CHARLOTTE, N.C. — It’s the first day of school at Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools and the district said it won’t start the year fully staffed.
Right now, there are more than 500 teaching positions short, which is a larger number than this time last year.
CMS superintendent Crystal Hill said the district has about 200 teachers already interviewed and waiting for background checks to be completed.
CMS said it should be filling these roles in the first few weeks of school. But the why behind why they have so many vacancies is complicated.
Education experts are clear students have the best academic outcomes with full-time, certified teachers in the classroom.
CMS is facing the same teacher staffing problem it had last year. But this isn’t a new problem post-pandemic, CMS’s Director of HR reports.
CMS said they do have a plan to make sure this shortage doesn’t impact students' learning.
"We've kind of collapsed some classes, not overloading the classes, but collapsing them," Jason Carson, CMS Chief School Performance Officer said. "So students can have an adult inside of that classroom. We've also used our guest teachers as well."
CMS is offering a $2,500 sign-on bonus and an extra 250 dollars a month after that to fill teaching positions.
Contact Shamarria Morrison at smorrison@wcnc.com and follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
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