1) The superintendent of Wayne County Public Schools wrote a letter to the State Board of Education member/advisor regarding concerns over the selection of Carver Heights Elementary School for takeover by the Innovative School District (ISD). 2) The letter argues that the ISD failed to follow State Board of Education policy which requires convening internal and external stakeholders to consider additional factors beyond just student performance data when selecting a school. 3) The letter lists several critical factors that were not examined by the ISD in its selection of Carver Heights Elementary, including the district's past turnaround success, a pending restart application, new successful turnaround leadership, and lack of community/parental support for the takeover

1. Superintendent
Dr. Michael J. Dunsmore
Board Chairman
Patricia A. Burden
Board Vice-Chairman
Raymond E. Smith, Jr.
Members
Don Christopher West
H. Len Henderson
Jennifer S. Strickland
Arnold L. Flowers
Richard W. Pridgen
P.O. Drawer 1797 / Goldsboro, NC 27533-1797 / Phone 919-731-5900 / Fax 919-705-6199 / www.waynecountyschools.org
December 4, 2018
VIA E-MAIL AND HAND DELIVERY
SBE Member/Advisor
Office of the N.C. State Board of Ed.
6302 Mail Service Center
Raleigh, N.C. 27699-6302
RE: Carver Heights Elementary School – Failure to Consider Other
Factors in ISD Selection Process
Dear SBE Member/Advisor:
State Board of Education Policy INSD – 002 “Evaluation of Qualifying
Schools Under Consideration for the ISD” provides, in pertinent part:
Following the annual identification and determination of
qualifying low-performing schools for the NCISD, the NCISD
Superintendent shall convene a group of internal (DPI/NCISD)
and external (i.e. data/research experts, school reform experts)
stakeholders to review the available data. That data to be
considered may include, but is not limited to:
1. School Performance Data and Trends (Achievement and
Growth Data)
2. Student Attendance Data (e.g., Chronic Absenteeism, Student
Tardiness)
3. Student Discipline Data (e.g., suspensions/expulsions/school-
based arrests)
4. Teacher/Staff Turnover Data
5. School Leadership Turnover Data
6. Comprehensive Needs Assessments as may be available by
NCDPI

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7. And other factors which may impact school and local
community success
State Board of Education Policy INSD-002. (Emphasis added).
This Policy makes it abundantly clear that the Innovative School District (ISD) is required,
when recommending to the SBE qualifying schools for takeover by the ISD, to convene both
internal and external stakeholders to evaluate and consider “any other factors” in addition to
student performance data and trends, attendance data, discipline data, teacher/staff turnover data,
school leadership data, and a comprehensive needs assessment.
The purpose of convening a group of “external” and “internal” stakeholders (“experts”) to
analyze various factors would appear to be to ensure that a broad range of perspectives is involved
in the ISD selection process. The Policy evidences the usual emphasis on the importance of the
deliberative process in any decision-making of this magnitude. A decision to take over a school,
to remove it from local board governance and completely upend the school and its long-term
relationship with the community, is a decision with drastic ramifications. It should not be left to
the sole discretion of one or two individuals. The decision deserves the consideration of numerous
individuals with various expertise and perspectives. No such team was assembled as required by
State Board policy, depriving this Board of valuable input and analysis from stakeholders who
might provide insight, perspective and expertise.
In addition to there being no convening of stakeholders, there has also been little
consideration here of “other factors” as set forth in the Policy. The ISD Superintendent appears to
have limited her analysis to mostly the standard data in the form of test scores, teacher turnover
statistics, and dated Comprehensive Needs Assessments performed by other persons, for other
purposes, and at varying time periods. This Policy specifically provides for “any other factors” to
be considered, indicating an awareness by this Board of the importance of those “other factors” in
driving school reform.
“Other factors” to be considered here absolutely impact the potential for success of Carver
Heights Elementary School and the local community. Those other factors have not been examined
or assessed by the ISD staff or by the team of internal and external stakeholders. However, those
factors are critical in the ISD selection process. Critical areas have been ignored by the ISD staff
in the selection process, including the following:
1. Wayne County Public Schools’ past turnaround success;
2. The pending Restart application for CHES;
3. New successful turnaround leadership at Carver Heights Elementary School;
4. The impact of takeover on the overall governance of the school system as a whole;
5. The total lack of community and parental support for the ISD takeover;
6. The time lapse from the SBE vote this week to actual takeover by ISD in fall 2019 and the
impact of that time lapse on student achievement as well as community morale;
7. The failure of the ISD to show any track record or plan for turning around Carver Heights
Elementary;

