The Intergovernmental Relationships Committee of CMS met in the government center at 9:00 am on February 7^th, 2013. Chairperson Mary McCray and Vice-Chairman Tim Morgan are co-chairs of this committee and were both in attendance. Also in attendance were: District 5 Representative Eric Davis, District 2 Representative Richard McElrath, At-Large Representative Ericka Ellis-Stewart, District 1 Representative Rhonda Lennon, CMS General Counsel George Battle, CMS Associate General Counsel Jonathan Sink and CMS Superintendent Dr. Heath Morrison. District 3 Representative Joyce Waddell was not present.

Recently, Mecklenburg County held it’s breakfast meeting and this committee was able to present the CMS Legislative Agenda at that time. The committee members were able to speak to Representative Charles Jeter about Charter Schools.

Chairperson Mary McCray and Vice-Chairman Tim Morgan were in Raleigh to speak to members of the North Carolina General Assembly on January 30^th. The plan is for McCray and Morgan to go to Raleigh on February 20^th and once again speak to members of the general assembly. On February 20^th, McCray and Morgan are scheduled to talk to North Carolina House Speaker Thom Tillis. While in Raleigh in January, the following members spoke to McCray and Morgan: Senator Bob Rucho, Representative Rob Bryan, Representative Kelly Alexander, Representative Bill Brawley, Senator Jeff Tarte, Representative Becky Carney, Representative Charles Jeter and Representative Rodney Moore.

Senator Rucho received McCray and Morgan well. They were able to talk one-on-one.  Senator Rucho likes the Forsyth County route of charter schools. Forsyth would be the first district in the state to be 100% charter schools if the local legislation passes. Representative Bryan used to live in Los Angeles, talked about his five children and Collinswood Language Academy. Representative Alexander had a great meeting with McCray and Morgan. Representative Alexander understands the need for technology in the classrooms and asked why technology bonds have not been issued. Senator Tarte has two sons who graduated from North Mecklenburg High School’s I.B. Program. Senator Tarte does not like the idea of CMS seeking taxing authority. Senator Tarte has been to all of the UNC Campus’ and is knowledgeable about the inequalities and positives of each campus. Representative Carney likes the idea of CMS seeking taxing authority. Representative Jeter spoke about Project LIFT since this impacts the area he represents. McCray and Morgan encouraged Representative Jeter to talk with Representative Alexander. Chairperson McCray was not able to speak to Representative Tricia Cotham or Senator Malcolm Graham. McCray will speak to Senator Graham later.

On February 20^th, this committee will speak to Speaker Tillis, Sara Riggins(Constituent Liaison of the President Pro Tempore’s office), Senator Peter Brunstetter, Representative Jacqueline Schaffer, Representative Craig Horn and Representative Nelson Dollar.

District 5 Representative Eric Davis was able to speak to Representative Ruth Samuelson.  Representative Samuelson feels that the structural problems need to be fixed first.  District 2 Representative Richard McElrath has not spoken to Representative Rodney Moore. At-Large Representative Ericka Ellis-Stewart and District 6 Representative Amelia Stinson-Wesley were in Washington DC and spoke to the staff from offices of: Congressman Richard Hudson, Congressman Robert Pittenger, Congressman Richard Burr and Congresswoman Kay Hagan.

Chairperson Mary McCray was able to speak to Representative Beverly Earle. McCray spoke about the lack of broadband competition along the Beatty’s Ford/West Corridor of Charlotte. McCray would like to see everyone have equal access of broadband. The schools in this west corridor have broadband but many individual homes do not. Representative Earle worked for AT&T(BellSouth) and would be a good person to speak to about this lack of competition.

Morgan would like an apples to apples comparison with charter schools. For example, Sugar Creek Charter is not a good comparison because there are no comparisons of student bodies and end of grade(EOG) testing. McCray would like to know how Title I Funds are being used by Sugar Creek. Many students who were at Reedy Creek now are attending Sugar Creek. Morgan also explained to several in Raleigh that many issues are related to the calendar issue and the general assembly will see this calendar issue many times. Representative Brawley talked about putting public education first on the budget calendar.

