MECKLENBURG COUNTY, N.C. — Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools started its first full week of classes with almost 500 fewer teachers than it needed.
The district said these vacancies are spread out across schools, but they are impacting how everyone is doing their jobs.
Some classroom sizes are larger, schools are bringing in more long-time subs, and guest teachers to take over these classrooms without a teacher.
While shortages are being worked on to get filled first-year teachers are also getting settled in.
"Today, they made friends really quickly, which I am super proud of because I was a little worried about that," Andrea Guerrero, a first-year kindergarten teacher at Olde Providence Elementary, said. "But it has been nice having them all in here."
Just like these students are learning how to be in a classroom, so is she.
"I did my student teaching here last year," Guerrero said. "So it was very scary last year because I knew no one from this school."
Now Guerrero is one of hundreds of new CMS teachers this year.
"Now that I know everyone, I was more than happy to stay at school I know," Guerrero said.
Recruiting teachers like Guerrero has become more challenging over the years.
"When I was out at one of our elementary schools earlier this week, we went down to a third-grade classroom that school has three classroom teachers that should be assigned, however, they had one vacancy," CMS Superintendent Crystal Hill said at an end-of-week press briefing.
Hill said the third-grade classroom she observed this week had about 28 students in there.
North Carolina recommends one teacher per 17 students.
"The principal very wisely assigned additional teacher assistants to that class, the class was working like clockwork, and it was the second day of school and they were already deeply entrenched into the curriculum," Hill said.
It’s just one example of how schools have had to pivot.
All this while teachers like Guerrero continue to navigate their first years at the head of a classroom.
CMS said they still have some tentative hires. Some are doing background checks others are doing fingerprinting. But as teachers are hired, the same if not more are leaving -- and the district has a challenging balancing act ahead of it.
“As I’ve promised our community, as I’ve promised our parents, we are committing to ensuring that every student has an excellent educational experience despite the number of vacancies," Hill said.
While the district deals with its hundreds of vacancies, it also saw some transportation issues with students getting home after dark.
The loudest complaints about the first week have come from parents whose kids are now taking express bus stops to magnet schools.
"I understand that it's been painful and understand the reasoning," Hill said. "You know why so many parents are upset."
Hill said the alternative to not doing express stops would mean that we would go from 32 bus vacancies to about 200.
The first week also some overcrowding on school buses and air conditioning going out in buildings.
"We're at the point where we're addressing the one-off classroom that doesn't have air or the three classrooms in a hallway," Brian Schultz, CMS's Chief Operating Officer, said.
CMS said as issues come up, they’ll be ready to fix them.
Another low note for the district was the CMS International Center being treated for fleas. The International Center is the district's hub for the enrollment needs of families from international locations. They said the work is ongoing to get the fleas out of the building.
A positive note for the district was there were no reports of guns on campus. This is a direct contrast to the last two school years when CMS broke records for guns found on campus.
"We've done preventive maintenance on all of our weapons detection systems," Schultz said. "So we work closely with a vendor to make sure that they're working properly, and they're up and going the first day of school."
Contact Shamarria Morrison at smorrison@wcnc.com and follow her on Facebook, X and Instagram.
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