Name: Full interview: NC schools chief discusses pandemic, reflects on tenure, political future
Uploaded: 2020-12-09T18:00:00-0500
Duration: 459760
Description: North Carolina Superintendent of Public Instruction Mark Johnson says steps must be taken to avoid a "COVID generation" of students and discusses his four years in office and his political future.

We’re also following the flight delays and tomorrow’s impacts after a plane crash at RDU. Plus, Only on WRAL, why a high school student is not allowed to participate in one of the most important events of his life.. and how he and his family are fighting for him to graduate. Watch WRAL-TV at 11 p.m., and search for these and other stories on WRAL.com.

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North Carolina Superintendent of Public Instruction Mark Johnson says steps must be taken to avoid a "COVID generation" of students and discusses his four years in office and his political future.

Mark Johnson is closing out his term as the state's top educator, the outgoing state superintendent joining me now to talk about the state of schools in North Carolina as he prepares to hand off the baton to the newly elected superintendent, Catherine Truitt, the fellow Republican superintendent. Thanks for talking with us. Thank you for having may looking back over the past nine months in particular. Then we'll look at the last four years. But in those nine months, what might you have done differently? Well, we can always look back with hindsight and, ironically, 2020 vision. But I'm very proud of my team. I'm very proud of the local leaders who have done so much for students. I'm very proud that we pushed for in the summer and all virtual option for students, and the governor did end up adopting that. So we gave that option for all students to be virtual if they want to be. What I would have liked to have seen. I was vocal about this over the summer. I would have liked to have seen any student and family who were comfortable going back to school. I would have liked to have seen them all have the opportunity to go back to school. My daughter is in her second grade classroom right now at school. She's wearing a mask, she's saying, staying socially distant, but it's the right thing for her. She needs to be in that classroom. Are you comfortable with more students returning in January in light of the surge we're seeing now? Yes, because the health data shows that sending kids to school and following these proper protocols that we have been talking about since the beginning of this pandemic we're not spreading cove it through those students and the learning loss is just going to be very worrisome. We're already starting to see signs of it. I'm very concerned for not just our state and nation, but for our youngest students, who if we don't do something very quickly for them, they may go down in history. As the Covic generation, we've got to make sure that we take the right steps and the most important people in that decision are gonna be parents. I implore all parents if you are concerned that your student is slipping and you see it, really think hard about what you want for your student next year. It might be worthwhile to have your student repeat some of the same materials. And that is why we're pushing for more personalized learning that will allow us to meet students where they are and help them get back at their own pace. Mark, I presume you have talked and spoken with Catherine. True it. What should she be focused on now and then? Beyond the pandemic right now is exactly what we just talked about, and that's the learning loss. I'm very concerned that it's a tsunami that is waiting out and we see it. We see it out in the distance. We know it's coming, and when it hits, it's going to affect especially our most vulnerable Children. So I'm very excited to hand this off to Catherine Truitt, another Republican. She is also a firm believer in the power of personalized learning. I would encourage her to keep up the progress we've made with personalized learning, meet students at their ability, help them learn at their own pace. It's very exciting on then, going forward beyond the pandemic. Uh, it's been a fight these last four years. Everyone knows that I've been in a fight. Uh, but that fight resulted in hiring some great people for the Department of Public Instruction. I would encourage her thio, keep those people on her team what she's already said she's doing on. Listen to them. They're truly in it for the right reasons. They're here to help students and educators on I'm excited that even though I won't be in the department public instruction, my leadership team still will be. Let's talk a little bit about that fight if we can. The past four years, when you came into office, you were up against, quite honestly, a long entrenched Democratic regime running the Department of Public Instruction. From Day one, folks were against you. How much did that impact the relationship between D. P I and the Board of Education? It drove the entire relationship. You have to remember I won in 2016 before I even took the oath of office in January of 2017, State board was already suing me to stop me from making the changes. I said I would do a state superintendent, uh, reducing testing, getting more money out of Raleigh, into classrooms. All these things I had to fight for, and I was not going to just go along to get along and you saw that play out over the last four years. It was a strange relationship. I did go to court with the state board suing me. We prevailed in that lawsuit, and many of those board members quit after they quit. We got new board members who were more willing toe work together, and we've done a lot of good things. But it is true that even with this Democrat controlled state board there, 95% of the items we can agree on its those 5% that we disagree on that definitely get the most headlines mark very quickly. What was the best thing about the job for you in these four years traveling the state and getting out of Raleigh? And instead of saying, you know, I'm from the government, I'm here to help saying, I'm the state superintendent. I work in Raleigh, but I'm here to listen and taking those concerns back from the classroom and actually being able to implement policies and changes that really did help the state of education in North Carolina. Before cove it, we were turning around negative trends. We had less students dropping out. We had less teachers leaving the profession. We've been testing less and less switching to personalized learning. And now, with the federal funds that came with co vid and so many students having their own devices. Because of that, it's a silver lining on this terrible pandemic that will be able to push that even mawr into the future. Mr. Superintendent, you're a young man. You know what it feels like to run and when you also know what it feels like to run and not when are we going to see you on the battle again? Soon. I'm very excited about my next steps. I'll be going back into the private sector toe work with some startups. Very exciting work to actually help improve government from the outside. Uh, but I'd be lying if I say that there is probably no chance that you'll see me in 2024. Uh, there's definitely a chance You'll see my name on the ballot. 2024. Uh, if you'd like to announce now, we'll give you a platform to give us an idea of which office? No, no, no idea. in the office yet, but I I definitely I'm a fan of the executive branch because that's where you can get in, roll up your sleeves and you see the most change the fastest. So 2024 might have my name on the ballot. Well, that does narrow it from the judicial and the legislative. We'll focus on the executive. North Carolina's outgoing state superintendent of public instruction, Mark Johnson. Thank you for your time today. Thank you for your four years of service. Best to you and your family in these holidays and beyond. Thank you, David. Happy holidays and Merry Christmas. Thanks.

