Dr. Health Morrison was born at Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland. Morrison was the principal of a middle school for three years and later a high school for five years in Charles County Maryland. Morrison was the community superintendent of the Down County Consortium in the Montgomery County Public School System in Maryland starting in 2007. In 2009, Morrison became superintendent of Washoe County School District(Reno, Nevada is located within Washoe County). This year Morrison was named the National Superintendent of the Year by the Broad Superintendent’s Academy. Morrison is currently transitioning out of his role as superintendent with Washoe County in anticipation of his July 1st start date as the new superintendent with CMS.
Initial meetings between the current CMS executive staff and Dr. Morrison happened on May 10th and 11th, 2012. Morrison is in the process of reviewing resumes and biographies of the staff. He has visited five CMS schools and hopes to visit all CMS schools by the end of September. Dr. Morrison has described his management style as collaborative. He prides himself on being an active listener and is already involved in public engagement in Charlotte. Nationally, CMS is modeled and praised but he would like to see local perception be more positive. Morrison is working to improve the local view of CMS. Morrison also has a goal to meet and build relationships in Charlotte and CMS. He feels that maintaining a balance between making good decisions and quick decisions will be one challenge in his first 60 days at CMS.
Morrison has a doctorate in educational policy and planning and a masters of educational administration from the University of Maryland. Morrison also graduated with a bachelor’s degree in government from the College of William and Mary. Dr. Morrison and his wife Jennifer have two children. The younger son of the Morrison’s will soon be attending a CMS High School(Fall of 2012). The older child of the Morrison’s is currently enrolled in college.

The CMS Board met on April 10th, 2012 in the chamber of the government center. Nine public speakers spoke on these topics: health & nutrition, bullying, Rocky River High School, the budget and University Park Creative Arts.
Interim Superintendent Hugh Hattabaugh presented the proposed 2012-2013 budget to the board. Hattabaugh stressed how deep the cuts have been over the past four years. Hattabaugh is recommending cost of living salary adjustment for teachers and assistant teachers. District 1 Representative Rhonda Lennon is voting no on this budget. Lennon is a believer in the zero based budget. Lennon is proposing that the money originally to be used for iPad be re-allocated for a one-time teacher raise. Lennon is not happy with the recommendations of the privatization and wishes this committee had taken a deeper look at privatizing some functions of CMS. At-Large Member Tim Morgan is hearing from the board of county commissioners that the CMS Budget is DOA(dead on arrival). Morgan’s gut tells him that the CMS Board will not get the amount requested from the county commissioners for this new budget. Morgan stressed that CMS employees deserve a raise. Morgan is anxious for the privatization committee to put more savings on the table. Morgan will be voting yes on this new budget. Morgan also would like to find money for the bell changes. Morgan is hopeful that the county and the state will give CMS the best opportunity available. The board did approve this new budget 8-1 with the only no vote from Lennon. The board did also approve the new 2013-2014 school calendar by a vote of 9-0.
The CMS Board will meet again on April 24th in room 267 of the government center. The Charlotte Government Center is at 600 East Fourth Street, Charlotte, NC 28202.

The CMS Board of Education sent an email this morning naming Heath Morrison as the new superintendent. Morrison has worked as a superintendent in Maryland and most recently in Reno, Nevada. This is a preliminary name and contract negotiations are still ongoing. This matter is on the agenda for an official vote at the April 24th regular meeting of the board.

On Tuesday, March 27th, the CMS Board had their regular meeting in the chamber of the government center. The board heard a MET(Measures Of Effective Teaching) presentation from Dr. Canter who is from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Dr. Canter talked about how best to retain good teachers. He explained that only 7-8% of the teachers fall into the ‘best’ teacher category. 75% of the teachers comprise ‘in the middle’ teachers. The third category is the bottom quartile which is made of the last 7-8% of this group. He explained that retaining good teachers can be a difficult task.
Twenty-three public speakers talked about teacher pay, HR Bill 546, teacher’s health insurance, late bell schedules, Rocky River High School and University Park Creative School.
