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'We're as ready as we'll ever be' | CMS teachers will start school year amid staffing and salary challenges

On Flashpoint, a teacher and CMS board member discuss teacher shortages and pay raises.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Charlotte-Mecklenburg School students and staff went back to school Monday, Aug. 29. Teachers were greeted by a 4.2% average pay raise, passed last week by the CMS Board of Education.

"I think it's a fabulous start," Rhonda Cheek, CMS board member, said. "It was more than what we were really anticipating. So we're excited to give all of our staff more money, that they deserve."

Still, Cheek and others said it's not enough to keep and retain teachers.

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"A lot of our veteran teachers are still struggling because their pay raise is smaller," Cheek said. "The pay raise is heavily weighted at the earlier entry points for teachers and the newer teachers."

Longtime teachers like Justin Parmenter have watched colleagues leave for more lucrative positions outside of teaching.

"We've got people who are seeing, you know, greener grass on the other side of the fence and leaving," Parmenter said.

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Parmenter teaches 7th-grade English. He said he appreciates the raises county leaders passed, but hoped state leaders would step up further.

"The state, which provides the lion's share of education funding in North Carolina, has not been doing nearly enough to try to keep teachers in classrooms,' he said.

CMS starts the school year with hundreds of vacancies across all job types, from teachers to bus drivers.

"We still have almost 400, 370-plus teacher vacancies," Cheek said.

Flashpoint is a weekly in-depth look at politics in Charlotte, North Carolina, South Carolina, and beyond with host Ben Thompson. Listen to the podcast weekly.
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