Retired CMS teacher proud to be ‘a part of that success’ for Title I students
Sophie Holland’s former classroom has six filing cabinets and a board she kept decorated for its new teacher. But when she taught there, Holland filled those cabinets with snacks, clothes, feminine products and school supplies for her students who often called her “grandma” or “auntie.”
Earlier this month, with a hand on her cane and a smile on her face, Holland returned to the classroom she taught in for 17 years. She reflected on all that she’d done there and all the lives she changed.
Holland, 65, retired July 1 after more than four decades of teaching, including 20 years at Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School in the Hidden Vally neighborhood, located northeast of Charlotte’s uptown.
“Last year, I had two students whose parents I taught here. I was like, OK, it's time to retire,” Holland said with a laugh during an interview with The Charlotte Observer.
Of all her teaching experiences, including working at national Blue Ribbon Schools and in schools outside North Carolina, working at Title I schools had been the most challenging, but also the most rewarding.
Holland said to be effective she needed to win the trust of those students so they would feel comfortable going to her for help.
“When kids know that you care then that’s when they’ll kick in,” she said. “They are very perceptive. Kids know when you really don’t care and they respond accordingly.”
The majority of her time at MLK, through the Careers and Technical Education program, she prepared middle schoolers for their future careers. Her main goal was to ensure students could connect what they were interested into a career field. There are options kids don’t know exist, she said.
“The school is losing one of the best that they’ve ever had,” Babette Schuler, 64, a sixth grade language arts teacher said. “It is sad, but it is going to be a moment where we take what she has done and we will move forward with what she taught us.”
Title I schools
Holland showed her heart to students by building relationships with them and by collecting the supplies she kept in her cabinets.
“A lot of times the kids would be shy about going to the administration, but they knew me,” Holland said.
MLK Middle is one of 103 Title I schools identified for the 2025-2026 school year in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools. Title I provides financial assistance to schools with a high proportion of children from low-income families through federal funding.
Services can include hiring teachers, tutoring, buying equipment, materials and supplies, parent and family engagement opportunities, professional development, and pre-kindergarten programs, according to CMS.
Schools with this designation have at least 75% of students who qualify for free lunch under the Community Eligibility Provision.
While teaching at MLK and her previous school, Highland Renaissance Academy, Holland made monthly visits to Classroom Central. This organization’s mission is to create equity in education by providing free supplies for those who teach at schools where 50% or more students receive free or reduced lunch. The organization assists teachers in six North Carolina districts.
Before working at these two Title I schools, Holland worked at National Blue Ribbon schools recognized for academic excellence. She noticed big differences in the students’ needs for extra resources along with parent activity.
“It was different, Blue Ribbon schools,” she said. “Your parents were a lot more active, a lot more involved. The PTA was more involved. You don’t really get that at Title I, unfortunately, as much as you’d like.”
MLK Middle School
Holland began working at MLK when the school opened in 2005.
Over the two decades she taught, Holland saw its peaks and valleys.
Holland remembers the years when every eighth grader had earned high school algebra, technology and foreign language credits.
She also recalls the year the school scored second lowest in the district for End-of-Grade Tests.
Holland had students she taught from elementary school at the academy through 8th grade. The ability to teach kids throughout the years made the students feel like family, she said. This is one of the reasons they felt comfortable going to her when they were hungry or in need of clean uniforms.
She began teaching Careers and Technical Education at MLK after teaching math and science for three years. By teaching CTE, she was able to be paid for the master’s degree she earned in 1993 at Strayer University in Virginia, Holland said.
While her classroom always had books, Holland taught her students career-readiness skills such as how to make a resume, interview practice and how to complete job applications. She exposed her students to career options with job fairs and presentations.
“I will always tell my kids if you don’t like what’s happening in your life right now, let me tell you that education is your way out. And if you get these skills, you’re going to be able to choose what you want to do when you get older.”
Holland says she was a firm but fair teacher. Students knew they couldn’t act out in her class, she said, but they always wanted to be there.
Holland has noticed the shift over the years moving away from reading to technology. It’s one reason why each day her students came to class they would see: “Read, Write, Think and then Speak” on her board.
The students would read the plans for the day, write a positive affirmation, think and then had time to discuss with each other for three minutes before class began.
Holland taught children how to handle pressure in the form of tests and peer pressure, Schuler said
“She has worked tremendously hard here in creating the environment that we have, creating the behaviors that we have,” Schuler said. “She’s just that teacher that never stops.”
To carry on Holland’s legacy, Schuler said she will continue to care and guide by talking and listening to students one on one.
Success stories
Former students of Holland have graduated from college, started businesses and joined the military, Holland said. Some have returned to the school for long-term substitute positions. One past student now works at the front desk and coached the girls soccer and volleyball teams.
“We’ve had a lot of success stories come out of MLK,” Holland said. “People don’t realize it because you just hear a lot of negativity about the gangs in the neighborhood and things of that nature.”
Three of her students, siblings, who were part of the golf team at the middle school went on to receive golf scholarships for college.
“It feels good to have been a part of that success — those success stories,” she said. “And to see them and to see how well they’re doing.”
Giving back in her students went well beyond the school day, Holland said.
Holland is also part of an intercessory prayer group made up of staff who pray over the school each morning. She started the school’s first Girl Scout troop and dedicated hours to cookie sales and field trips. Holland also started a chess club and she tutored students.
Once there was a set of sixth grade twins who lived in the same apartment complex as Holland. They lived with their mother and their older sister. Holland brought them home after school and tutored them.
The last two years Holland taught were physically challenging, she said. She had developed arthritis in her knees and began caring for her mother who had dementia and died last year.
What kept her going was a strong team —the elective team at MLK. Her colleagues offered to get her food, watch her kids when she needed a break or help with her mother when she needed a breath.
When educators and administrators work together the kids perform better, Holland said.
A lifetime teaching
Holland says her first student, when she herself was only 11, was a niece. But when she was 13, Holland began teaching more regularly at Sunday school in her hometown, Buffalo, New York.
She also tutored in high school. After college, her first teaching job was at a high school in Alexandria, Virginia.
While she answered her calling to teach for most of her life, Holland also used the bachelor’s in accounting she earned from Voorhees University in South Carolina. She worked for the military as a civilian accountant. Even during this time, Holland taught adult literacy classes in the evenings.
Holland also was a director of financial services at Benedict College, a historically Black college in Columbia, South Carolina. Here, she found her reason to give back to children. She discovered some students couldn’t read or alphabetize files, so she decided to teach full time. “I thought, how did they get here? How does this happen?” she said. Holland took a substantial pay cut when she shifted to education, she said, but there's no comparison to the benefit of her work. It’s a decision she has never regretted.
In retirement, Holland plans to stay involved at the school while also taking the time to travel and watch TV shows she didn’t have time for previously. She will be at MLK to help with testing and plans to volunteer at the school’s food bank.
“I’m always praying that there would be educators and support staff that’s really just committed to the success of our kids in this community because sometimes it feels like they’re forgotten,” she said.
This story was originally published August 12, 2025 at 5:30 AM.
