CHARLOTTE, NC — Summer days at the beach will soon be replaced with early mornings at the bus stop. CMS says they are doing better than last year when it comes to the number of bus drivers with 38 vacancies.
“I believe that we’ll be able to close the gap with our vacancies around Thanksgiving,” said CMS Superintendent Crystal Hill.
Teacher vacancies are also down this year. CMS said 97% of teaching positions are filled. That means there are 293 openings.
CMS said to make up for the shortage, each school had to come up with a plan to make up for the lack of teachers. One plan includes having more experienced teachers combine classrooms for part of the day.
“As educators here in Charlotte and across the country, we’ve come to grips with, there will be a teacher shortage.
This is not going away. It probably will get worse before it gets better,” Hill explained.
Before students ring in the school year, remind them to leave the 3-ring binders at home along with backpacks with metal. CMS banned them for safety reasons saying that the metal sets off the detectors. What’s still allowed is cell phones. They just can’t be used while class is in session.
“We are certainly reading and monitoring the national chatter about the cell phone usage and also what’s occurring in the region, but we don’t have at this time a specific rollout of a change in our cell phone practices and policies,” said Deputy Superintendent Melissa Balknight.