At-Large Ericka Ellis-Stewart talked about sequestration. The United States Congress will impose large cuts on LEA’s(sequestration) if a more permanent budget deal is not soon reached. This would cut 5.1% from the CMS federal budget. In real terms, this is 128 positions. For example, Metro school would see big cuts if this happens. Ellis-Stewart has already had conversations about sequestration with the staff members of  the following in Washington DC: Congressman Mel Watt, Congressman Hudson, Congressman Pittenger, Congressman Burr and Congresswoman Hagan.

Morgan asked if the sequestration can be an action item on the February 12^th meeting agenda. Attorney George Battle will draft this action item immediately.

In Wake County, the county is considering taking away ownership and oversight of school buildings away from the Wake County School Board and giving it to Wake County Commissioners.  Morgan stated  that in Mecklenburg County there appears to be only one county commissioner on board with this idea. This committee is keeping an eye on what is done in Wake County.

The Intergovernmental Relationships Committee meets again March 7^th at 9:00 am in the government center. The government center is located at 600 East Third Street, Charlotte, North Carolina.

The CMS Board held its regular meeting at Druid Hills Academy at 6:00 pm on January 22^nd, 2013. All nine board members were present. The agenda was unanimously approved.

Two public speakers both talked about the new year-round calendar and it’s effects. Miss DuBois talked about teachers needing their summer jobs to supplement their CMS incomes. DuBois is a teacher at Bruns Elementary. Miss McPherson spoke about the need for help with summer learning programs. McPherson likes the idea of year-round learning and is an advocate for children. McPherson works with one of the partners of Project LIFT.

The consent agenda passed by a vote of 9-0. Dr. Heath Morrison gave the opening remarks for the first calendar presentation. Sarah Crowder, Denise Cavoly and Marie Slusser together gave this first presentation on the CMS district wide calendar. The board did vote on a calendar for 2013-2014(April 2012) but the general assembly passed a new law after this calendar was approved. This new calendar law from the North Carolina General Assembly gives more flexibility to the calendar year and is therefore a better option for CMS. This calendar is the district wide calendar. Dr. Morrison recommends Calendar Option B.  This new calendar option gives a longer Christmas Break and is better liked by the community. The board unanimously voted for Option B as the new CMS district wide 2013-2014 calendar.

Denise Watts gave the second presentation on the CMS calendar. There are four Project LIFT schools that are eligible to have a year-round calendar. These are arranged into two distinct calendars. These four schools are: Bruns Elementary, Walter G. Byers Elementary, Druid Hills Academy and Thomasboro Elementary. Watts again stressed that the biggest benefit of this new calendar is to help with summer learning loss. This new calendar will start July 23^rd and continue until June 23^rd. The intercession periods are times of vacation from regular school.  The intercession periods are designed to be times of remedial work and can be used as time to go to camp or on vacation. Bruns and Byers(one year-round calendar) will have the same number of days(180) as all CMS schools but will have the days arranged differently(as year-round). Druid and Thomasboro(second year-round calendar) will have 19 extra days in the calendar as well as the year-round arrangement. For the first time, CMS will have three calendars instead of one. The board voted unanimously to adopt these two Project LIFT calendars. The audience reacted to this vote with screams of joy.

Vice-Chairman Tim Morgan asked Watts about teacher burnout and the possibility of hiring CMS teachers to work during the intercession periods. Watts explained that teacher burnout could occur with the new year-round calendars. Watts further explained that teachers can apply to work in the programs offered during intercession and because of this can earn extra money. Morgan hopes this new year-round calendar will help with summer learning loss. Morgan is encouraging the board to be proactive in expanding this to other parts of CMS if this type of calendar truly helps students.

Dr. Morrison gave opening remarks before Dennis LaCaria gave a facility update presentation. One of the biggest policies impacting the management of facilities is Policy DNA. The facilities department has a small budget of $170,551. This department works closely with the six towns, the city and the county. One of the new ideas will be to have student interns help in the summer. These interns will be helping with the CTE study. Using interns will help this department since there is no large budget.

