CMS announces 293 teacher vacancies before classes start. How will schools cover openings?
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools has fewer vacancies than this time last year, but teacher and bus driver shortages persist.
CMS announced at a news conference Tuesday there are 663 new teachers entering the district this year, bringing its total number of employees to just over 17,600. Even with 97% of teaching roles filled, the district still has 293 openings for educators. School starts next week for CMS and most other districts in North Carolina.
CMS’ greatest need for teachers is in elementary school and the exceptional children, or EC, program for children with disabilities. There are still 56 vacancies for EC instructors as of Tuesday, according to CMS officials.
“We’ve come to grips with the fact that there will be a teacher shortage here and around the country. It’s not going away, and it probably will get worse before it gets better,” CMS Superintendent Crystal Hill said. “So we’ve thought about this and planned well in advance.”
So, what do those plans look like? It varies by school.
By Aug. 1, every school was required to have a plan for instruction if it didn’t fill all openings for teachers. CMS leadership says there will never be a situation where there isn’t a teacher overseeing a classroom. Instead, schools may combine two classrooms under one master teacher for a portion of the day when there is a vacancy at a school or use live virtual options.
CMS is still working to fill bus driver positions as well.
“We have fewer bus driver vacancies than we had this time last year, and we have several bus drivers that are in the pipeline,” said Tim Ivey, CMS chief operating officer. “We have 38 vacancies right now.”
Ivey says he expects the district will fill bus driver vacancies by around Thanksgiving.
Permitted school supplies
Before the start of this school year, CMS also changed its policies to not allow three-ring binders or backpacks with metal components in order to not set off school body scanners.
“We saw that last year, sometimes with our scanners, we were seeing false positives, which was slowing down the process of students going through,” Hill said.
Hill says CMS made the decision last year and “the vast majority” of parents learned of the change from school principals before the end of the 2023-24 school year.
“As a mom with children, I’m also excited about children not having those heavy things in their book bags weighing them down,” Hill said. “So this will increase safety but also protect the physical structure of our students.”
Other back-to-school updates
Hill urges parents to remember to opt students in for in-school health assessments if they are interested in free vision, hearing and dental screenings.
Parents now must opt their children into these services under Senate Bill 49 that passed last August, while NC school districts used to offer these services by default.
CMS has three new buildings that are opening this year, including the brand new Ballantyne Ridge High School and Knights View Elementary School in south Charlotte, as well as a new facility for Bruns Avenue Elementary School.
Three electric school buses also are joining the district’s fleet of a total 839 buses setting out on the first day of school Aug. 26. CMS will add an additional 53 electric buses over the next two school years.
This story was originally published August 20, 2024 at 3:46 PM.