Ann Clark gave a ‘LIFTUP’ presentation. Clark also talked about the ‘No East Walk’ project. CMS is excited that it has received a waiver on the extra 5 days on next years school calendar. Due to this waiver from the state, CMS will be able to use the five days as teacher workdays and professional days.
The Intergovernmental Relationship Committee made a presentation. At-Large Representative Tim Morgan is the co-chair of this new committee and talked about the School Resource Officer(SRO) funding change. The city make a unilateral decision only on this SRO funding change. The city has decided it would like to gradually not paid for the SRO’s at CMS Schools. Morgan also stated that CMS might want to use Park’s and Recreation Department facilities for after summer hours programs and other services. Morgan also would like to see minor changes with this agenda. Morgan asked if there have been conversations with the state concerning this agenda. Morgan would also like to see CMS have taxing authority in the future. This legislative agenda will affect house bill HR 546. CMS is recommending that HR 546 be ‘parked’ and not continued. Morgan is happy that the new superintendent can also make changes in this new legislative agenda. This agenda will not see much movement in the general assembly until the long session next year. Morgan is looking forward to a new bill to replace HR 546. The start of this new bill will be in a general assembly committee. Morgan stressed to all that the entire legislative agenda was a unanimous committee vote. The legislative agenda passed 8-1 with District 1 Representative Rhonda Lennon as the no vote on this. The decision to ‘park’ HR 546 was a 9-0 vote from the board.
Scott Muri gave a presentation on the future of technology in CMS. Muri is recommending BYOT as a future step toward technology improvement. BYOT is Bring Your Own Technology. The State of North Carolina is working on a cloud option to share email and save local space. Each school board member was given a few minutes with a staff member and an iPad to see first hand how much flexibility this new technology brings to education. One of the obvious pro’s of the iPad is instant updates for electronic textbooks. Muri used the example of the current science text books, some of which are out of date. The periodic chart was changed in 2010 but the text books were printed before this change. At-Large Representative Tim Morgan likes the iPads because it gives a new set of eyes on how to educate.
Scott McCully gave a presentation on the Student Assignment Plan for 2013-2014. Earlier in the day, Interim Superintendent Hugh Hattabaugh and Sheila Shirley gave a presentation before the Mecklenburg County Board of Commissioners. There are still many variables to look at in this new budget. CMS does not have numbers from anyone but the state. This is the second year of a biannual budget from the State of North Carolina, so these numbers are more firm. CMS has done a budget presentation based on getting no increase(flat), a 5% increase, a 10% increase and a 15% increase from the state, county and federal government.
Ann Clark, Dr. Furr along with Teresa Shipman, Rashida Lopez Morgan, Paul Bonner and Melissa Dunlap gave a presentation on the Common Core. Dr. Furr talked about the importance of the independent measure, repetition, not duplication, not basing the measures on proficiency, clear communication and expected growth. He stressed that the hard and soft measure are both needed. Furr also stressed the need for feedback through the entire year. Furr also prefers depth and consistent goals. Furr also stressed that one measure does not fit all.
The next CMS Board Meeting will be April 10th at 6:00 pm in the chamber of the government center. The government center is at 600 East Fourth Street, Charlotte, North Carolina, 28202.

After many weeks of speculation and rumors, the three finalists for the CMS Superintendent Position have FINALLY been named early this morning. They are:

Kriner Cash: Currently serving as the superintendent of the Memphis City Schools in Memphis, Tennessee.

Ann Clark: Currently serving as the CMS Chief Academic Officer.

Heath Morrison: Currently superintendent of Washoe County School District in Reno, Nevada.

These three are scheduled to meet with the public on Wednesday, April 11th. They will be meeting CMS staff and students on Thursday, April 12th. After lunch on the 12th the CMS Board will continue closed session interviews of the candidates. Here is the link to the events:

http://www.cms.k12.nc.us/News/Pages/SuperintendentcandidatestovisitCharlotte.aspx

The CMS Board of Education met on March 13th and finally announced the approximate schedule for interviewing candidates for the new superintendent. This announcement was made by board chairperson Ericka Ellis-Stewart.
