Nicholas Brown, a junior at Jordan High School in Durham, has had the uncomfortable experience of being followed to class by School Resource Officers hired by the district who are supposed to make students and staff feel safe.  Brown, 16, wasn’t doing anything wrong, just moving from one class to another to attend a study session or to take a teacher-approved restroom break. 

State education officials will help place students in other schools for 2021-22 academic year A tardy audit submission in late December couldn’t save Essie Mae Kiser Foxx Charter School.  The State Board of Education on Thursday unanimously voted to revoke the Rowan County school’s charter because its leaders failed to submit required financial audits for 2019 and 2020 on time.

The pandemic only added to the enormous challenges confronting NC public schools It’s been called a year like no other.  And 2020 has been that, especially for teachers and parents struggling to educate school children during the deadly COVID-19 pandemic that has killed more than 300,000 people across the United States.

Data show that more than half of public school children are nonwhite, but only 21% of teachers are. As a young boy growing up in Kinston, Anthony Graham, saw well intentioned Samaritans flow into Eastern North Carolina after strong hurricanes battered the coast and inland regions. For a brief time, Graham said, they provided an invaluable and welcomed safety net for people in his community, some of whom had lost everything in the destructive storms.

The charter, which opened in 2018, has serious financial, management and academic problems.

Shortly before Thanksgiving, the families that entrust their children to Essie Mae Kiser Foxx Charter School school in East Spencer, a small town of about 1,500 in Rowan County, were urged to “enjoy" their holiday break on the school’s Facebook page. 

Truitt will have to rebuild trust with the state board, whose relationship with her predecessor was combative. Education in North Carolina has become “highly politicized” to the detriment of student achievement, says State Superintendent-elect Catherine Truitt.

Granville is a cautionary tale for rural school districts that must compete with charters

Granville County Schools is in what former school board member Rob Rivers describes as a graveyard spiral.

As evidence, the former NASA test pilot points to budget problems, declining enrollment and worsening academic performance, all of which Rivers believes will doom the district if steps aren’t taken to stop the free fall.

Democrat Roy Cooper was reelected governor Tuesday, fighting back a challenge from Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Forest who made Cooper’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic a centerpiece of his campaign.  In the end, voters rewarded Cooper’s steady leadership during the ongoing crisis while rejecting Forest’s call for a quicker reopening of businesses and schools.