New NC superintendent can suggest dismissing, reassigning dozens of senior staff

When Winston-Salem school board member and lawyer Mark Johnson becomes North Carolina's new state superintendent in January, he can suggest to the State Board of Education that certain senior level employees within the Department of Public Instruction be dismissed or reassigned.

Posted 10:00 a.m. Nov 21, 2016 — Updated 4:05 p.m. Nov 22, 2016

Kelly Hinchcliffe

RALEIGH, N.C. — Correction: After this story ran, the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction emailed WRAL News a corrected list showing how exempt positions within the department should have been categorized. The initial list WRAL ran on Monday was verified by DPI as accurate, but the department later deemed it to be incorrect. The corrected information is posted below.

It's unclear if he will do that, though. In an interview with WRAL News last week, Johnson said he hasn't thought about how he wants to handle staffing yet. He hopes to meet with outgoing State Superintendent June Atkinson, state school board members and other leaders within the department before sharing any plans.

A spokeswoman for DPI said "this kind of thing is routine in a state capitol during transition times." It primarily affects those who are in exempt policymaking and exempt managerial positions.

"This is just a part of holding one of these positions," spokeswoman Vanessa Jeter told WRAL News by email. "For example, four years ago, the governor's administration converted more than 1,000 positions to be exempt, so this is pretty routine."

"In most cases, except for those positions that either answer only to the state board or the superintendent, personnel decisions are made collaboratively between the superintendent and the board," Jeter added.

Under the State Personnel Act, the exempt positions within DPI are as follows:

Employees who can be dismissed with the approval of both the state superintendent and state board of education:

Deputy state superintendent

Chief of staff

Chief information officer

Chief academic & digital learning officer

Chief financial officer

Achievement School District superintendent (position has not been filled yet)

Director, communication & information services

Director, office of charter schools

Director, human resources

Employees who report solely to the state board of education (and without superintendent involvement):

Executive director, State Board of Education

Director, State Board of Education operations

Employees who can be dismissed solely by the state superintendent for any reason:

Special assistant/correspondence

Senior policy advisor

Special assistant/scheduler (current employee holds priority reemployment rights)

Employees who can be dismissed by the state superintendent, but also subject to board review:

Legislative affairs program director

Director, career & technical education

Director, exceptional children

Director, NC School for the Deaf

Director, educator effectiveness

Director, digital learning

Director, curriculum & instruction

Director, financial services

Employees who can be dismissed by the state superintendent, and subject to board review, but who have "one-time" priority reemployment rights, meaning they have priority over external candidates for a vacant state government position for a period of 12 months or until satisfied – equal to the same grade at their most recent position:

Director, NC Virtual Public School

Director, Residential Schools

Director, federal program monitoring

Director, testing & accountability

Director, school support

Director, office of early learning

Employees who can be dismissed from their current position, subject to board review, but who have "mandatory" reemployment rights within DPI, meaning they have a mandated right to a job at the same grade and salary as their most recent position, including all legislated salary increases.

Director, data, research & federal policy

Director, technology services/assistant CIO

Director, school business

Suggest A Correction