CMS Superintendent, Dr. Clayton Wilcox
Dr. Clayton Wilcox, superintendent at CMS
Our Kids Need Investments in
Equity, People and Support in
their schools
You have a role in making
decisions about how our
community invests in our
children through our Charlotte-
Mecklenburg Schools. The CMS
budget is not just a financial
document, it is a statement
of our community’s priorities.
I believe that all of our
community’s kids need us to
advocate for the resources they
need to succeed and thrive in
school.
Each year, CMS staff leadership
and Board of Education work
with Mecklenburg County and
state leaders to create the
CMS budget. For Charlotte-
Mecklenburg Schools (CMS), the fiscal year starts on July 1 of each year and
ends on June 30.
As I write this, our proposed budget is being reviewed by the nine-member
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education, which will soon vote and
send a recommended CMS budget to the Mecklenburg Board of County
Commissioners. In June, our county commissioners will vote on an overall
county budget that includes resources for students in our Charlotte-
Mecklenburg Schools.
Our 2019-2020 budget identifies three priority investment areas: equity,
people and student support. You can learn more about each investment
area and download budget materials about the 2019-2020 budget at
ourkidsneedus.org.
Investments in Equity.
We made a clear commitment to equity in our 2024 strategic plan, “What
Matters Most” which you can see on the CMS website. Our proposed budget
for 2019-2020 will help make that equity commitment real by beginning to
build a foundation of materials, resources and staff to ensure every student
in every school graduates ready to pursue their next steps – be they in
college, career or the military.
Equity starts in the classroom. We want every student to have access to
a guaranteed, viable curriculum that includes: consistent, high-quality
courses in every school; the best quality textbooks and digital resources for
learning and teaching; a pervasive culture of high expectations; well-trained
teachers; challenging academic work. We asked the public to weigh in on the
curriculum during a week of community curriculum workshops throughout
Charlotte-Mecklenburg in April. I hope you were able to join us.
Equity is about inspiration, too. At CMS, we want every student to have
access to arts experiences. Right now, not all our students have access to
arts experiences such as professional performances and concerts, world-
class museum visits, close discussions with award-winning artists and other
first-hand opportunities of the imagination. Our students need us to invest in
imagination today through the arts because the arts can in turn inspire our
students to excellence for a lifetime.
2 • May/June 2019 • Parent Teacher Magazine
Investments in People .
We are asking for investment in people in the 2019-2020 CMS budget. To
help us keep and retain the best teachers, we want to make sure we’re
competitive with (meaning a little ahead of) other districts in North Carolina.
We believe that our non-certified staff – custodians and cafeteria workers,
among others – should earn a living wage and we want to raise the minimum
wage to $13.22 an hour for our non-certified employees to help make that
happen. We are also calling for additional weekly paid hours and professional
development for teacher assistants because they are critical to effective
teaching and learning.
Investments in Support for students.
Finally, we are seeking investment in student support. Social and emotional
health is important to every student and we need more people to support
our students. Our budget adds 27 social workers, 10 counselors and 10
psychologists in schools to help our students from every walk of life. Social
and emotional health is an issue of equity and also of security at schools.
We want kids to have access to a caring, qualified specialist when they need
help, feel pressured or stressed so that they can focus on learning.
We all have a role in creating futures for our community’s children. Your voice
matters at every stage of this process. I encourage you to let your Charlotte-
Mecklenburg Board of Education and Mecklenburg County Commission
members, as well state elected leaders in the North Carolina General
Assembly, know what is important to you.
Our kids need us to invest in them. I hope you will support investment in our
public schools this year and every year.
E2D continues to close the digital divide
Eliminate the Digital Divide (E2D) was
founded in 2012 by Franny Millen, who at
the time was an eighth-grader at Bailey
Middle. The nonprofit’s mission was to
ensure that all students have affordable
access to technology at home to ensure
academic success.
Through May 22, E2D will continue its
mission to close the digital divide by
distributing laptops to 900 Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools families. With
an average per-usage rate of 3.2 per family, this will give an additional
2,880 Mecklenburg County residents digital hardware in their homes.
E2D’s work is varied and includes:
n More than 100 Latinx families at Huntingtowne Farms Elementary,
Quail Hollow Middle and the Northeast and Northwest learning
communities
n 100 McKinney-Vento students at ImaginOn learning center for a half-
day academy May 11, courtesy of Spectrum
n 100 CMS family distributions to hourly City of Charlotte employees
May 14, coordinated by the Solid Waste Services Department
n “Avoid the Summer Slide!” D-Day for more than 300 families at
Olympic High for the Southwest Learning Community May 22
E2D, powered by Google Fiber, will again have the “e-Lemonade the
Digital Divide” campaign during May. The countywide campaign is run by
students, families and staff at CMS schools to raise awareness and funds.