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CMS Board approves proposed budget, interim superintendent outlines priorities

If approved by Mecklenburg County Commissioners, the proposal would provide a pay raise for teachers.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The budget proposal approved by the Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools Board of Education Tuesday includes an average salary increase of up to 2.7% for teachers, assistant principals, and other certified staff. It also proposes a 10% increase for the local teacher supplement. 

The budget, which was originally organized under the leadership of former CMS Superintendent Earnest Winston, must now be approved by Mecklenburg County Commissioners. The meeting was the first for interim Superintendent Hugh Hattabaugh who began work Monday.

A new teacher with a bachelor's degree currently gets paid more than $41,000 a year at CMS. If the proposal passes, that same teacher would get more than $43,000. 

The National Education Association (NEA) released new reports Tuesday on educator pay nationwide. 

"We know that increasing educator pay is one way to retain our good and qualified educators in the profession, but also to recruit new people to the profession here in North Carolina," said Tamika Walker Kelly, the president of the North Carolina Association of Educators.

According to NEA, North Carolina is ranked 38th in the nation for average teacher salary. CMS’ current average teacher salary is just over $56,000 a year. The NEA said that salary is still more than $9,000 behind the NEA’s nationwide estimated average for K-12 teacher salaries. 

The district is ranked 45th for the average starting salary of a new teacher, according to the NEA. The average pay for those staffers is $37,127.

"It is really important that our lawmakers make a concerted and intentional effort to really reward our educators for their time in the classroom, their experience, [and] the work that they do with our students," Kelly said. "By being professionally paid, by making sure that their salary matches those across the different fields in our state."

RELATED: 'A man of high integrity' | CMS welcomes interim Superintendent Hugh Hattabaugh back on campus Monday

The board knows teacher retention is a big concern for a district that saw more than a thousand employees leave or retire since the start of the school year. They say the goal is to make the jobs as appealing as possible.

WCNC Charlotte is always asking "where's the money?" If you need help, reach out to WCNC Charlotte by emailing money@wcnc.com.

"As we go through this, clearly, pay is a significant component of evaluating whether people are going to take positions, stay in positions," Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools Board of Education representative for District 6 Sean Strain said last month.

RELATED: The CMS Board has given itself no more than a year to find a permanent superintendent to lead the district. Here's how the search could unfold

Hattabaugh's Top Priorities

CMS Interim Superintendent Hugh Hattabaugh said he needs to catch up quickly to get the district on track. 

“I will not be a superintendent doing a 100-day entry plan with a listening and learning tour and hearing the dialogue," Hattabaugh said. 

He made it clear his number one priority was increasing CMS’s low test scores. 

“The governance model is student outcomes-focused and is the driving force to produce increased student academic achievement," Hattabaugh said. "The intent of the model is to ensure essential resources are driven rapidly to the students and schools in greatest need to decrease the achievement gap for our minority students and students in poverty." 

Before he took the job, he said he asked the board a critical question. 

“'Will I have authority to recommend changes and key personnel that affects student outcomes?'" Hattabaugh recalled. "The answer was yes."

Speaking after the meeting Tuesday, Hattabaugh said staff in schools are ready to move in his direction. 

"They'd already been discussing in-house how to build out more learning communities to get the resources to our students and greatest need," Hattabaugh said. "They already have programs in place."

Contact Shamarria Morrison at smorrison@wcnc.com and follow her on FacebookTwitter and Instagram. 

Contact Richard DeVayne at rdevayne@wcnc.com and follow him on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Contact Kendall Morris at kmorris2@wcnc.com and follow her on FacebookTwitter and Instagram. 

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