A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT tO APPROPRIATE FUNDS FOR A TURNAROUND PRINCIPALS PROGRAM to provide strong and proven leadership for low‑performing schools.
Whereas, low-performing schools, particularly middle and high schools, require special leaders who have demonstrated an ability to successfully lead such schools and educate disadvantaged students; and
Whereas, this leadership experience is rare, and it is different from the experience of many otherwise talented principals; and
Whereas, it is difficult  to find, recruit, adequately compensate, and retain such principals for schools that have a long history of low performance; and
Whereas, to address this critical and intractable problem, North Carolina should establish a special corps of "turnaround principals", proven and extraordinary leaders willing to take up the challenge of improving low-performing schools; and
Whereas, low-performing schools are not only failing to provide many students with a sound, basic education, but they also are expending substantial State and local resources; and
Whereas, if new and proven leadership can move the school from failure to success, the cost of the program will have been a sound and prudent investment for the State, Now, therefore,
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1.(a)  There is appropriated from the General Fund to the Board of Governors of The University of North Carolina the sum of five million five hundred thousand dollars ($5,500,000) for the 2006‑2007 fiscal year for the Turnaround Principals Program.  The Program shall be located in and administered by the Office of the President of The University of North Carolina.
SECTION 1.(b)  The purpose of the Program is to recruit and select up to 25 turnaround principals who shall be available for employment in low-performing middle or high schools.  As used in this act, a low‑performing school is a school that has had a composite score of sixty-five percent (65%) or less under the ABC Program for three consecutive years.  Candidates for the Program must be retired principals or superintendents.
The Program shall be highly selective and shall attempt to select the best candidates from North Carolina and throughout the United States.  Turnaround principals must have proven and extraordinary records of success as principals or superintendents in North Carolina or elsewhere.  Procedures for application and criteria for acceptance into the Program shall be established by the administering agency.  When turnaround principals have been selected for participation in the Program by the administering agency, the administering agency will work with eligible local school systems to help them find promising candidates from the roster of approved turnaround principals to fill principal positions in low-performing schools and will use Program funds to help develop an incentive package sufficient to attract that principal to that school.  The decision to employ such principal shall be made by the local superintendent and school board.
SECTION 1.(c)  The compensation packages for turnaround principals shall be developed by the administering agency in cooperation with local superintendents and school boards seeking to hire such principal. They shall be developed to provide very strong incentives to attract highly qualified individuals to the Program, and may include a substantial salary supplement above the normal income for the position that is paid by the local school system, relocation expenses, and possibly deferred compensation arrangements.  Part of the funding of such compensation packages shall come from the Program.
Turnaround principals also shall be provided additional discretionary funds by the Program to support staff development and other work needed to address the specific problems of that school.
Total expenditures for each principal position from Program funds shall not exceed two hundred thousand dollars ($200,000) per year.
SECTION 1.(d)  A low‑performing school shall contract with a turnaround principal for a term of at least  three years so that the principal has adequate time to achieve success at the school and prepare that school for continued success in the future.
SECTION 1.(e)  In the first three months at a low‑performing school, the turnaround principal shall develop a written turnaround plan for the school and submit the plan to the local superintendent and school board and to the administering agency.
The turnaround principals shall submit a written annual report on progress at the school and methods used to the administering agency of the Program and to the local superintendent and school board.
SECTION 1.(f)  The Program shall submit annual reports to the General Assembly on the results of the Program and recommendations regarding the future of the Program.  These reports will produce a body of knowledge and experience that will help North Carolina's schools in the future.
SECTION 2.  G.S. 135‑3(8) is amended by adding a new sub‑subdivision to read:
c1.	The computation of postretirement earnings of a beneficiary under G.S. 135‑3(8)c., who has been retired at least six months and has not been employed in any capacity with a public school for at least six months immediately preceding the effective date of reemployment, shall not include earnings while the beneficiary is employed as a turnaround principal by a local school administrative unit under the Turnaround Principals Program. The Department of Public Instruction shall certify to the Retirement System that a beneficiary is employed as a turnaround principal by a local school administrative unit under the Turnaround Principals Program.
Beneficiaries employed under this sub‑subdivision are not entitled to any benefits otherwise provided under this Chapter as a result of this period of employment."
SECTION 3.  This act becomes effective July 1, 2006.