CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools is still awaiting a decision from district officials over whether it will accept a bid of $85,000 for clear backpacks it's working to get rid of.
The auction closed Monday night and the top bid came in well short of $100,000. The district spent over $440,000 on the clear backpacks, which were bought as a measure to prevent weapons from getting on school grounds. A district spokesperson said the decision to accept the bid would be made at the cabinet and superintendent level.
As of 11 a.m. Tuesday, no decision had been reached by CMS on selling the backpacks. CMS says if the backpacks aren't sold at that price, they can be put back under auction under different criteria.
District leaders opted to put the approximately 46,000 backpacks up for auction after it was discovered they came with a Proposition 65 cancer warning from the state of California.
Proposition 65 is a measure California passed in 1986 to get companies to replace toxic chemicals with safer ones. Under the law, businesses have to show warnings if their products have chemicals that can cause cancer, birth defects or other reproductive problems.
The auction listing states the manufacturer of the backpacks, A D Sutton said the Proposition 65 warning applies only to California and does not affect the other 49 states.
With clear backpacks out, body scanners are in, with CMS spending nearly $10 million for body scanners in its middle and high schools. Interim Superintendent Hugh Hattabaugh said middle schools will start seeing the scanners, which were installed at CMS high schools last school year, in the coming months.
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