Welcome back: Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools students start 2022-2023 year
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools is welcoming back about 140,000 students and 18,000 employees today for the start of the 2022-23 school year.
Interim Superintendent Hugh Hattabaugh sent off bus drivers — some 925 buses are on the road — from the Downs Road bus lot. Hattabaugh is scheduled to visit seven schools throughout the day.
The district is starting the year with 370 teacher vacancies with 25 onboarding this week. But district leaders said the CMS guest teacher program is “robust” and will provide classroom coverage. Guest teachers are full-time employees and solely dedicated to one school, according to the district’s website.
The vacancy number reflects the fact that 96% of teacher positions are filled, The Charlotte Observer previously reported.
CMS also has 45 bus driver vacancies with 30 drivers in the pipeline that begin training this week.
The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Board of Education offered a reminder over the weekend that all traffic must stop for a stopped school bus unless it’s on a road with four or more lanes with a median or center turning lane.
The N.C. Department of Transportation says students and parents should cross roads in crosswalks, look both ways before crossing the street and always walk on the sidewalk. When there is no sidewalk, walk facing traffic as far from the road as possible.
Drivers should yield to pedestrians in crosswalks, obey speed limits in school zones, slow down near bus stops, schools and playgrounds and avoid distractions such as using cellphones while driving, the N.C. Department of Transportation said.
New schools and scanners
The district opens the year with two new schools, Mint Hill Elementary School and Palisades High School, and three replacement schools — West Charlotte High School, Shamrock Gardens and Lansdowne elementary schools.
There are also 11 new Title I schools this school year, making the number of the low-income schools a majority, 94 out of the district’s 181.
While all of CMS’ traditional high schools have Evolv body scanners, the district is in the process of installing them in 48 middle and K-8 schools.
Read more back to school coverage
This story was originally published August 29, 2022 at 6:00 AM.
