News and Information

NCAEEC News and Information

Planning Session - for 2018 NCAEEC Annual Membership Meeting

The Board of NCAEEC plans to meet on Monday, September 18th at 10:00 a.m. at Camp Chestnut Ridge to prepare for, organize and discuss topics and themes for the 2018 NCAEEC Annual Meeting in March 2018. Members-At-Large are always welcome to attend board meetings or planning meetings to provide input into organizational operations or annual meeting preparations. Please email: ncaeec.info@gmail.com for further information and directions.

Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA)

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) was passed in December 2015 and governs the country's K-12 public education policy. For the first time, federal education funding includes language making environmental education programs eligible for funding. This federal funding will be filtered down to schools through the state and individual school districts. States are required to develop their own ESSA plan to comply with the federal law. The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI) is requesting feedback on the rough draft of North Carolina's ESSA plan from educators, parents, students, and other stakeholders of the state's public schools. Title IV Part A of the ESSA is a new flexible block grant program that gives school districts the authority to select from (among other things) a number of student enrichment activities, including environmental education and field-based and service learning activities to support STEM learning. Title IV Part B is a continuation of the 21st Century Community Learning Centers (CCLC) competitive grant program which supports after school and out of school time learning opportunities, including environmental literacy programs. While there is precedent for use of federal education funds, including 21st CCLC and the former Math Science Partnership grants, to support high quality, systemic environmental education programming, this is the first time that federal education policy has made environmental education and related learning explicitly eligible for funds.

For more information, review the links below:

Public Notice from NC DPI on the ESSA
Timeline of the ESSA NC state plan process and external stakeholders group
NC DPI ESSA page with current draft of the state’s ESSA plan It also has the upcoming Public Comment Sessions. Note that the Fayetteville and Tarboro sessions were postponed due to the hurricane but no new date has been set yet.
Online public comments section: To find it, you have to go to this link, scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page, and under “Let’s Talk About…” click on “Every Student Succeeds Act” 4th block on the right.
Fact sheet on EE in the Every Student Succeeds Act by NAAEE
The US Department of Education’s “Non-regulatory guidance on the Student Support and Academic Enrichment Grants” portion of the ESSA. Environmental education is mentioned several times and is specified as one of the “well-rounded educational opportunities” allowable for funding
USDE press release about the guidance document

Superintendents Environmental Education Collaborative Webinar: a group of school superintendents who support EE and have been working to leverage the ESSA funding for EE on the school district level. It gives a good overview of the history of the federal EE legislation and the new ESSA.

Update 7/3/2017
From Lisa Tolley, Environmental Education Program Manager
Office of Environmental Education and Public Affairs
North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality
919-707-8125 office
lisa.tolley@ncdenr.gov

The NC Department of Public Instruction is accepting public input on the most recent draft of the State Plan for the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). The public comment period ends July 27, 2017. You can view comments from the N.C. Office of Environmental Education and Public Affairs and other resources.

From NCDPI website: http://www.ncpublicschools.org/succeeds

NEW!! Draft State Plan for the ESSA Open for Public Review and Comment
The NCDPI staff are pleased to inform you that a new draft of the Consolidated State Plan for the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) is available for public review. This document serves as the rough draft of the state's application for funds authorized under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA) as reauthorized under ESSA in accordance with the requirements of the template issued by the U.S. Department of Education. The public and other stakeholders of North Carolina's public schools are invited to provide feedback via email to Lou Fabrizio at Lou.fabrizio@dpi.nc.gov or Donna Brown at Donna.brown@dpi.nc.gov. The public comment period ends July 27, 2017.

NEW!! !! Draft State Plan for the ESSA (June 26, 2017)
(pdf, 4.2mb)

Save the Date

2018 Annual Meeting
Friday, March 2nd, 2018

Location: To Be Determined

Other NCAEEC News:

Western Piedmont Regional Representative Wanted

If you'd like to get more involved with NCAEEC and you live in the Western part of the piedmont, feel free to contact us (see the Contact Page). We'd love to have your help at the Annual Meeting and throughout the year.

Bylaws Update

The NCAEEC Bylaws were recently updated. Members were provided a copy of the revised Bylaws at the Annual Meeting. Modifications were made to the position descriptions for the Executive Officers, as the offices of Treasurer and Secretary were historically combined but now are two separate positions which have different job descriptions in the Bylaws. Updated wording was included where needed for the use of electronic mail and other updated verbiage and regulatory statements were added to the Bylaws for legal, tax and money handling purposes. If you would like a copy of the updated Bylaws, please contact Morgan Bosse at morgan.bosse@townofcary.org

Board Meeting

The NCAEEC Board recently met at Camp Don Lee to discuss the organization's goals, mission and services.

The Executive Committee and the Regional Representatives came together to prepare for the
Annual Meeting and to determine the direction for the organization for the next year. The group plans to:

set realistic goals
plan an annual meeting that meets the needs of center staff
get the word out about the next annual meeting well in advance

NCAEEC Board meeting at Camp Don Lee