Vice-Chairman Tim Morgan asked Dennis LaCaria about data provided by this department to the city and county for re-zoning hearings. This department provides data to the six towns, the city and the county on what will happen to certain local schools based on re-zoning proposals. In the past, this department has done capital reports that only look at the number and size of classrooms. Morgan also asked about a new report to be done by this department that will look at capital needs. This report will look not only at the number of classrooms but now will also look at ‘core space’ utilization. ‘Core Space’ for example, looks at the number of people that should be fed in the cafeteria, should be using the media room and should be in the gymnasium. This department will look at the utilization of each school in March of 2013. In 2007, the CMS facilities department won a facilities maintenance award. LaCaria stated that yes, the facilities department gives data to the six towns, the city and county on how re-zoning will most likely impact schools but these elected governmental boards do not always make changes based on these reports. LaCaria stated that he looks forward to the March facilities report that he will give to the board.

The CMS Board will hold it’s next meeting on February 12^th, 2013 at 6:00 pm in the chamber of the government center. The government center is located at 600 East Third Street, Charlotte, North Carolina.

Tim Morgan

At-Large Representative Tim Morgan is now the new Vice-Chairman of the CMS Board. Morgan was unanimously voted in at the board’s only December meeting. Morgan has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science from Appalachian State and a Master’s Degree in Public Administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He has worked as a lobbyist for REBIC. Morgan has also worked in the past for York County, South Carolina, Lincoln County and Gaston County, North Carolina. He is an active Sunday School Teacher and Boy Scout Master in South Charlotte. Morgan was first voted in as the District 6 Representative in 2009. In 2011, Morgan was again voted in as an At- Large Representative. Morgan is the board member who created the new Privatization Committee and is co-chair of the new Intergovernmental Relationship Committee, along with Mary McCray. Morgan hopes this new position will allow him to save CMS more money with the privatization committee. Morgan also hopes to help maximize CMS as a district with the new legislative agenda just voted on by the full board last month. At-Large Representative Mary McCray is the new Chairperson of the board by a unanimous vote.

The CMS Board held it’s regular meeting on December 11th, 2012 in the chamber of the government center. One of the first items was choosing a new chairperson and vice-chairperson. Dr. Heath Morrison did preside over the meeting briefly for the vote on a new chairperson. At-Large Representative Mary McCray is the new chairperson by unanimous vote. Just after this, McCray took the reins to preside over the vote for the new vice-chairperson. By unanimous vote of the board, At-Large Representative Tim Morgan is the new vice-chairman. The first order of business from Morgan was to suggest a five-minute recess to re-organize as the leadership of the board had just changed. One does hope that this new leadership change signals more bi-partisan decisions from this CMS Board.
After a brief recess, the meeting continued under new leadership. Six public speakers spoke. Four of the speakers were from the ‘Kids Not Cuts’ Campaign. One public speaker talked about the late bell schedule and one talked about helping disadvantaged children. The other four talked about the fiscal cliff implications for public education.
The board also approved to moved ahead with an item from the 2007 bond package. A new elementary school will be built in the Wingate/Lake Wylie area to help with over crowding. $12.9 million of already aside money will build this new elementary in southwest Charlotte.
District 4 Representative Tom Tate did give an explanation on the changes of some of the board policies. The State of North Carolina has not made key decisions in order for some of the policies concerning graduation to continue. In the past, CMS had three policies that dictated which classes were needed in order to graduate. The NC Data Wise Migration is also causing complications with these policies. All three ‘IKE‘ policies will not continue until the state makes some key decisions.
Dr. Morrison gave a presentation on ‘The Way Forward’ and his new eight goals. These goals were unanimously approved by the CMS board. Many are happy with the 2,000 community members that were at the CMS presentation on November 29th. Dr. Morrison and the board are also excited about community members on each of the 22 new task forces. All hope that these will be positive changes that occur from the task force participation.
Ann Clark, Beck Graff and Amy LaHue gave the new Common Core Presentation. Each board member was given a task from the common core. This was a task from third grade math. The level of rigor has gone up each year in the common core. Many of these new questions and tests that are part of the common core require each student to be able to read well and reason well in order to test well.
Dr. Morrison also talked about a few changes to the 2013-2014 calendar. The vote on these changes will happen in January of 2013. This is the final meeting for the 2012 year. The next board meeting will be held on January 8th, 2013 at 6:00 pm in the chamber of the government center. The government center is located at 600 East Third Street, Charlotte, North Carolina.

