaluation for Ok-2 college students, displaying that North Carolina college students made larger positive factors final 12 months than counterparts in different states utilizing the identical assessments. State Superintendent Catherine Truitt hailed the information as an early signal that the brand new method to instructing will repay.
Will faculty lunches nonetheless be free?
Through the educational and monetary turmoil of the pandemic, the federal authorities footed the invoice for all faculty lunches. That program expired over the summer season.
Meaning faculties are reverting to the outdated system, which will be sophisticated. Some faculties with excessive poverty ranges will nonetheless supply free lunch for all, beneath the U.S. Division of Agriculture’s group eligibility provision. In different faculties, college students must pay for lunch until their households fill out paperwork to find out whether or not they’re eligible for federal subsidies.
North Carolina
North Carolina's top election official asks people at the polls to treat each other with respect • NC Newsline
State Elections Director Karen Brinson Bell asked for peace at the polls during a news conference on Election Day eve.
Early voting turnout for this general election set a record, with more than 4.2 million people voting in person during the early voting period that ended Saturday, according to the state Board of Elections.
Tuesday is voters’ last chance to cast a ballot in the general election.
Brinson Bell said more than 1 million people are expected to vote on Election Day.
There were a few “verbal altercations” during early voting between campaigners or people approaching voters in the polling place buffer zone, she said. Electioneering is not allowed within 50 feet of a polling place entrance.
Brinson Bell called polling place hostility this season “very minimal.”
Board of Elections lawyer Paul Cox said they are looking into cases of reported harassment or intimidation.
Voters should be able to enter polling places without interference, Cox said. Electioneers should not assume the mantle of an election official by aggressively questioning a voter’s eligibility. It’s a crime to provide false information about the voting process, by telling someone falsely that they aren’t allowed to vote at a particular location, for example, Cox said.
The U.S. Department of Justice announced on Friday that it planned to monitor compliance with federal voting rights laws in 27 states, including North Carolina. Texas was on the list, but told the DOJ monitors not to come.
The DOJ said in a press release that it will have monitors in Alamance, Wake, and Mecklenburg counties on Election Day.
About 98% of North Carolina ballots are expected to be counted by early Wednesday. After Election Day, county boards must still count absentee ballots they received on Tuesday. They also must research and count, when appropriate, tens of thousands of provisional ballots, Cox said.
Republicans have filed several lawsuits over the last few months challenging voter registration, the counting of absentee ballots not returned in the proper sealed envelopes, and overseas voter qualifications.
Republicans have appealed the trial court and Appeals Court rejections of their overseas voter lawsuit to the state Supreme Court.
Cox described the other lawsuits as being “in a holding pattern.”
In a separate news conference, Bob Phillips, executive director of Common Cause North Carolina, said students waited in line for hours on Saturday at some of the early voting sites near college campuses.
“That’s a good example of just how enthusiastic voters are here in North Carolina,” he said.
The election protection hotline has received more calls this year than in previous elections, but there has been no systemic voter intimidation, Phillips said.
“There is definitely higher tension, more emotion, particularly among the electioneering that goes on outside the precincts,” he said.
This is the first general election where the state’s voter ID law is in effect.
Some poll workers needed reminders on how people are able to vote provisional ballots if they don’t have IDs, Phillips said.
“All in all, it’s been a pretty good early voting period,” he said.
“We’re going to have a historic record turnout in North Carolina, and that’s a very good thing.”.
The Board of Elections offered some tips for voting this year.
- It’s too late to put your mail-in ballot in the mail. Instead, hand deliver it to your county board of elections office by the 7:30 pm Tuesday deadline.
- People who requested absentee ballots but have not used them can vote in person on Election Day. You can throw away your absentee ballot and don’t need to bring it to the polling place.
- Go to your assigned polling place on Election Day. Your polling place can be found on the state Board of Elections’ Voter Search page.
- Bring an acceptable photo ID.
- Voters who don’t have an ID can meet the requirement by filling out a form explaining why they can’t show one, or by showing their ID at the county elections office by 5 pm Nov. 14. In both cases, voters will fill out provisional ballots on Election Day.
North Carolina
Preparing my daughter for the fight: Lessons on freedom after Roe • NC Newsline
When Roe v. Wade was overturned, my teenage daughter came out of her room, crying, and asked me to stop working for a minute and just listen. She said she knew if she ever needed an abortion, I would make sure she had access. “But what about my friends?” she asked. Terrified and enraged at the Supreme Court’s decision, she said she felt the country was going backwards.
Those same thoughts ran through my head just 30 years earlier. When I was a teenager in the Pacific Northwest, my unplanned pregnancy happened while I dealt with my own personal and family struggles. As a 19-year-old full-time college student and new U.S. resident, I was lucky to recognize and leave an abusive relationship. I was also lucky to be living in Washington – a state with very few restrictions on access to abortion care.
My friend Gabby supported me through every step of my abortion: from my decision-making process to scheduling my appointment to the aftercare. The clinic offices never made me feel ashamed. Although I was nervous, I trusted the medical staff attending me, and I didn’t stress about a 72-hour waiting period or unnecessarily invasive ultrasound. The office was professional and compassionate – unlike many “anti-abortion centers” that now feature without pictures of babies and families to elicit unnecessary guilt on an already difficult day.
