Superintendent Ann Clark says CMS is pleased with state budget deal

Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools Superintendent Ann Clark said the school system is pleased to have the clarity from a state budget approved Friday, along with funding for teacher assistants and money for driver’s education.

“We have a budget; we have clarity,” she said at a news conference where she discussed the impact to CMS.

School districts across the state have been in limbo as a result of delays in the General Assembly passing a budget. Gov. Pat McCrory signed the budget Friday.

Clark also said she is encouraged the starting annual salary for teachers is now $35,000, up from $31,000 two years ago.

She said that increase is “significant progress” and a “huge step.”

“But there is still more work to be done,” she said.

Teachers who do not get a step increase or other pay increase are eligible for the $750 bonus that state employees will receive.

Clark also said the school system will begin scheduling driver’s education classes as soon as it can now that the state has restored funding for that program. Losing state funding would have cost CMS $2.6 million to pay for driver’s ed, an expense the school system said it couldn’t afford.

Clark said CMS is disappointed that the state didn’t give school districts flexibility in using teacher assistant money for other purposes.

She said some schools might have decided to use the money set aside for two assistants on a reading coach but won’t have that flexibility now.

She said the school system may be able to hire more assistants now that the state has approved assistant funding for the entire year. CMS had only been able to guarantee TAs would be paid in two-week increments.

“We want to post those positions as soon as possible,” she said.

“I would challenge anyone to go into a classroom and ascertain who is a teacher and who is an assistant,” Clark said.

This story was originally published September 18, 2015 at 4:05 PM with the headline "Superintendent Ann Clark says CMS is pleased with state budget deal."