CHARLOTTE, N.C. — When asked what she was looking forward to most this school year, Crystal Hill, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools superintendent, had a pretty simple answer.
“I'm most excited about welcoming all of our students and our teachers back to school.”
Hill is starting her second year in charge of North Carolina's second-largest school district. CMS welcomed more than 140,000 students to school on Monday.
New Charlotte schools
To help with a growing community, CMS opened three new schools this year.
“We're really excited that we're wrapping up our 2017 bond, actually, with the opening of two brand new schools: Knights View Elementary School and Ballantyne Ridge High School. And then we also have the new Bruns Academy,” said Hill.
Teacher staffing shortage
But a new school year doesn’t come without old concerns. One of those repeated concerns is continued teacher vacancies. While the district is welcoming 600 new teachers this year, they are starting the school year with about 300 teacher vacancies. District leaders said every educator is prepared to step in to fill those gaps.
"Our schools will leverage several different options. We have alternate staffing options, where for example, a master teacher might combine for a portion of the day two classrooms," Nancy Brightwell, CMS' Chief of Recruitment, Retention and Talent Development, said.
One reason for the vacancies is teacher pay. An issue not unique to CMS, but one Hill and the CMS school board will continue to fight for.
RELATED: CMS leaders pushing NC lawmakers for bigger increase in teacher pay to adjust for inflation
“I think it's really important that everyone understands how teachers are paid. In North Carolina, the vast majority of their base pay comes from our state legislatures, and so they're actually the ones that set the base pay," said Hill. "And our school board's done a really good job advocating for teacher pay and really trying to gain support across the entire state."
While CMS doesn't have much say in pay, they are working to help teachers with other benefits.
“We hosted a housing summit last spring where we had over 500 educators come, and we were able to connect them with mortgage providers and really start helping them understand that they do have a path to homeownership,” said Hill.
School bus driver shortage
Another vacancy the district is working through is bus drivers. The district is transporting 6,000 more riders this year, bringing the total amount of riders to 104,000 students. 839 buses were expected to be on the road on the first day of school.
While some parents are worried there won't be enough bus drivers to get their kids to school, Hill said the district will make sure it happens.
“We will do what we need to do to get their students to school and get them home on time and safely," she said.
Artificial intelligence
A new concern this school year is how Artificial intelligence. AI will change the way students learn. Hill said educators here in Charlotte have been preparing.
“We've done a lot of education with our leaders in terms of understanding AI, understanding the potential, how it can be a benefit to us as educators as well to our students,” adding “So really working with students so they understand how to research, how to vet sources, how do they can tell the difference between what is actual facts and what is not.”
Contact Sarah French at Sarah@wcnc.com and follow her on Facebook, X and Instagram.