David Crabtree

Matthew Burns

Full interview: NC schools chief discusses pandemic, reflects on tenure, political future

Full interview: NC schools chief discusses pandemic, reflects on tenure

Department of Public Instruction,Mark Johnson,coronavirus,coronavirus learning,education

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Get the latest WRAL WeatherCenter Forecast whenever you need it, including the DUALDoppler5000 and the 7-Day Forecast.

I'm meteorologist K Campbell in the wr a severe weather center. It's been a warm spring so far. In fact, when you look at the spring to date numbers, it's actually the second warmest on record at RDU running about 4.5 degrees above normal and for rainfall about an inch and a half below normal. And we really need some rain. You know, it's been a pretty dry April so far we've seen less than an inch inch of rain this month tomorrow. It's a nice dry day for us, but I, you know, at least it's gonna be a nice day, right? 72 in the Triangle, as well as Siler City in Wilson. 70 in Rocky Mount. 67 though in Roxboro and 67 for Roanoke Rapids, a little cooler to the north. 76 degrees in Fayetteville, 73 Goldsboro in Smithfield and 75 in Southern Pines. It is going to be a little bit cooler in the morning because cold front moved through 50 degrees for the low in the triangle, right around 7 a.m. by 10 a.m. We're in the upper fifties, lunchtime, mid sixties and then in the lower seventies during the afternoon, dinner time, temperatures dip back into the upper sixties. A cold front passed earlier this evening and behind it, we are going to be drying out but cooling down briefly. It's not a huge drop in temperatures, but we will see this dip in the jet stream delivering some cooler air. We start to see a reversal of the jet stream flow and that changes really on Sunday with a warming southwest wind at the surface and at the jet stream level, that's going to drive temperatures up to 80 beginning on Sunday and the eighties will last into next week with a strengthening ridge of high pressure. So we expect a big climb in temperatures just throughout the course of the weekend, 48 degrees Friday morning, but back up to 80 by Sunday afternoon and then much warmer weather is on the way for next week. We're looking at seventies for the next few days with mostly cloudy skies for the weekend days. The sun's back out though next Monday and with a warming wind, we're back in the upper eighties three days in a row all the way up to 89 on Tuesday. Tuesday might be the 1st 90 degree day of the year for parts of North Carolina.