The board will hold two rounds of interviews. The board hopes to announce the name of the new super by the beginning of May. The new schedule includes community involvement. The board hopes to have approximately 8-12 candidates for the first round of interviews. 74% of those who have applied are male and 26% are female. A total of 89 people applied for the job during the six week open application time. The board discussed details of the profile at their board retreat January 20th and 21st. 46% of applicants are Caucasian and 45% are African-American. 28% of the applicants have some affiliation with CMS. The majority of applicants, 26%, have only 0-5 years of experience. The next highest percentage was 21% and this group of applicants has 15-20 years of experience. All four of these groups comprise 18% of the candidates: the group with 5-10 years of experience, the group with 20-25 years of experience, the group with 25-30 years of experience and the group with over 30 years of experience. The smallest group is 9% for the group with 10-15 years of experience. The update to the public on March 15th stated that the board will begin the interviewing process on March 20th and 21st.
The board heard from three people during the public speaking time. During the March 27th meeting Scott Muri will give a full report of the technology needs and successes. Interim Superintendent Hugh Hattabaugh and Sheila Shirley both spoke on the budget. The current budget (2011- 2012) has $21 million in one time projects. There was a mixup about these one time projects. The proposed budget is the 2012-2013 budget. The district needs to work on rebuilding the core academics after four years of deep cuts. CMS is asking for an increase from Mecklenburg County in the amount of $27.5 million dollars to help fund the 3% cost of living increases for CMS Staff. 1% of this will come from CMS and 2% from Mecklenburg County. The CMS Staff have not seen any cost of living raises in four years. CMS will not be closing schools and not reducing teacher staff. The update on March 19th did reveal that approximately 150-160 teacher positions will not be renewed but that most of the people will be able to take another position in CMS. CMS did emphasize that these are positions only not the elimination of teachers. The total operating budget is $1.195 billion dollars. This is a 2.3% increase over last year. The federal money comprises 56% of the budget, the county money comprises 30%, the state money comprises 12% of the budget and other special revenue comprises 2%.
Compared to the national average, North Carolina is #45 of #51 in the state per pupil spending. The constant dollars to CMS are down but CMS has more students every year. Health care and retirement costs have markedly increased. All of these factors drive per pupil spending ever lower. Math tests results have gone down in Grade 3 along with reading tests in Grade 3. The EOC tests results all decreased, except for Physical Science, when comparing the results from the 2009-2010 year to the 2010-2011 year. The new trend in college testing seems to be moving away from the SAT test and toward the ACT test. At-Large Representative Tim Morgan asked Shirley about changes to the schools that have 4:15 pm afternoon bell schedules. Shirley explained that these changes would cost $3.6 million, there is a cascading effect. The bus transportation efficiency rating for CMS and other issues complicate changing this bell schedule at this time. Right now CMS has a 95.4% efficiency rating. Morgan also asked about the School Resource Officers(SRO) contract with the city. The city would like CMS to pay 70% of 100% of the cost of SRO’s for the 2012-2013 budget. Right now CMS is paying 50% of 80% of the officers salaries. Morgan pointed out that the towns in Mecklenburg county are still supporting the SRO’s and it is the city that is not supporting this effort. Morgan applauds CMS’s effort to speak to the sheriff’s department for SRO’s in order to save money. Morgan also applauds the effort by Guy Chamberlain’s team to make sure CMS has less energy consumption. Morgan thanked Chamberlain for the effort from his team to be energy star complaint. Morgan’s priorities are effective leaders, effective teachers and keeping teachers. Morgan stressed that CMS should show their staff that ‘we value you’.
