The CMS Board met in the chamber of the government center on August 28th, 2012. The board took a vote on the agenda. District 5 Representative Eric Davis was not present. The vote was 8-0 for the agenda. District 2 Representative Richard McElrath led the pledge of allegiance. District 1 Representative Rhonda Lennon explained that the ‘new’ graduation requirements were actually not new. They were put in place in 2009. District 4 Representative Tom Tate is the only current board member who was on the school board when the graduation requirements were moved from 28 to 24 credit hours. The state requirements are 20. The vote for the new graduation requirements from the policy committee was 8-0.
Chiquitha Lloyd gave the presentation on the Minority, Women and Small Business Enterprise(MWSBE) Project. She is the only person in this department for CMS. At-Large Representative Tim Morgan asked Lloyd if she had seen loss due to the economy. Lloyd stated that yes, she had seen a loss of many vendors due the economic downturn. Many of the vendors had a great reduction or loss in their line of credit due to the economic woes. Lloyd explained that the MWSBE also lost suppliers in large numbers. Morgan also asked if the state has a MWSBE program. Lloyd explained that the local MWSBE is registered with the state MWSBE. This has helped locally to find more bidders, vendors and suppliers. Lloyd explained several times that she gives advice and helps to their bidders, vendors and suppliers about how to win a bid. The MWSBE Firms currently attain $28 million of $202.9 million in eligible expenditures. This project’s best year was 2008-2009 but has gone down each year since then. In 2008-2009, MWSBE Firms comprised $18 million of the eligible expenditures. The goal is to have 21% of construction bids, 16% of architecture bids, 14% of contracted services and 11% of goods bids attained by MWSBE Firms. Currently, the Minority Businesses attain 10% of construction bids. Other percentages range from 3% – 7%. Obviously, the idea is to attain these goals. Lloyd will continue to work toward these goals.
Several do hope that a report on the opening of schools will be forthcoming. The next meeting of the CMS Board will be on Tuesday, September 11th, 2012 at 6:00 pm in the chamber of The Government Center at 600 East Third Street, Charlotte, North Carolina.