UPDATE: As of Feb. 23, the NCDPI website now shows that Assistant Principal Jeriel Champion has an N.C. Educator license in the “School Administrator: Principal” category valid from July 1, 2022 to June 30, 2027.
Despite recent rumors, Principal Jesse Casey is in fact licensed to serve as East’s principal.
The misconception that Casey and Assistant Principal Jeriel Champion don’t have valid N.C. Educator licenses began circulating Feb. 19 because the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI) website did not show any license registered under their names.
However, as of Feb. 21, the website has been updated and currently shows that Casey does indeed have an administrative license valid until June 2025. Furthermore, the website shows that Casey’s license was effective as of July 1, 2022, his first day as East’s principal.
Before moving to Chapel Hill last year, Casey and Champion both had equivalent 10-year licenses to serve as administrators in Virginia, which still appear on the Virginia Department of Education website.
According to Casey, the issue which originally caused his license not to appear on the NCDPI website was not to do with the license, but rather with the state DPI itself, which is responsible for processing license applications.
“It’s pretty much out of my hands,” Casey said. “It’s in the DPI’s hands.”
HR consultant Dr. Marcie Holland, who previously worked as licensure specialist for the NCDPI and currently works with the CHCCS human resources office, explained the process.
“[Casey and Champion’s] documentation was reviewed at the time of hire, the district verified their eligibility for the license, employed them, assisted them on applying, and now… their licenses are starting to get issued,” Holland said.
Casey’s did take an unusually long time to be processed, and Champion’s still does not appear on the NCDPI website as of Feb. 21. According to Holland, this is due to an overwhelming backlog of applications that has reduced the efficiency of the DPI’s bureaucracy.
“Unfortunately, our [DPI] is woefully far behind in processing licenses,” Holland said. “They say eight to 12 weeks. In our experience, in some instances, it’s as many as 15 or 18 weeks once the application is submitted before it actually gets processed and the license gets issued.”
While Champion’s license has yet to be processed, Holland says she met all the qualifications for a license when she was hired, and under state law is allowed to work as an administrator while her license is pending.
Photo by Hammond Cole Sherouse & Helen Katz/The ECHO