WRAL WeatherCenter Forecast

Nightly N.C. Education Lottery drawings during the 11 p.m. News.

Good evening. I'm Gayle Hurd. Welcome to tonight's drawings for Wednesday, April 24th, 2024. Well, let's get started tonight with our Carolina pick three. Our first winning number is a seven. Our second number is six and the third number tonight is a nine and our pick three. Fireball number is six. Joining me for tonight's show is our auditor from mcconnell and Jones L LP. Now let's move to the Carolina pick four. Good luck. Everyone who's that first winning pick four number, it's zero. Our second number is a nine. Third number tonight is three and our fourth number is one in our pick for fireball number. There it is. It's three. Again, we're turning now to the Carolina cash five and no one was the top prize tonight. Tomorrow's top prize is estimated at $620,000. Good luck. Everyone here's their first win in cash five number. It's a 29. Our second number, it's 37 3rd number tonight. It's 34. Our fourth number is lucky 13 and the final number in our cash five this evening is 12. The North Carolina Education lottery has contributed over $10 billion to education. Get your winning numbers right here every night on your exclusive station for the North Carolina Education lottery. Thanks for playing. Have a great night.

Evening Pick 3 Pick 4 and Cash 5

Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday Powerball drawings, as shown live on WRAL.

Ball. Good evening, Ruan, I Randy trainer. Tonight. We have another life changing jackpot. It's worth an estimated $130.2 million. So, get your tickets ready here. Come, tonight's winning numbers. Let's start things off this evening with the number 26. Right after that America. We have the number two and congratulations to Gina Magnum from North Carolina. She won $50,000 playing powerball. All right, the rest of your winning numbers tonight 20 47. And let's round it out tonight with the number 22 and tonight 20 powerball number, that's gonna be 21 and your power play multiplayer is four. Let's take another look at tonight's winning numbers. We'll see you back here on Saturday night. It's time to play America's favorite.

Powerball Drawing

Daytime Pick 3 and Pick 4 drawings are held at 3 p.m. daily. They can be seen as live or on-demand video.

Good afternoon. I'm Luis Fernandez. Welcome to this afternoon's drawings for Wednesday, April 24th, 2024. Let's get started with Carolina pick three. The first pick three number is two, second is eight and the third is eight and our pick three fireball number is five. Join me for this afternoon's drawing is our auditor for mcconnell LP. Now let's move to Carolina pick four. The first pick four, number is five. The second is one, the third is three and the fourth is zero and our pick four. Fireball number is five. The North Carolina Education lottery has contributed over $10 billion to education and thanks for your support.

Daytime Pick 3 and Pick 4 Drawing

Brian Shrader flies over the site of a plane crash at Raleigh-Durham International Airport approximately three hours after the accident.

Seen some activity just in the past 10 minutes or so. I want to take you outside Sky five right now for a live look at the scene. We saw a van being escorted to the runway there and someone got out and now there appears to be a really careful inspection of the debris going on. So we're working to confirm if that may be the NTSB investigation team arriving at the scene. Let's zoom out and give you some about where this is. There are two main runways at RDU International and this is in the grassy field next to the runway that mostly serves terminal one on the east side of the airport, that runway remains closed while this investigation continues at the top of your screen. That is the other main runway that serves terminal two, mostly that runway is open. So we have two things going on here that could affect your flights for the rest of the day and maybe even into tomorrow, the airport takeoff and landing capacity is roughly reduced by half because they are only working with one runway. And if you have a flight coming out of terminal one, maybe Southwest, you're going to have to take that crossover all the way out to that other runway. It's going to add a lot of extra time.