District 1 Representative Rhonda Lennon is also concerned about the state per pupil spending for CMS. Lennon would like a comparison done between state per pupil spending in Wake County versus CMS. At-Large Representative Tim Morgan reminded all the board members that the vote for the Project LIFT Program at the board retreat was 9-0. Morgan would like to know if the board continues to support this project. Morgan also asked if the students in CMS are more proficient. Morgan would like the percentage of four year proficiency. Morgan reiterated that reforms take time and we live in an ‘instant’ environment. Morgan stated that teachers ask better questions. Morgan would like to hear what Andy Baxter says about taking TIF-LEAP to scale. Interim Superintendent Hugh Hattabaugh stressed that this process has nine areas of measure and it is a three step process. Bonus money is not the only motivator for teachers, this also from Hattabaugh. Morgan reminded all that the new Intergovernmental Government Relations Committee meets for the first time on March 14th at 2:00 pm
The next regular board meeting is important. This will be when the board hears from the public on the proposed budget for 2012-2013. This meeting will be held at 6:00 pm on March 27th in the chamber of the government center. The government center is at 600 East Fourth Street, Charlotte, North Carolina.

The CMS Board heard presentations on the new Talent Effectiveness Project(TEP) on February 28th. The board met at 6:00 pm in room 267 of the government center and heard favorable news about how the TEP initiative is progressing.
Tom Tomlinson, Sue Varga, Trina Potter, Samantha Hines, Danielle Gladden and Allison Moore all helped with the TEP presentation. Potter, Hines, Gladden and Moore are all teachers with CMS. Many of the presenters are concerned about the new student survey that is being worked on by the state. At-Large Representative Tim Morgan asked if a short ‘sit-down’ interview can be included in this student survey. Morgan would like to see these interviews happen. Morgan is certain that this deeper dive into the students evaluation of their teachers will add much value to this process. Potter stated that she and her team members are concerned about the state giving new written teacher evaluations to second graders. They are concerned that the students of this age will not fully comprehend what is expected of them when completing the surveys. This new survey has not been seen by the North Carolina school systems and many are anxious to see this new survey.
Obviously, the teachers are concerned that they are not getting paid at market value. Over the past 5 years there have been deep CMS budget cuts. Teachers have not received any cost of living or other raises during this time. The ability of CMS to attract and retain good teachers is seriously in jeopardy at this point. This is a critical time for CMS to give cost of living raises to teachers and other staff.
There was much discussion around hard to staff classes and hard to staff schools. Samantha Hines, who does not know Spanish well, currently teaches a class where more than half the class does not speak English well. This can slow productivity in the learning process and is a big stressor. Hines is concerned about teachers with this same language issue.
A hot issue right now is the 2012- 2013 calendar. CMS previously approved a 180 day calendar but now has approved an alternate 185 day calendar. CMS has asked for a waiver from the state on the 5 extra days but has not received the final information to know which calendar will be required. Adding an extra 5 days without giving school systems across the state more flexibility is causing much stress. August 25th is very first day schools can start, this by state mandate. August 25th falls on a Saturday so the first ‘actual’ day will have to be August 27th. This takes two days away from the school year. June 10th is the last day that schools in North Carolina are allowed to meet. In 2013, June 10th falls on a Monday. This Monday will not be a very productive day. CMS is requesting more flexibility from the state. At-Large Representative Tim Morgan is suggesting that a slight change in wording will actually be a big help. Morgan said that if the state mandates that the schools start the week of August 25th and end the week of June 10th this would make a great difference. Just that little change would be enough for CMS to see a large result. CMS will not know until after the North Carolina General Assembly goes back to session in May of 2012 if they have received a waiver for these additional 5 instructional days.
Dr. Cindy Moss and Ann Clark gave a presentation detailing the progress of the Science Technology Engineering and Math(STEM) program. At-Large Representative Tim Morgan thanked Dr. Moss for making sure that now there are excellent math, science and engineering classes in each school. Morgan would like to see the board work more on filling the hard to staff classes.
Becky Graff gave a presentation on the Humanities Project. This combines emphasis on social studies, english, global studies, world languages, literacy and study abroad into one focus area. Right now, there are ten people who work in this department. The goal is to help students to do their own school work without so many outside helps.
