CHARLOTTE, N.C. — CMS Superintendent Clayton Wilcox has designated Wednesday, May 1, as an optional teacher workday for Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools.
Superintendent Wilcox has waived attendance requirements on May 1 for all students. No make-up day is needed or will be scheduled. These decisions were made in collaboration with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education.
The decision follows the rally teachers had planned for May 1 in Raleigh.
The North Carolina Association of Educators said their demands for this year's rally include a 5 percent raise for staff, increased minimum wage to 15 dollars an hour, expanded Medicaid, and more school psychologists and support staff.
Last year, the streets of Raleigh flooded with teachers pushing for better pay and funding. That rally drew an estimated 19,000 people, forcing 40 school districts to close.
Wilcox said “the powerful voices of educators change student lives every day in classrooms across our community. Together, their collective voice will change communities across our state on May 1 as they advocate for investments in public education that matter most to our students and their futures.”
“Teachers and educators in this district are taking their own personal-leave days to join their colleagues in Raleigh on May 1,” Dr. Wilcox said. “The current count of teacher and staff absences is nearing 2,000 total. We expect the number of our educators participating in the May 1 rally to increase as the day draws closer. The safety, security and quality of teaching and learning are top priorities for CMS because these are fundamental expectations shared by our community’s students, families and staff every day. At this time, we cannot guarantee sufficient substitute-teacher capacity to ensure these priorities and this decision is based on those considerations.”