CMS Superintendent, Dr. Clayton Wilcox
Dr. Clayton Wilcox, superintendent at CMS
The school year is fully under
way now and I am very
pleased with the progress
Charlotte-Mecklenburg
Schools has made since
opening at the end of August.
Much of it is attributable to
hard work. We’ve got a new
strategic direction that will
drive district improvement
through 2024. We were able
to use existing transportation
funds to give our bus drivers
a sorely needed raise to $15/
hour, which we hope will
help us recruit and retain the
drivers we need. Our partners
in the community continue to
invest in us, helping us meet
the needs of our kids. All that
is the result of hard work.
But never underestimate the
importance of luck, too – we were fortunate to be spared the worst of
Hurricane Florence!
Let me share some highlights of the progress we’re making this year,
starting with our new strategic plan. It’s called What Matters Most and
it sets out in plain language our plan components, our commitments,
our goals and our mission and vision.
We have two commitments in the plan: equity and culture. We
recognize the urgent need to focus on equity and to close achievement
gaps linked to race and poverty. As noted in our Breaking the Link
report, which examined those gaps, equity is not the same as
equality. Some kids need more resources and support to succeed. Our
commitment as a district is to giving every child excellent educational
opportunities. We also recognize the importance of culture, because
school districts are made up of people working together for academic
achievement. We are committed to ensuring that the K-12 educational
experience in CMS is as diverse as the community we share. Our kids
will live and work in a diverse, globally linked world – and comfort with
diversity is one of the most important job skills we can give them.Our
strategic plan also spells out three specific goals:
n Every student graduates with meaningful employment or high
education opportunities
n Every student has access to a rich, diverse and rigorous curriculum
n Every student has access to more social and emotional supports
To meet those goals, we have identified two key strategies.
First, we will focus on what matters most – content, teachers and
students. We will ensure that all students have level-appropriate
content and complexity in what we ask them to learn. We will focus on
the knowledge and skill of the teacher. And we will also focus on how
students participate in their education – we want our students fully
engaged in learning.
The second key strategy is that we will manage our performance. We
will build on our strengths, adapt new ways of working and measure
2 • November/December 2018 • Parent Teacher Magazine
our progress. We will create a district performance-management
system, a continuous-improvement program, align school work plans
with the strategic plan and clarify roles in the delivery of education
across the district.
A very strong example of how we can manage performance at any
level to improve delivery of educational services is our recent decision
to raise our bus drivers’ pay to $15 per hour. By carefully reviewing
his budget, Executive Transportation Director Adam Johnson was able
to identify 51vacant positions that he did not need to fill. Instead,
he redirected the funds so he could offer our bus drivers the highest
rates of any school bus driver in the state. How does this improve our
delivery of educational services? Better recruitment and retention of
our bus drivers means that kids will be more likely to get to school on
time – increasing instructional time and helping them learn. It’s a win
for everybody!
Another winning situation for CMS has been the generosity of our
corporate partners, who donate money, services and time to help
our district. Recently, Albemarle Foundation and Bank of America
Foundation provided funding to help us expand our Teacher Innovation
Fund and our cultural proficiency initiative. Both will help teachers
strengthen their performance in the classroom – and we are
appreciative of the thoughtful generosity of these two partners, as well
as so many others we have.
And about the role of luck? Well, as I write this, we have a few more
weeks of hurricane season left. Let’s hope our luck with Florence holds
out through the end of the season!
Gov. Cooper brings school supplies to Hidden Valley
Last spring, Gov. Roy Cooper was scheduled to visit Hidden
Valley Elementary and bring school supplies to the more than 900
students there.
Thanks to severe storms,
Hidden Valley was left
without power on the day
of the visit. Cooper visited
another CMS school, but
promised to return.
On Sept. 6, he made
good on that promise and
returned to the school with
supplies collected from his
annual school supply drive.
Cooper met privately
with a panel of 10 teachers
to hear their thoughts on
issues like teacher pay and
testing. He visited several classrooms to visit with teachers and
students.
“We are so glad that he kept his promise and came back to visit
us,” said Principal Michael Lungarini. “These supplies will help our
students start the school year on the right foot.”