Email Communications

Here are the most up-to-date emails sent to RTO Schools within the month of October and November. 

Sent 12/2/24-
Greetings RTO POCs, 
I hope this email finds you well, and trust you relaxed during Thanksgiving. PLEASE READ THIS EMAIL IN ITS ENTIRETY! 

I will be sending you Returned Epicenter submissions if there are missing elements. The email you will receive from Epicenter notifies you that there are returned submissions that include comments directly on the need to revise and what to include in your revisions. Your team may receive these submission returns in the next few weeks periodically as we are reviewing each submission in Epicenter. Revisions are officially due January 24th, after we provide you with the feedback, so you can tackle the returns as they show in your Queue, or you can wait until you receive the RTO I Feedback Rubric sometime before January 10th officially. 

*** PLEASE READ CAREFULLY*** 
However, I will be addressing some of the areas I have already seen in your Submissions/Policies this Friday, 12/6 during our Virtual Coaching Session. Some areas I am seeing primarily have been the lack of required legislative General Statute elements noted in submissions that were presented during the Planning Sessions. Please ensure as you move into the RTO Phase II that you refer to all the planning session presentations previously sent to your teams, and refer to this  Article 14: § 115C‑218. Purpose of charter schools; role of State Board of Education; establishment of North Carolina Charter Schools Review Board and North Carolina Office of Charter Schools. While we know you have wanted information on other areas of starting a charter school, the general statutes, policies, and requirements to open a charter school, and receive the formal charter agreement, are necessary to be referenced in full and described within each of the policies that will be submitted; thus, the planning sessions were essential to provide you with the GS laws, resources, and regulations needed to be referenced in your submissions. 

To do this successfully, please ensure that you refer to the general statute that each policy is referencing within individual submissions that are being returned. I would wait until you've had a chance to schedule a 1:1 meeting with Julie and me this next month to make any revisions if you are unclear about what needs to be added. I will start scheduling 1:1 meetings in the next few days for time to review Phase I feedback with each of your schools. Also, thank you for ensuring all of your policies are of the highest quality with very little visual evidence of copying/pasting from the internet. If you copy/paste from other resources you are required to cite your references. As much as possible, please do not reference links as your sources, but develop the actual policy for your schools. 

I hope this update helps as you see some feedback returning to your Epicenter queues this week and throughout the next few weeks. 


Kindly,  

Dr. Natasha Norins, Ed. D.
Education Program Consultant II


Sent 11/28/24
Good afternoon 2025 RTO Schools, 
As we head into the Thanksgiving holiday with RTO I Submissions due tomorrow, I wanted to take a quick moment to share the upcoming dates in December for your teams. 

RTO I- all RTO schools will now go into RTO II which is due on Friday, February 28th, 2025. Those submissions have been added to the Epicenter Calendar. Please ensure that your main POCs are being supported with these tasks as much as possible since this is the first very, large workload within RTO. There may be a few individual added submissions within the next week with the SMHP and Threat Assessments as well as the Parent Bill of Rights, and I will inform you of these additions when they occur in Epicenter. I am meeting with our Epicenter representative tomorrow to discuss this. 

RTO II- all POCs will be invited to a December 6th RTO II Coaching Session where the team will run down all the requirements for submissions and tasks in Epicenter. Again, I will also schedule individual MS Team meetings with each school for February to discuss the start of the Enrollment and Facility Updates with your board. Many schools have already started implementing their Open Enrollment phases, and those will continue to drive your enrollment numbers. At the same time, your facility renovations should begin in January to ensure your school is ready for opening and ECOs are scheduled for 30 days before opening. The ECO process will be sent to you later in February. In the meantime, I will also be reaching out in January to contact you with EDDIE, NCID, and facility details so please be ready for more emails coming to you in the months ahead. 

December Planning Session- Please RSVP here[http://December RTO Planning Session: "Meeting the Needs of All Learners" (VIRTUAL) Hosted by Norins, Natasha https://ncgov.webex.com/ncgov/j.php?MTID=m5dda72ebfc6d93b90b87642888da8fee Wednesday, December 18, 2024 8:15 AM | 8 hours 30 minutes | (UTC-05:00) Eastern Time (US & Canada) Meeting number: 2438 064 8562 Password: UZqGGHCQ323 Join by video system Dial 24380648562@webex.com You can also dial 173.243.2.68 and enter your meeting number. For internal <sitename> users, dial <Pilot Number>. Join by phone +1-415-655-0003 US Toll +1-904-900-2303 United States Toll (Jacksonville) Access code: 243 806 48562] for the December 18th Planning Session- "Meeting the Needs of All Learners" from 8:15 am- 3:45 pm. 

See you then and have a Happy Thanksgiving with time to rest and enjoy family and good food. 

Kindly,  

Dr. Natasha Norins, Ed. D.
Education Program Consultant II
Book time with Natasha Norins: Book an appointment
Ready To Open/Planning Year Lead & External Support Team Lead
Office of Charter Schools
Phone: (984) 236-2702
natasha.norins@dpi.nc.gov


Sent 10/7/24

Greetings RTO Schools, 
I hope you are all doing well. Please let Ashley or me know if you need anything after the recent hurricane that has impacted so many in Western No. Carolina. We are here to support. For your awareness, there are 24 charter schools impacted by Hurricane Helene in the western part of the state. Our wonderful director, Ashley Baquero and OCS Staff have been in contact with all of the charter schools, who have been supporting families in the region with providing supplies and communication. 

Normally, the RTO update emails are sent each Friday, but our office was under an official memorandum to hold all communications last week due to the hurricane relief efforts. 

Please take a look at the Epicenter update below and some Q&A clarifications. I will review these points of interest on 10/23 when we meet virtually for Planning Session II (more information will be coming next week with invitations and logistics for that meeting).

Epicenter
EdLusion is no longer used for RTO, as it is solely the platform OCS uses for Charter School applications. From now on all of your work will be done in Epicenter throughout RTO and when you are fully operational. 

  • You have all now received your Epicenter invitations, and throughout the next week will see the tasks populate on your Epicenter Dashboard. Please reach out to me directly during the normal business hours, Mon.-Friday; 8 am- 6 pm for help with Epicenter. I can meet with school POCs 1:1 to assist with any Epicenter needs.

  • There are approximately 32 separate submissions that are due November 27, 2024. We will meet for Planning Session II, and then there will be an Open Office Hour held October 29th, where I will go into more detail about all the information listed in Epicenter, but you should get started working on several of the submissions listed in this rubric and in the Framework. The rubric attached will be used by the RTO Team to review your submissions after 11/27/24. If you have questions and would like to schedule a 1:1 meeting, please do not hesitate. Remember, you are submitting the final draft submissions, and many require the board of director votes/approval to occur before uploading to Epicenter. 

  • Please, please, please, make sure the submissions you are uploading to Epicenter are the final draft with no errors because when you hit SAVE on each of the submissions it takes extra effort and time to return them to your school contact if there are errors. While you will have time to revise all submissions, these are considered your FINAL DRAFTS.
Q&A from RTO PS #1-
One question that was raised from the last meeting was if a student/family must disclose a suspension or expulsion on their Enrollment Forms. I verified my answer was correct, and there should be no identifiable bias questions asked on any enrollment materials. The time that this information is collected is once a family completes an application for admission, and are officially admitted to your school, then you will request school records, and use student official records to determine their further needs; but under no circumstance can you deny any student admission for any reason; except when/if your enrollment requires a weight list. 

Please reach out directly to me and not reply to this email for further questions. 

Kindly,  

Dr. Natasha Norins, Ed. D.May be an image of text
Education Program Consultant II