Earlier that same day, the board had a budget workshop to look at budget recommendations from staff. The state is mandating increases in costs to CMS when it comes to health costs and also in costs for retirement. Health premiums are going up 5.3%. The retirement costs went from 13.13% to 14.31%. At-Large Representative Tim Morgan is concerned that these two increases are unfunded mandates from the state. The city will be transferring more costs of the School Resource Officers(SRO) to CMS for this new budget year of 2012- 2013. CMS will need an additional $2.1 million for the SRO’s in CMS. The CMS Transportation is 95% efficient and this rating will help secure funding from the state. Another help with the budget could be privatization. Currently CMS is testing out the new custodial privatization in non-instructional CMS facilities. At-Large Representative Tim Morgan would like to see this expanded to include instructional facilities and thus save more money. Morgan is happy that the staff of CMS have been able to be proactive about the budget and CMS is in a better place financially than other school systems in North Carolina. Morgan thanked staff for their good choices. The CMS Board will vote on this new budget in the April 10th regular board meeting. Another way that CMS is saving money is through the bell schedule change. The late bell schedules will not change as a result of these staff budget recommendations. Board members would need to ‘find’ another $400,000 to change the bell schedule only at the home schools. The board would need to ‘find’ a total of $4 million to change the late bell schedule at all 35 schools.
The regular meeting of the CMS Board will be on March 13th at 6:00 pm in the chamber of the government center. Interim superintendent Hugh Hattabaugh will present the full 2012- 2013 budget to the board during this meeting. The government center is at 600 E. Fourth Street, Charlotte, North Carolina.

The CMS Board of Education met on February 14th, 2012 at 6:00 pm in the chamber of the government building. The pledge of allegiance was led by Estevan Torres who is an honor student at Olympic High School’s METS program. The board honored CMS Bus Driver Lindora Richardson for her courageous actions when her school bus recently caught fire. Richardson saved the lives of six Chantilly Elementary Students who were on her bus before the fire. Her quick actions were honored by the board, who awarded Richardson a plaque. The Governor of North Carolina, Beverly Perdue, declared the week of February 13th-17th, 2012 as National School Bus Driver Appreciation Week. Richardson truly is a hero.
Six public speakers spoke out against the new late bell schedules at 35 CMS schools. The board also voted 7-0 to form a new committee. (District 2 Representative Richard McElrath had a family emergency and had to leave the budget workshop early. Vice-Chairwoman Mary McCray was out of the room temporarily.) This is the Intergovernmental Committee. This committee will build better relationships with federal, state and local elected officials, will the draft legislative agenda and track the success of said legislative agenda. Co-chairpersons of this committee are At-Large Representative Tim Morgan and Vice-chairwoman Mary McCray. The rest of the committee will consist of District 5 Member Eric Davis, District 3 Member Joyce Waddell and District 2 Member Richard McElrath. This committee is to meet no less than one time per month and should soon start meeting.
Chairperson Robert Harrington of the Privatization Committee gave a presentation on their findings at the meeting. This board was formed in April of 2012, first started meeting on August 11th, 2011 and has met a total of nine times. This committee was formed to find if privatizing parts of CMS will be a financially savvy choice. The good news is this committee made a unanimous decision on the recommendations to the board. The bad news is that this committee is not moving forward very quickly. This committee is moving forward with privatizing payroll and part of the custodial duties. The idea of payroll is not new but privatizing custodial is a new idea. At-Large Representative Tim Morgan was in charge of forming this committee. Morgan would like to see this committee make more swift actions in the future. The committee is still in the middle of deciding if Information Technology(IT) at CMS can be privatized. The committee did meet one time with staff member Scott Muri and looks forward to a few more meetings with Muri to discuss this idea. At-Large Representative Tim Morgan explained that he has attended about 2/3rds of the meetings of this committee. Morgan is excited about the potential savings that this committee might find for CMS. Morgan asked Harrington about the boards actions on managed competition. He also asked what support the committee needed in order to further explore managed competition. Mr. Harrington explained that this committee has not moved forward with this idea but looks forward to further exploring managed competition in the future. Morgan is anxious to get this committee moving faster and referenced other school systems that are successfully using privatization to save money. Many look forward to the future actions and money saving ideas coming from this committee.
