CMS funding dispute heads to mediation as county holds back $56M
Amid several calls for “working together for the children,” a joint meeting between the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board and county commissioners ended in a stalemate.
Neither board yielded Monday afternoon, widening a rift that centers on county leaders withholding millions of dollars from Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools until the district provides a detailed, data-driven plan to improve its lowest performing schools.
“The business of education is our responsibility,” school board Chair Elyse Dashew said.
“Your business is to fund it,” she said to county commissioners.
With several teachers and educators sitting in the background — many holding signs — the school board unanimously agreed after more than two hours of back-and-forth dissension to begin an official and private mediation process.
The deadline for resolution is Aug. 1, unless both boards agree to extend the time.
The county put $56 million into conditional funding. The money will be released, according to the county board chair, when CMS presents a strategic plan “to know where they are going and how they’re going to get there” when it comes to a remedy for failing schools, where Black and brown students largely attend.
“This was the county commission’s effort ... to partner with you in this plan to educate children in this community,” said commissioner Chair George Dunlap, adding that the district is saying, “This is our request: Give it to us and get out of our way.
“That’s not the way we do business.”
Dunlap said every group commissioners provide money are accountable “to the citizens of Mecklenburg County. We asked for this information more than a year ago.”
Commissioner Laura Meier, who earlier this month tried to remove the conditional funding for CMS and later voted against the $2 billion budget for the next fiscal year, offered a possible solution for both boards to reset the relationship.
Meier also suggested Monday that each board nominate a different member than the boards’ chairs to go behind closed doors and work on a solution. Commissioner Susan Rodriguez-McDowell, who also tried to get the district the $56 million, agreed, but the proposal was never revisited.
‘We need funding’
As the Observer reported Saturday, county leaders’ decision to withhold $56 million will hinder the way the district operates and likely lead to layoffs.
The $56 million represents about 11% of the county’s nearly $531 million appropriation to CMS, and 3% of its total fiscal year 2021 budget.
Sheila Shirley, the chief financial officer for CMS, said position reduction and hiring delays will be unavoidable at both the school and district level.
“Staffing reductions at schools mean students will receive less individual support,” Shirley said. “We’ll need to cut, delay or downsize initiatives.”
Among those initiatives is staffing for students with social and emotional issues, Shirley said.
Superintendent Earnest Winston told the board Monday that to close gaps in college readiness in the school system, the county needs to provide the funding that “we need.”
“We will do what it takes to improve student outcomes,” Winston said. “We have invested significant time, we have been strategically recruiting educators of color. To continue those efforts, we need funding.”
Winston outlined strategies for low-performing schools in his district, including hiring high-quality principals and high-quality teachers and providing intensive support for schools that have been deemed low performing by the state.
Commissioner Leigh Altman said although CMS has provided some information it’s “not a plan.”
“The document is four pages long,” Altman said. “As a mother of CMS students, I want a real plan.”
‘On the backs of Black students’
Mecklenburg County Manager Dena Diorio said this is the fourth time since fiscal year 2015 that a condition has been placed on a CMS budget allocation.
In 2015, $7.3 million was withheld until the adoption of the state budget. The county has also withheld $4.6 million until a security plan was in place and $11 million until CMS provided a $15 per hour minimum wage to its employees.
Diorio said funding to CMS from the county has totaled $3.8 billion since 2015, including increasing the operating budget to CMS by $6.1 million for fiscal year 2022.
“All we want is a plan,” Commissioner Pat Cotham said. “Maybe we need to give you more money, we don’t know because we haven’t seen a plan.”
Amanda Thompson-Rice, the president-elect for the Charlotte Mecklenburg Association of Educators, a CMS educator and parent, told the Observer: “This entire thing is weaponizing our Black students’ progress or lack thereof. They are withholding funds on the backs of Black students. How is this collaborative or supportive to move the needle? It’s not accountability. It’s punitive.”
