A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT to provide for a planning year for establishment of cooperative innovative high schools, as recommended by the house study committee on education innovation.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1.  G.S. 115C‑238.51A reads as rewritten:
"§ 115C‑238.51A.  Approval process.
(a)	Joint Advisory Committee. – The State Board of Education and the applicable governing Board of the local board of trustees shall appoint a joint advisory committee to review the applications and to recommend approval for those applications that meet the requirements of this Part and achieve purposes set out in G.S. 115C‑238.50. The recommendation shall indicate whether additional funds were requested in the application.
(b)	No Additional Funds. – For applications which have not requested additional funds, the State Board of Education and the applicable governing Board may approve cooperative innovative high schools. In granting approval, consideration shall be given to the proposed budget and demonstration of sources of sustainable funding for the operation of the cooperative innovative high school. Approvals shall be made by June 30 of each year. No additional State funds, position allotments, earning of budget full‑time equivalent students, or payments of tuition shall be provided to cooperative innovative high schools approved under this subsection. A cooperative innovative high school approved as provided in this subsection may open at the beginning of the school year following approval or may open after a planning year.
(c)	Additional Funds. – For applications which have requested additional funds, the State Board of Education and the applicable governing Board may approve cooperative innovative high schools contingent upon appropriation of (i) the additional funds or (ii) funding for a planning year by the General Assembly. Contingent approval shall be made by April 1 of each year. The contingent approval shall expire if no appropriation is made by the General Assembly for the additional funds or planning year funding within one calendar year. No cooperative innovative high school shall open prior to the appropriation by the General Assembly of (i) the full amount of the additional funds as requested in the application for that school under G.S. 115C‑238.51 for the upcoming fiscal year or fiscal biennium or (ii) planning year funding, as appropriate. A cooperative innovative high school that is appropriated planning year funding as provided in this subsection shall open after a planning year. If no appropriation is made by the General Assembly, a revised application may be submitted under subsection (b) of this section."
SECTION 2.  There is appropriated from the General Fund to the Department of Public Instruction the sum of seven hundred fifty thousand dollars ($750,000) for the 2015‑2016 fiscal year to be allocated for planning year funding in the amount of seventy‑five thousand ($75,000) per approved cooperative innovative high school.
SECTION 3.  This act becomes effective July 1, 2015.