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8. The impact of this takeover on current efforts to redistrict the school system; and
9. The inability under the ISD model for parents at CHES to have any input in decision-
making for their school.
In order for any turnaround effort to succeed, these “other factors” need to be contemplated
and considered, with an opportunity for the local board of education to provide input, background
and perspective. More importantly, this Board has recognized the importance of these factors, as
well as the need for input from various stakeholders, by adopting this Policy. The failure to adhere
to this Policy sends a powerful message that the process does not matter and that adherence to
policy is merely discretionary for the ISD. For the public, and particularly the citizens of Wayne
County to have any fleeting confidence in this process, the least one would expect is that the
process and policies be carried out with fidelity. The fact that the staff only recommended one
school for your consideration makes this even more significant. If the ISD Superintendent is
effectively selecting the school, then the process needs to be unassailable. It is not.
The fact that the ISD Superintendent was not even able to accurately state the grade levels
served by the school she recommends for takeover, and that she inaccurately claimed that, despite
redistricting, 70% of the students tested in two (not the required three) consecutive years were the
same (when, in fact, only 30% (124/410) of those students were the same), should cause you great
consternation regarding the recommendation. And, it should further emphasize why the Policy
requires review by both internal and external stakeholders with various fields of expertise.
Impact of Takeover on the Overall Governance of Wayne County Public Schools
The ISD has made no attempt to communicate effectively with the Wayne County Board
of Education or to consider the impact of the recommended takeover on other school system
operations. The takeover of Carver Heights will dramatically impact those operations and impede
efforts planned and underway to regroup, redistrict and repopulate our schools, particularly those
in the central attendance district, which includes Carver Heights.
In July of 2017, the Wayne County Board of Education directed district leadership to begin
the process of examining student assignment practices, identifying current problems resulting from
these practices, and developing potential solutions to these problems, including but not limited to
school assignment and boundary adjustments, and the need to improve student achievement. The
Board’s directive was largely the result of overcrowding at some of the district’s elementary
schools, coupled with the notion that other schools may be operating under capacity, thereby
calling into question the efficient use of facilities to best serve our students. At the same time, the
district was building a new Meadow Lane Elementary School, to open in 2019-20, and adding
additional classroom space at Northwest Elementary and possibly Fremont Elementary School that
would increase overall capacity.
District leaders consulted with a variety of educational leaders with experience in this area,
and developed a recommended timeline and activities for the work to be done. The recommended
timeline and activities were subsequently approved by the Board at a Special Called Meeting on
August 17, 2017. At this same work session, the Board established an ad hoc Student Assignment
Committee to work closely with district leaders throughout this process.

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Our work began with a comprehensive discussion of student assignment, held in an open
Board Work Session on September 5, 2017 to hear the Board’s views on four key considerations
of student assignment: proximity, efficiency, diversity, and choice.
Since that time, the Wayne County Board of Education and district leadership have
collaboratively taken the following steps:
● Reviewed current practice with regard to facility utilization and capacities;
● Reviewed current policies and procedures in light of Board goals;
● Considered policy additions, revisions, and/or deletions;
● Reviewed relevant policies from other districts;
● Planned for and discussed necessary steps to implement state-mandated class size
reductions in conjunction with available facilities;
● Voted to immediately implement K-3 class size reductions beyond state requirements in
our four lowest performing elementary schools;
● Examined existing student population and their impact on school capacity and utilization;
and
● Enlisted the services of McKibben Demographics to conduct a demographic study of
Wayne County Public Schools, to include enrollment projections for the next ten years.
Planned activities moving forward include, but are not limited to:
● Continue to work with McKibben Demographics to analyze ten-year student enrollment
projections in order to determine the long-term facility and student assignment needs for
the district.
● Develop recommended attendance boundary adjustments for:
○ Fully populating the new Meadow Lane Elementary facility to start the 2019-
2020 school year; and
○ Utilizing planned classroom space at Northwest Elementary and/or Fremont
Elementary.
● Present other recommendations for student reassignment in 2019-2020 to effectively and
efficiently utilize facilities, including but not limited to:
○ Grade configuration changes;
○ Additional or adjusted academic/magnet programming;
○ Feeder pattern changes and/or adjustments; and
○ Other boundary adjustments.
In addition to these steps, the Wayne County Board of Education instituted a moratorium
on student transfers in an effort to increase the percentage of students who attended their districted
schools. Prior to the moratorium, student transfer requests were approved at the administrative
level provided there was space available at the requested school, and provided that the

