MECKLENBURG COUNTY, N.C. — It’s been almost two months since the start of the first school year under new Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Superintendent Crystal Hill.
Hill stepped into the district at a time when student achievement scores are just recovering from the impacts of the pandemic.
"We should always be in a cycle of continuous improvement, we should always be planning, we should do, we should study, we should act," Hill said.
In an exclusive one-on-one interview with WCNC Charlotte, Hill said the district is being more transparent and realistic with student data.
"On a regular basis, we're implementing some things we're reviewing to see the effectiveness, and then we're making changes as needed," Hill said.
Higher student achievement starts with great teachers.
"We need to stop using loose terms around the fact that we have a teacher retention crisis," Chase Howard, a CMS 11th grader at Palisades High School said. "We have a crisis."
WCNC Charlotte sat down with Chase Howard and Malachi Thompson, who both are part of Hill’s student advisory team.
CMS students are feeling the brunt of the teacher shortage, as the district struggles to fill more than 500 teaching positions. They say they see and feel the consequences of having long-term substitutes and guest teachers in positions where full-time teachers should be.
"I've had some of the best teachers in my life and they've been formative to my life as parents," Howard said. "When you invest in teachers, you invest in us all this."
The student leader gets to bring student concerns, like teacher shortages, right to the table for Hill to hear.
"A lot of students feel as though they're not getting the same education as their friends are getting in different states, like South Carolina and in all those in Maryland, etc.," Malachi Thompson, a senior at West Charlotte High School, said.
Thompson said he knows the root causes behind teacher shortages are complex, but decision-makers need to know its impacts are felt, and students notice.
"They want teachers who are qualified, who can teach them with an open heart with a loving heart," Thompson said. "So once we get teachers who love what they do, have a passion for what they do, then we can have students... who can produce great success in what they do in their futures."
Howard said his teachers deserve better pay and more resources from the state government.
"You're losing kids," Howard said. "And the first step is going to be investing in the people that we see every day to ensure that they can educate us the best and be everything they're supposed to be."
Hill said one of her strategies as superintendent is to empower students to help guide her decisions running the district. She is encouraging and seeking feedback from students like Howard and Thompson.
Contact Shamarria Morrison at smorrison@wcnc.com and follow her on Facebook, X and Instagram.