CHARLOTTE, N.C. — As COVID relief funds continue to dissolve, leaders at Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools are making some changes in the budget.
"We are taking a very close look at what positions are needed that will have the biggest impact on students' achievements," CMS Superintendent Crystal Hill said.
More than 700 jobs are going away that were tied to COVID funding, but folks will have the option to continue their employment with a new title.
"The biggest issue is going to be the change that our people will experience," Hill said. "We will have essentially people that are in 768 positions that are doing a job today that they won't be doing in the future."
"We want to make sure we can maintain as many employees as possible because these employees are people," CMS board member Stephanie Sneed said.
“These are people, they have jobs, they have families, they have children in the district, so we want to support them so Dr. Hill and her staff are really working hard to do that,” CMS School Board Member Lisa Cline said.
Hill said they're hoping those in the dissolved positions will help fill the 990 vacancies they currently have.
"The goal is, when we start at the beginning of the school year, we will have a lot less teacher vacancies and will be able to have staff in front of students," Hill said.
The CMS school board said they are here to support the district while they keep learning goals at the forefront.
“We have such a tremendous learning loss right now,” Cline said. “So our focus has got to be on our children. I'm a firm believer that it's children or students, teachers, staff are the next that's why we're here.”
North Carolina Association of Educators’ President Tamika Walker Kelly said this is the reality for many schools.
“All of our school districts across the state are recognizing a fiscal cliff with the ending of the COVID federal relief dollars,” Walker Kelly said.
Walker Kelly said this money really helped schools fill the gaps they faced on campus.
“Here at CMS, there were guest teachers to fill in vacancies which our school districts are currently continuing to face,” said Walker Kelly. “We know many schools hired additional tutors for students, particularly in areas of reading, math, and other staffing positions.”
As schools figure out the next steps forward she said consistency in the classroom is important for student growth and learning. Keep in mind students won't see any changes until the next school year.
“We know that any interruption to those services could alter their academic trajectory,” Walker Kelly. “So we want to minimize those interruptions as much as possible.”
Walker Kelly points to a bigger issue the need for more money in the education system.
“It just underscores the critical fact that we need our North Carolina general assembly to think about how we continue to fund our schools,” she said.
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Hill said some of the COVID relief funding was also tied to bonuses.
Also in the meeting on Monday, officials voted to change the school calendar for the current school year.
The district will make March 5 an optional teacher workday. Students attending schools that follow the traditional school calendar will not have class on this day because many of the school buildings will be used as voting locations for the North Carolina state primary election.
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