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Superintendent urges state fixes after statewide testing platform failure; board declines formal endorsement
Summary
After an online testing platform failure that disrupted exams for tens of thousands of North Carolina students, New Hanover County Schools Superintendent Charles Barnes wrote to the state superintendent asking that impacted districts not be penalized; the school board discussed and declined to formally endorse the letter.
New Hanover County Schools Superintendent Charles Barnes wrote to state education leaders after a statewide testing platform failed during end-of-grade exams, disrupting testing for large numbers of students and forcing the district to suspend tests for the day.
Barnes told the school board that the platform failure on the morning of May 28 interrupted exams while students in grades 3–8 were testing, and that the district suspended testing because “our students deserve a calm, focused environment to demonstrate what they’ve learned.” He said restoring testing the next day required staff to issue more than 7,200 individual test tickets, a massive manual effort by the testing department.
In his letter to the state superintendent, Barnes asked that impacted districts be protected from penalties in school performance grades and that educators not be penalized in bonus and growth calculations, that additional resources be provided for makeup testing, and that the state improve transparency to restore confidence in the system. At the board meeting he described the district’s response as prioritizing students’ well‑being and commended testing staff for overnight work to reinstate tests.
Board members debated whether the board should formally endorse Barnes’s letter. Several members praised Barnes’s decision to halt testing and to prioritize students’ well‑being; others said they wanted time to review the letter and potential next steps. A motion to endorse the letter as written was brought to the dais and did not pass. The transcript shows board members asked for additional accountability from the state and for clearer local authority to respond to testing disruptions.
Barnes and several board members also urged families to contact state legislators and the Department of Public Instruction to press for changes in statewide testing procedures and funding that reduce reliance on single electronic platforms and better protect students and schools from future technical failures.
The district did not announce any changes to testing schedules beyond the immediate make‑up work mentioned in Barnes’s letter; Barnes said staff would continue pursuing remedies with the state and requested resources to help with make‑ups.
Board members emphasized they had seen the superintendent’s letter during the packet review period and that staff had acted rapidly during the incident. Several public commenters praised the superintendent’s decision to suspend testing and urged the board and state to change testing policies to avoid similar disruptions. The board did not adopt any new policy at the meeting; members asked for ongoing updates about state responses and any guidance the Department of Public Instruction provides.
Barnes’s letter and the district’s follow‑up actions remain the primary public record of the district’s formal requests to the state; the board requested continued updates and said members would consider further steps if the state’s response was insufficient.
