A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT to authorize the state board of education to update the list of schools designated as high priority schools.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1.(a)  The 2001 General Assembly (i) designated as high priority schools the 37 elementary schools at which, for the 1999‑2000 school year, over eighty percent (80%) of the students qualified for free or reduced‑price lunches and no more than fifty‑five percent (55%) of the students performed at or above grade level and (ii) provided additional funding for those schools.  The State Board of Education may update the list by:
(1)	Adding to the list each elementary school at which over eighty percent (80%) of the students qualified for free or reduced‑price lunches and no more than fifty‑five percent (55%) of the students performed at or above grade level;
(2)	Adding to the list, at the request of the school or the local board of education, an elementary school at which over eighty percent (80%) of the students qualified for free or reduced‑price lunches and no more than seventy percent (70%) of the students performed at or above grade level; and
(3)	Deleting from the list, at the request of the local board of education, a school that:
a.	Achieved higher than expected improvements in student performance for the past three years under the ABCs Program; and
b.	Achieved a performance composite of at least eighty percent (80%) for the prior year under the ABCs Program.
SECTION 1.(b)  Schools that remain on the list and schools added to the list shall receive funding as high priority schools.  Schools deleted from the list shall not receive that funding.
SECTION 2.  This act becomes effective July 1, 2005.