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student/parent had the ability to provide their own transportation to and from the requested school.
Students who previously received transfers to schools outside of their attendance zones are allowed
to maintain those transfers until the end of the grade span served at the schools they attend. At the
end of an “exit grade,” those students are expected to return to their districted schools for their
next grade in sequence. With the moratorium in place, parents may still apply for transfer as
allowed by law, but must appeal to the Board for reconsideration of their specific circumstances.
The moratorium has had the desired result, as the percentage of students attending their
districted schools has increased from 91.3% in the year prior to the moratorium to 92.9% in the
first full year of the moratorium. As more students reach the exit grade associated with their pre-
existing transfers, this percentage is expected to increase, giving the district a truer picture of the
demographics of each school population, attendance zone, and feeder pattern.
The moratorium has had a significant impact on the schools in the central attendance area,
with North Drive Elementary, Carver Heights Elementary, Dillard Middle, and Goldsboro High
all seeing increases in the enrollment of districted students. These schools had been losing students
to transfer at a high rate prior to the moratorium, and are now projected to repopulate over time as
the moratorium continues.
The impact of a potential ISD takeover of Carver Heights Elementary School on the Wayne
County Public Schools student assignment efforts would be felt not only in the central attendance
area (the collection of four schools that make up the Goldsboro High School feeder pattern), but
also in the other feeder patterns that border it. Based on the opposition the Carver Heights
Elementary community has expressed for the ISD, it is unlikely that the district could expect
support from other communities who might be moved into an ISD-controlled area as a result of
boundary adjustments. This circumstance would severely hinder the district’s student assignment
options for the schools that share a boundary with Carver Heights: Brogden Primary, Meadow
Lane Elementary, Northwest Elementary, Rosewood Elementary, and Tommy’s Road Elementary.
Restart Application
The Restart application for Carver Heights offers the school an important additional layer
of support, to help ensure and hasten improvement efforts at the school. Key to this support, before
any of the specific Restart flexibilities come into play, is the strong network and professional
learning opportunities the school will benefit from as a member school of The Innovation Project
(TIP). WCPS has found that the TIP network has been invaluable in guiding improvement efforts
at Wayne County’s other Restart School, Goldsboro High School. TIP network principals share
best practices, meet with state leaders, discuss strategies for better leveraging Restart flexibilities,
share resources and research, and generally act as a Professional Learning Community for TIP-
connected administrators. This critical connection for administrators at Carver Heights should not
be overlooked as an important reason for seeking Restart approval.
As for the specific flexibilities requested, Carver Heights’ application is closely aligned to
other Restart applications that have been approved for low performing elementary schools
throughout the state that have demographics and populations similar to Carver Heights. The school
seeks to exceed growth, meet students’ complex academic and social-emotional needs, and
improve attendance. It is our hope that with Restart approval, Carver Heights will be able to

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manage, fund, and implement: A longer school year and extended school day; “Master Teacher”
bonus pay to encourage top teachers to come to the school and serve as grade-level lead teachers;
additional opportunities for professional development for teachers; after school tutoring for
students; and curriculum development work to make classroom learning more rigorous and
relevant and student-centered.
As the State Superintendent graciously acknowledged in the November 1 meeting at the
State Board of Education, the Superintendent in Wayne County is a state leader in turnaround
programming. In short, we know how to make this work, and we have added some of the best
people in the state to our team.
New School Leadership
During the November 1 meeting of the State Board of Education, there were several
references to “self-identified barriers” in the ISD’s recommendation for takeover, but no
acknowledgement of the new leadership at the school, the plan to turn it around, the expertise of
the new leadership and their experience in previous turnaround efforts, and the commitment of the
school board in support of those efforts. Those “barriers” were referenced no fewer than 21 times
during the November 1 presentation to the State Board of Education. Not once was it
acknowledged that a new principal (former State Principal of the Year Dr. Patrice Faison), and a
new SIG coordinator (Dr. Terri Cobb) have been hired, both of whom have tremendous expertise
and track records turning around low-performing schools.1
The “self-identified barriers” repeatedly referred to at the November 1 meeting are no
longer relevant. Dramatic improvements had been made with a new principal and SIG Coordinator
who have engaged with the community, restructured the school day, implemented a meaningful
bonus program for effective teachers, implemented a routine of twice-daily classroom observations
in every classroom, distributed much needed resources to teachers and brought a new feeling of
urgency and excitement to the school.
Summary
With all due respect to the task before you, on behalf of our students, staff, community and
school board, we respectfully ask you to vote against this flawed recommendation and watch us
prove to you our commitment and ability to turn around Carver Heights Elementary School.
1
With regard to other schools removed from the ISD consideration, Dr. Allen noted that Hillcrest Elementary had
hired “a new superintendent . . . and a new turnaround principal with a proven record of success.” (See transcript of
State Board of Education meeting, November 1, 2018, at page 4). Dr Allen further noted that, at Willifred
Elementary, they had a hired a new assistant principal (transcript, p. 5), and that Fairview Elementary School had
changed leadership with a new principal and a new assistant principal. (transcript, p. 6)

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Sincerely yours,
Dr. Michael Dunsmore, Superintendent
Patricia A. Burden, Board Chair
Cc: Mark Johnson, State Superintendent of Public Instruction
Eric Hall, Deputy State Superintendent of Innovation
LaTeesa Allen, Superintendent of the Innovation School District
Eric Snider, General Counsel, State Board of Education/Department of Public Instruction