Back to School Prep for CMS

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – CMS is getting back to class! District leaders are making sure all the steps are being taken for a successful school year.

Today, CMS will open the doors of 181 schools to nearly 141,000 kids. Dr. Kondra Rattley, Chief of Equity and School Performance says the district is ready to face whatever the year brings.

“Our principals and schools teams have been busy all summer long preparing for students and families to re-enter.”

CMS is working to fill a number of open positions. There are 45 bus driver openings with 30 drivers in the pipeline.

The district has about 370 teacher vacancies with about 25 pending hires in queue.

While parents and students are equally as excited for the school year to begin, CMS is working diligently this week to make sure that everything is ready for the start of school on Monday. That’s everything from covering COVID to Monkeypox, to school nutrition and safety.

Monica Adamian, Coordinated School Health Specialist says the district continues to align with the current CDC state and local health department’s guidance, adding most of the recent updates that the CDC has released, were already in place at CMS.

Brian Schultz, CMS COO says 21 large comprehensive high schools that received evolved advanced weapon detection systems, better known as body scanners.

The district is in the process of rolling those out to 48 middle and K-8 schools.

As for school nutrition, while federal waives have expired that allows all students breakfast and lunch for free – CMS will continue providing free breakfast for all students in the district every day.

Regardless of the gaps still needed to be filled this year, Christine Pejot, CMS Chief Human Resources Officer is certain of one thing.

“I can tell you just by doing a few school visits this week, including my own students orientation. The energy is really electrifying.”