Tom Tomlinson, Sue Varga, Lauren Bell, Charlene Wolford and Mendy Deviney all worked together to give a presentation on the progress of the Talent Effectiveness Project. All are excited to be a part of the process of Talent Effectiveness. At-Large Representative asked Charlene Wolford about her ‘buy in’ to this idea and getting other teachers to be also excited about this project. Wolford explained that we always fear the unknown. Ms. Wolford also said she is excited to be part of a team that will ensure teachers are treated as professionals and will have professional consultation. Morgan is excited about the progress on this project. Morgan was concerned when originally teachers thought this project would force them to be too competitive and is happy that this project is on the road to the right thing. Morgan is happy that teachers who love teaching can keep this achievement going up in the future.
Guy Chamberlain, Brian Kashor and Bryan Steiner worked together to give a presentation on Environmental Stewardship. Chamberlain is happy to announce that this initiative has saved CMS $15 million dollars. CMS is an energy star school system and has the most schools in North Carolina that are energy star certified. CMS has 57 schools that are energy star certified. CMS also recycled 23 million milk cartons and is a national model of how to recycle. 96% of the CMS classrooms have recycling bins. At-Large Representative Tim Morgan is happy with CMS’s energy star certification. Morgan is also happy for the fact the CMS adds insulation to the roofs of CMS buildings while major roof repair is happening.
Earlier in the day, the board held a budget workshop. LaTarzja Henry gave a report on Communications. Her department is the communications department. They did have 27 staff members but due to budget cuts now has 11 staff members. CMS had 10 full time media people covering education in 2000. In 2012, there are now hundreds who cover CMS and education in Charlotte. The timeliness of information in 2012 is much faster. CMS now has staff who tweet staff meetings. CMS is looking into getting it’s own application for iPad and iPhone. Henry is asking for $215,000 more for this department to further customer service and communications. The entire ask for the communications department in the new budget should be right under $1 million. Henry wants to hire two new full-time staff to assist with communications and social media. At-Large Representative Tim Morgan asked Henry about more details of this new, proposed application. Henry stated that she envisions school lunch information, school calendar and possibly back to school information in this mobile app. Henry also explained that her staff is stressed due to the budget cuts in money and staff. Interim superintendent Hugh Hattabaugh will present the full 2012- 2013 budget to the board on March 13th, 2012.
The next CMS board meeting will be February 28th at 6:00 pm in The Government Center, 600 E. Fourth Street, Charlotte, North Carolina.

An overflow crowd was present for the CMS Board of Education meeting in the government center on January 24th, 2012 at 6:00 pm. Several boy scouts, their parents and other members of the community were present. The boy scouts represent Troop 116 at St. John’s Episcopal Lutheran on Carmel Road. The board meeting was held in room 267, while the rest of the crowd was watching the meeting on closed circuit television next door in room 266.
District 1 Representative Rhonda Lennon continued to praise Project LIFT. She stated that this project is an incubator that she supports whole-heartedly. Lennon is very excited and wants to get the show on the road.
Denise Watts is the new Zone Supervisor of Project LIFT. No money from CMS pays for her salary. This is funded entirely by Project LIFT. The new principal at Rocky River is Brandy Nelson. Nelson has worked in Winston-Salem and Wake County before coming to CMS. The interim principal at Northwest School of the Arts is now Mark Bosco. Bosco was at one point the principal at Independence High School. Chairwoman Ericka Ellis-Stewart did state that she and all of the board are sorry to hear of the loss of the Principal at Northwest School of the Arts. Dr. Barry Bowe will be deeply missed by all.
The lawyer for CMS, George Battle, had his contract renewed by the board. Dr. Battle now earns $168,000. This is an increase from what he was earning from CMS. At-Large Representative Tim Morgan stated that Battle has more than eased his fears about lack of experience. Morgan stated that Battle helps to repair outside relationships for the board. Morgan also stated that Battle is now taking on additional responsibilities. Battle will be paid closer to the market rate by getting this new salary. Battle is being paid less than school systems of this size are paying their attorneys. The vote was 8-1 with District 1 Representative Rhonda Lennon as the only one voting against the contract.
