CMS schools, central office to begin partial hiring freeze due to $11M budget gap

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools will begin a partial hiring freeze for some positions across the district’s schools and central office, according to an email sent to administrators Friday.

Schools will be required to hold one classroom teacher position vacant until further notice, chief human resources officer Christine Pejot wrote to principals on Friday. Pejot wrote that most schools have at least one position they can hold open, and those with no vacancies are required to hold the next available classroom teacher position that opens up.

Central office positions that are considered non-essential are also frozen, Pejot wrote. Hiring managers cannot make offers for employment until further notice, but may continue to advertise and screen for potential openings. Exceptions for essential positions must be approved before offers are extended.

The freeze will not affect offers that have already been made and accepted, Pejot wrote. It will also not impact bus driver jobs, which are considered essential and have current openings. Assistant principal and custodial positions will also not be affected.

A CMS spokesman said by email that the freeze is due to a budget gap resulting from the county’s decision to restrict $11 million in funding until all hourly employees are paid $15 an hour. The mandate did not include additional funding for the increase, he said, leaving CMS to reallocate funds from other areas.

School district leaders warned of potential job cuts after Mecklenburg County commissioners voted to withhold $11 million in recurring funds until the district provided a plan to pay all its employees at least $15 an hour. They also pointed out that CMS was already in year two of a three-year phased plan to bring employees to $15 an hour, which the county had approved in an earlier budget cycle.

The move to withhold the money came during a straw vote session by the county commissioners on the budget, after chairman George Dunlap criticized CMS for being the only major local government agency that had not met that goal. It was approved and passed as part of the county’s final budget earlier this month.

CMS has no authority to levy taxes and relies on the county for roughly one-third of its funding. In total, county commissioners gave CMS a roughly $525 million allocation, an increase of $26 million from the previous year but short of the $37 million increase the district had originally requested.

Earlier in June, school board chair Elyse Dashew said the district would need to trim $11.7 million from elsewhere in its budget to make the raise possible. Because of limits on the federal and state funding CMS receives, as well as the inability to operate on a deficit, Dashew said that would likely mean the district would have to cut roughly 175 jobs.

County funding supports a number of CMS’s high-profile initiatives, including a local supplement for teacher salaries, more teachers in low-income schools, and expanded support positions such as counselors and therapists.

This story was originally published June 22, 2020 at 1:56 PM.