Sky 5 flies over RDU plane crash 3 hours later 

A UNC Health physician and pilot were taken to the hospital Wednesday after a small plane crashed at Raleigh-Durham International Airport (RDU).


Sky 5 flies over plane crash at RDU

RDU Airport Authority gives an update on a plane crash that sent a physician and pilot to the hospital. The crash occurred Wednesday morning on a flight that took off from Wilmington.

<p>Landguth first, I want to extend my thoughts to those affected by this morning's aircraft accident and thank our first responders for their quick action to respond. The airport authority and its mutual aid partners responded to an aircraft accident at RDU involving a general aviation aircraft. The accident occurred at approximately 10:10 a.m. in the grass next to runway five, right 23 left. The flight was arriving from Wilmington, North Carolina. The A the aircraft is owned by medical Air Inc and operated by UN C air operations. The aircraft had two people on board, one pilot and one passenger. Both were transported to area hospitals. The federal A Bush administration issued a ground stop that was lifted at approximately 1130 this morning. The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board have both been notified. The National Transportation Safety Board is en route and expected to arrive within the next hour at which time we will conduct an accident investigation. Rdu's runway five left 23 right reopened to departing and arriving aircraft around 11:30 a.m. this morning. Are you experiencing approximately 70 delays and several arriving flights were diverted to other airports? Until ground stock was lifted, travelers should contact their airline for the latest updates regarding the flight status. And of course questions about the identity and condition of the pilot and passenger should be directed to UN C health. And at this time I'll try to answer any questions. You may have, uh, the one, any other accidents in, in the past. I'm not familiar with any other accidents have occurred with that operation. I don't know, uh, that's the role of the National Transportation Safety Board. They'll actually come in and do the investigation. Uh, and at some point in the future, they write up a report and determine what the cause of the accident was. You know, that there was no notification to the airport authority or to the FAA uh about any type of emergency on board. Do we have a guy? We don't, all we know that we've got them out of the airplane and we've got them transported to local hospitals. We know situations like this and delays have a ripple effect on, you know, flights. Do you have any idea what type of impact we'll see here in our view and for not sure, but what we're going to encourage everybody to do is reach out to your airlines. We'll be able to give you real time information about the impact of your particular flight. Ok. I believe some of them went to Greensboro and I think a couple went to Charlotte as well. What, what to be impacted due to the NTSD. Say that one more time at this point in time, what we call the west side of our airport is now open the investigation they'll conduct will all be on the east side. So at this point, we are anticipating normal operations returning to normal operations from this point forward. I don't think that anything that they're doing regarding the investigation or where they would have to investigate would have any impact to the west side of the airport. No, the aircraft is still on the airfield itself. It's on the east side of the field. So terminal one that runways the east side of the field, that's where the debris field actually sits, the west side of the field is open and operational and safe to operate. Not that I'm aware of in operations for you throughout this event today. What was your main concern concerning the passengers that were in the internals? Right. I think our primary focus when, when that accident occurred were the two people sitting in that aircraft? Our primary mission is to make sure we can get to them and try to rescue them and try to make sure that we can get them in a safe condition as fast as we possibly can. Uh secondarily is trying to figure out then how we recover and get our operations back up and running. Mhm. How does that affect? What goes on term? Yeah, so great. Question. So the team has figured out a way to get all the aircraft they're gonna operate at terminal one. Your Southwest develops. Uh We've got a crossover taxi way that we can actually get them through our general aviation aircraft. We've got a crossover taxiway, we can get them to. But the rest of the uh accident scene is actually kind of isolated and closed and locked off. Yeah, you're terminal one at this point in time. Once they can get back on their schedule, it's going to be a normal operations. All right. Thank you guys. All right. Thank you. Grab your phone, right.</p>

Full interview: NC schools chief discusses pandemic, reflects on tenure, political future

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