As a queer, Latine mother, I can’t stand on the sidelines while my daughter’s generation has less freedom than I did and when they are forced into futures they don’t choose for themselves. To be clear, the criminalization of contraception, limiting of sex education, weaponizing access to life-saving healthcare, and the ongoing coercion and sterilization are not the civic or public health traditions I want to pass down to her.
What I do pass down to my daughter is the history and the importance of the Green Wave Movement – the global Latine-led movement for reproductive rights that made abortion access possible in Mexico, Argentina, Colombia. In the Green Wave, it’s reiterated that Latine folx have been having abortions for centuries. We have shared medicines, teas, and passed on our rituals and approaches outside of Western medicine. Our ancestry breaks the taboo and interrupts the shame that keeps us as women, as queer, as immigrant pregnant people silent. We are many.
My daughter, now a college senior, is my moral compass. I aim to create a better world for her and for generations after her. And so, as the election approaches, I want to tell her and maybe all of us: do not lose hope—do more than vote.
Across the nation, a growing number of states—including Iowa, Florida, Arizona, Texas, South Carolina, and Georgia—impose severe early abortion restrictions that profoundly affect women, especially in the Latine community. The 2023 disciplinary action against Indiana’s Dr. Caitlin Bernard also highlights how state level sanctions have serious impacts as patients and providers across state lines. In North Carolina, SB20 restricts abortion care to up to 12 weeks, while other strict yet vague laws cause confusion around the healthcare that pregnant people can get, endangering mothers, forcing them to give birth in unsafe locations and miscarry in public restrooms. These, combined with immigration-targeted bills like HB10, seem to be an assault on Latine lives.
Since the fall of Roe, abortion access has most significantly impacted Latine communities in the U.S. via the intersection of state-by-state legislation, geographic densities and age. Criminalization, punishment, and stigma will only continue to endanger our lives, limit our economic opportunities, and jeopardize our self-determination. Even after the harm of denied care, we are denied justice – like in Texas v. Zurawski. Generations of Latine voters are activated by the racism and sexism perpetuated by state laws, and we demand a fresh start for the whole of our country.
We must stand together as we march towards access to quality, medically necessary care. We must rise to be counted as part of a transnational, multi-lingual, racial, and cultural movement to combat machista culture and dangers of Western conservative patriarchy.
Stigma and criminalization should have no home in health clinics. The right to legal, safe, and shame-free reproductive freedom and care is needed now! Our call to action is clear: no fear in healthcare. May our voices at the ballot box, on social media, and at our kitchen tables be the Green Wave that we need and deserve.
La Marea Verde no para. The Green Wave does not stop.
North Carolina
'We just felt called': Local volunteers travel to North Carolina to help with hurricane devastation
LACEY LAKEVIEW, Texas (KWTX) – A local group is now sharing their stories from eastern North Carolina after recently driving up to help people rebuild their lives after the devastation of Hurricane Helene.
Charles Fisher, the pastor at New Vision Family Fellowship, says when he saw what was happening in North Carolina he knew he had to do something.
“We just felt called… we saw it, my son called me on the phone and said, ‘dad what do you think about North Carolina’ and I said ‘I’m thinking about North Carolina’,” Charles shared.
And so, Charles, along with his son Caleb Fisher and Logan Selman, drove 18 hours to eastern North Carolina two weeks ago and stayed five days to help however they could.
But nothing could have prepared them for what they would see and the stories they would hear.
“You could see trees that were just layed over, brough from further up in the mountain down the river and… you know houses that had been basically demolished if not completely wiped off their foundations,” Selman explained.
Charles shared that “there was one family we heard of that lost 13 members of their family.”
While there they worked with the Red Truck Men, a nonprofit organization out of North Carolina, who sent them out wherever help was needed.
“A lot of tree removal, getting sometimes up to three feet of mud out of houses… we built a bridge,” Charles said.
But they say there’s still so much work to be done, and it will likely take years for North Carolina to recover from this.
“It’s not so much that they’re still in the shock of it, but there’s such a long road for them to recovery because they don’t have the same resources, they don’t have the houses that are built for that,” Caleb explained.
According to Caleb, what they need most right now is volunteers.
“They need manpower, they need machines, heavy equipment, even smaller sized heavy equipment… they need volunteers like crazy,” he said.
They also still need donations, such as “water bottles, buddy burners, monetary,” Caleb explained, “and especially prayers for everybody there.”
Caleb himself will soon be headed back to North Carolina with his family and their camper to continue their work.
“If that’s for three weeks, three months, three years… either we’re going to run out of work or we’re going to run out of money,” Caleb shared.
To sign up to volunteer or make monetary donations you can visit the Red Truck Men website.
They also need physical donations such as bottled water, green propane tanks, buddy heaters, and hand warmers. Those can be brought to the New Vision Family Fellowship at 665 New Dallas Hwy, Waco, TX, 76705.
Monetary donations for Caleb Fisher while he continues missionary work in the field can be sent through Venmo at Caleb-Fisher-17, Cashapp at $cowboymonney, or checks made out to New Vision Family Fellowship.
Copyright 2024 KWTX. All rights reserved.
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