Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools hopes to avoid layoffs as COVID relief funding ends
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools is bracing for “significant” impacts and hoping to avoid layoffs as millions in federal relief funding end, the district announced Wednesday.
CMS is “planning for the expiration of $190 million” in COVID relief funding. That’s a portion of the more than $540 million in federal relief funding it received during and after the pandemic — money that went towards tutoring programs, staffing, mental health initiatives and more.
The district said it’s “looking for ways not to reduce its workforce once the funding is gone” because $60 million of the total is tied up in staffing.
“We may have to realign roles and responsibilities of some staff. We value the contributions of our employees and want to keep everyone employed,” Superintendent Crystal Hill said in the statement.
The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education will hear more about how the loss of federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds will impact CMS’s 2024-2025 budget at its Feb. 5 meeting, according to the district’s statement.
The board “does not have any comment at this time” on the district’s announcement, Charles Jeter, executive director of government affairs, policy and board services for CMS, told The Charlotte Observer.
“The Board is looking forward to gathering more information from staff at their budget retreat” on Feb. 5, he said.
“The loss of ESSER funding will have a significant impact on the district,” CMS said. “However, the goal is to minimize its effect on students and staff through efforts to stabilize and standardize — reviewing management routines and service delivery models to schools.”
ESSER funds were intended to mitigate the impacts of the pandemic on learning, CMS noted, through the purchase of sanitation equipment, improvements to air quality and adjusted classroom sizes and transportation to accommodate social distancing.
How did CMS manage its COVID funds?
CMS received $542.1 million from three federal COVID relief packages, The Charlotte Observer reported previously. As of April, 52% of that money had been spent; 17% was attached to a contract or purchase order; 26% was planned according to district priorities and 5% remained unbudgeted.
The “period of availability” for the money ends Sept. 30, meaning all money must be planned for a specific expense or spent by that date.
“That’s part of a fiscal cliff that makes me nervous,” then-CMS board chair Elyse Dashew said at a budget workshop in March. “It also keeps me up at night — the impact from COVID, the academic and social-emotional impacts our students are going through. It’s going to take a number of years to recover. Our kids will still be recovering when the (COVID relief) funds expire.”
In the 2022-23 school year, federal money accounted for 26% of CMS’s operating budget, about twice what it was before COVID.
The district spent much of its COVID relief dollars to help students recover from pandemic learning losses, the Observer’s reporting found, including tutoring and summer programs. COVID funds have also been used on curriculum development, mental health initiatives, retention bonuses and hiring more nurses, counselors and guest teachers.
Former Observer reporter Anna Maria Della Costa contributed past reporting to this story.
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