‘Mixed emotions,’ mostly smiles behind masks on CMS first day. Here’s what it looked like.
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Charlotte 2021 Back to School
Due to COVID-19, masks are required at CMS and adults are encouraged to get vaccinated. There’s also a push among educators ad parents to catch up students who lost academic progress during the pandemic.
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The walls in Virginia Little’s seventh-grade social studies classroom room were filled with fun decor — ready to greet returning students.
And Little’s energy and eagerness for the first day of school in Charlotte-Mecklenburg could barely be contained.
“This is really my first year,” said Little, who’s entering her third year of teaching. “I tell people, the first year is chaotic. Last year was tough with not being in person — I’m prepared to teach. There’s still that uncertainty and a lot of mixed emotions.”
After a sudden exit of students and teachers from school buildings in early 2020 across the country, CMS re-opened classrooms at the start of last school year but many students were not going in-person five days a week. As the Observer reported Tuesday, CMS is fully reopening this week amid the worst spread of the coronavirus seen locally in the last six months.
For most students, they’re returning to classrooms in new buildings with new faces or going back to a school they haven’t been in regularly in more than one year. And more students than usual are continuing online-only learning via the district’s virtual academies.
Others are having a first “first day.”
Five-year-old Skyler Bradley walked up the sidewalk at Paw Creek Elementary School Wednesday morning with her mom Lachanta Williams and brother Antonio, age 8. The trio — all wearing masks — hugged in front of the building.
As tears were forming, Williams said of her children’s first day, “I’m excited, they’re excited. I’m just glad there were no tears from Skyler.”
The first day is important, Little said.
“These kids need to be back in the room,” she said. “I teach at a low-income school, and what happened last year has taken its toll. School is home for a lot of these kids. This is their safe space. It’s great to have them at school. There is that fear that COVID is going to knock us back home.”
As students returned to classrooms across CMS on Wednesday, the district was still looking to fill hundreds of staff vacancies as of Monday. The district is still looking for 135 teachers and 88 bus drivers. There are 37 nurse vacancies, which the county employs.
“Jobs are posted and filled on a daily basis,” Christine Pejot, the district’s chief human resources officer, told the board. “By the end of this week these numbers will look different.”
Pejot said incentives are being used for recruiting, including a $1,000 recruitment bonus for drivers and a $250 incentive for substitute teachers.
With the potential for some CMS staff to be out of work due to COVID-19 and unvaccinated teachers required to quarantine if there’s an outbreak, more substitute teachers will help keep classrooms running.
The day before CMS’ return, schools in Rowan County were struggling with a high number of teachers out of work in order to quarantine after possible COVID-19 exposure. WSOC in Charlotte reported that administrators with Rowan-Salisbury Schools were stepping into classrooms to teach for now — but that if the outbreaks get worse, they may have to close school buildings and revert to online class. And across the state line, students in a Fort Mill middle school have been sent home for a two-week quarantine period after health officials helped determine cases were spreading among people in the school.
In CMS classrooms, extra masks, hand sanitizer and social distancing rules greeted students on opening day — a day Superintendent Earnest Winston said was a day “we’ve all been waiting for.”
“There were a lot of meetings,” Little said. “We’re still trying to social distance — three feet now. So with 25 students you have to figure that out. There’s a lot of math going on. We have hand sanitizing wipes, and there’s figuring out how to clean the classrooms. I have six different classes.”
Charlotte school enrollment
As of Monday, 143,411 students were enrolled in CMS — 425 students fewer than what was projected.
Akeshia Craven-Howell, an associated superintendent, said Tuesday night kindergarten, so far, is the furthest below projection (714 students), and ninth-grade was the furthest above (1,160 students.)
There are also 6,800 new students who were not enrolled in CMS during the 2020-21 school year.
Since Aug. 19, there were 183 requests from parents to switch students to virtual learning. CMS has three virtual schools for students grades 3-12.
Craven-Howell said those 183 students are on waiting lists until there’s an “increase of staff sizes in virtual academics.”
During the meeting Tuesday night, Winston called the 2021-22 school year a “pivotal year.”
“Our staff is ready. I believe our students are ready to come back in person,” Winston said. “None of us can be haphazard or nonchalant. The pandemic has not released its grip.”
Winston pleaded with staff, teachers and students who can to get the vaccine: “Please help us keep our schools open for in-person learning.”
Board member Rhonda Cheek also requested school leaders to ensure staff members and teachers know the “actual risk factors of being unvaccinated.” For now, teachers and staff aren’t required to get vaccinated against coronavirus.
“Exposure is going to increase,” said Cheek, who said she doesn’t believe in mandating vaccines. “But I want them to make an educated choice.”
Winston’s final message: “Students and staff: comply with the face covering mandate.”
This story was originally published August 25, 2021 at 10:13 AM.