Dan Habrat and Ellen Dillard gave a presentation on talent effectiveness. Guy Chamberlain also assisted in answering questions. At-Large Representative Tim Morgan stated that he wants this project to go beyond just teachers. Morgan went on to state that all have a role to play in this idea. Morgan is anxious to compare CMS with the private sector and to compare cost structure. Morgan asked if CMS has the same costs as the private sector. Is CMS following the Theory of Action? Is CMS moving in the right direction? Morgan would like to see CMS add policy changes to be more efficient. How is CMS doing with the legislative agenda? What are the impediments? Are there local and state impediments? Morgan also asked about joint use of buildings and asked if all the money goes to auxiliary services. CMS has increased the number of buildings they lease to faith based agencies. How does CMS keep the ACLU from knocking at their door?
Mike Raible and Dennis LaCaria gave a presentation on Capital Needs Assessment. 45% of the CMS buildings are more than four decades old. When CMS builds a building they look at projections to make the building last a minimum of 90 years. Currently CMS has several models for schools. These are the three models: the 39 classroom elementary, the 57 classroom middle school and the 100 classroom high school. All future projects will be modeled after these three ideas. Over the next decade CMS is projecting an 11% in the number of students. CMS is projecting a 2013 Bond Referendum to build new schools based on this number. Since CMS closed 10 schools this has increased the CMS building utilizations and helps the case for future building bond referendums. Of all the other government entities, the city impacts CMS more when it comes to buildings. The neighborhood improvement program is changing how CMS builds schools. At-Large Representative Tim Morgan asked about the Mecklenburg County Rubric and how this will affect new projects versus existing projects. 50% of the projects that CMS is proposing are new projects. Dennis LaCaria answered that the relief for overcrowding at Myers Park High School would be a good example. Unfortunately, CMS does not know if the county will be counting this as an old or a new project. Morgan asked if CMS will be penalized for this and other projects to help overcrowding. CMS is unsure how the county will rule on these projects. Mike Raible stated that the new Pre- K – 8 schools give greater flexibility than some others. Morgan emphasized that the board as a whole needs to agree on which model they will use going forward. Morgan stated that the board needs to decide if they will continue with Pre-K – 8 schools. District 1 Representative Rhonda Lennon is concerned that the Mecklenburg County Board Of Commissioners did not take schools into consideration when constructing their rubric.
The board had a 3:30 pm budget meeting on this same day as the regular board meeting. During this budget workshop, Ann Clark along with several principals and students gave a great presentation of the Communities In Schools(CIS) program. It was especially nice to hear students praise this unusual program and it’s results. Corey Bennett works at Thomasboro Elementary for CIS and was present to help with this presentation. CIS has a goal of 90% graduation rate by 2014. CMS has hundreds of partners who help with this project. The basic goal is too make sure students are aware of and receive wrap around services to help increase graduation rates. CIS is proposing 11 new sites and will need $1 million to expand to these new sites. Much money is being spent on this program and I would like to see how effective this program has become. I would like to see better data on CIS in the future.
The CMS School Board will meet again on February 14th at 3:30 pm for a budget workshop in room 527 and again at 6:00 pm on the 14th in the chamber. Both meetings are in The Government Center at 600 East Fourth Street in Charlotte, North Carolina.

All nine of the CMS Board Members met together at a retreat at the leadership academy on January 20th and 21st. The leadership academy is at Vance High School, near WT Harris Drive in Charlotte. Two new elected leaders and one appointed leader are now part of this board of education. Chairperson Ericka Ellis-Stewart, Vice-Chairperson Mary McCray and District 6 Appointee Reverend Amelia Stenson-Wesley are all new members of this board. The longest serving member is District 4 Representative Reverend Tom Tate. Tate has been on the board for just over six years. Five members of the board, At-Large Member, Tim Morgan, District 5 Representative Eric Davis, District 3 Representative Joyce Waddell, District 1 Representative Rhonda Lennon and District 2 Representative Richard McElrath, were all elected in 2009.
