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.