Mary Kendrick was the facilitator for this weekend retreat. Kendrick was able to help the board talk out some of their differences. The board retreat started at 9 am and lasted until 5 pm on Friday, the 20th. Saturday the retreat went from 9 am until just after noon. The leadership academy proved to be a great venue for the board to meet off camera and gel a little better.
Interim superintendent Hugh Hattabaugh is asking the board for raises for the CMS teachers. They have not had raises in four years. At-Large Member, Tim Morgan would like to see other staff besides teachers also get raises. He would like to see the focus not be solely on the teachers. Morgan would also like to see parental and community involvement improve. He would like to have more organized partnerships with parents, community groups and CMS. Morgan would also like to see the board have goals if the board is not going to stay with the Theory of Action.
Mary Kendrick went over the different phases new groups can have. Here are the phases in order: Form, storm, norm, perform and adjourn. Morgan is concerned with how this board went quickly from the ‘form’ stage into ‘storm’. Morgan stated that this is mistrust among board members. Morgan is also concerned that the lack of information among board members has led to mistrust. District 1 Representative Rhonda Lennon also expressed concerns over lack of collaboration, shutting down communications and decisions being made behind closed doors. Lennon stated, “Let’s be honest about what’s been going on”. Morgan, Lennon and District 5 Representative Eric Davis expressed concerns over the direction of the board. Davis would like more feedback from other board members. Currently the board members are not listening to each other well enough. The board members are not discussing issues with each other in depth.
The board had a working lunch. Over the lunch time, the board listed what success means to them. At-Large Member Tim Morgan stated that success to him is success is the students and not the board. Morgan would like to see maximum academic achievement for every student at every school. The challenges that CMS faces are communication, trust among board members, time, interactions, decisions and actions of board members. Morgan stated that the traits that CMS must foster are strong families. He would like to see more success come from families. At least one adult, for example a Boy-Scout leader or grandparent needs to be the support system for a student. All students need a support system, according to Morgan.
District 1 Representative also express that every board member should be able to express their views, have input and receive feedback from their peers(on the board). Lennon listed a major board challenge as the public perception of
On Friday afternoon, the board was able to meet with Jim Huge from ProAct and discuss more details on what type of superintendent this board would like to hire. Mr. Huge wanted to have the board talk about how much of a change agent the board wants in the new superintendent. He went around the room and asked each member to rate their belief in a superintendent being an agent of change. On Huge’s scale, 1 is very little change and 5 is the most amount of change coming from a superintendent. Each of the nine board members verbally stated that they want a 5 from the new superintendent. There was some question later in the day as to whether or not all nine members actually want that much change in the new superintendent. On Friday, the board discussed the legislative agenda of Project LIFT. District 4 Member Reverend Tom Tate expressed concern that the legislative agenda of the project does not represent CMS. At-Large Member, Tim Morgan reminded all that the board had unanimously stated that they wanted a 5 out of their new superintendent. Morgan went on to state this is what change looks like. Morgan would also like to see better tracking of success in areas of education and higher education along with the other superintendent responsibilities.
Also on Friday afternoon, the board took a fresh look at the Theory of Action. All 9 board members did agree to continue with the current Theory of Action with only minor changes. At-Large Member, Tim Morgan would like to see the board continue with the high standards, effective teachers along with staff and principals in the schools.
The highlight of the weekend was the presentation from Denise Watts, Stick Williams and several other board members of Project LIFT. There was some question if this board would wholeheartedly support this new project. Project LIFT is a new community partnership that has already raised $55 million to help West Charlotte High School and the feeder schools for West Charlotte. This effort is aimed at pairing students who are not doing well in school with community partners to give wrap around services for those most in need in this corridor of Charlotte. Most board members did eventually decide to agree with the goals of Project LIFT.