Dr. Heath Morrison, Superintendent of CMS, released the findings of his new 100 Day Plan on Monday, November 26th, 2012. This special CMS event, paid for by Coca-Cola and Publix, was held in Blumenthal’s Belk Theater on North Tryon Street.
Ten schools were represented and had art, music, food and other presentations. Dallas Tomlinson, a ‘high-flying’ senior at West Mecklenburg High School, introduced Dr. Morrison. Northwest School of the Arts had visual arts students drawing. JM Alexander Middle School had dance scholars performing. Myers Park High School students made and served hors d’oeuvres under the direction of Chef Weih. Second-grade dance students from University Park were dancing. East Mecklenburg High School had a chamber orchestra and full orchestra who performed. South Mecklenburg and Providence High Schools sang in a combined choir for the finale. Belk Theater was filled with the almost 2,000 from the public who were in attendance.
Dr. Morrison’s eight new goals were created as a result of his 100 day listening, and learning tour of all of CMS. Dr. Morrison has now visited all 160 schools in his first 100 days. Here are the Eight New Goals:

1. Accelerate academic achievement for every child and close achievement gaps so every child graduates college- or career-ready.

2. Ensure an effective teacher in every class is led by an effective principal in every school served by quality support staff.

3. Cultivate innovative partnerships with parents, caregivers and the community to provide a sustainable system of support for every child.

4. Nurture a culture of high engagement, customer service and cultural competency.

5. Maximize performance utilizing data-informed and evidence-based decision-making.

6. Strengthen and expand educational choices for students to drive learning, creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship.

7.Increase technology access and integration to support inspired learning and teaching.

8. Communicate proactively and transparently to strengthen public trust and establish CMS as the premier K-12 district.

In order to make these goals happen, the superintendent is building 22 new task forces. Each task force will include one staff member, CMS students and community members. These task forces will start in January of 2013. After this event, Dr. Morrison held a brief press conference in the McColl Room of the theater. Several CMS student reporters were able to participate in this press conference.
The CMS Board of Education will still need to vote on these eight goals and a new strategic plan. These goals will be linked to the new 2013-2014 budget.
At-Large Representative Tim Morgan likes the way that these new goals provide a way for the public to participate in CMS policy making. Morgan was happy to see almost 2,000 people at the event. Morgan sees this as the level of public interest in what CMS is doing and likes that the public is interested. Here’s a link to the presentation and the other documents for these goals:

http://www.cms.k12.nc.us/superintendent/Pages/TheWayForward.aspx

The CMS Board met in workshop mode at Phillip O.Berry High School on November 5th, 2012 at 1:00 pm. District 5 Representative Tom Tate and District 1 Representative Rhonda Lennon did attend but came in after 2:00 pm.
Denise Watts, from Project LIFT, gave a presentation on summer learning loss and added days to the LIFT school calendar year. There is a learning gap between the privileged child and non-privileged child from the minute they enter school in kindergarten. By the time these two children enter fifth grade there is an even bigger gap in the amount that each child knows. Each summer, the non-privileged child falls further and further behind the privileged child. This gap is the reason that Project LIFT is proposing an additional 20 days be added to the 180-day school calendar. The cost of these additional days will be approximately $4.7 million. This includes teacher salaries, costs of transportation and all staff necessary to run each school for the additional 20 days. $20, 000 alone will be the transportation costs for this idea.
At-Large Representative Tim Morgan asked Denise Watts about where the money will come from for the $4.7 million and if LIFT does not get the money would the 20 days still be added? Morgan also asked about the new state third grade guidelines and how Project LIFT fits into these new guidelines. Morgan asked Dr. Morrison about partners with CMS in helping the third graders and asked if these established programs can be tweaked to meet these new state guidelines. Dr. Morrison stated that the new third grade program from the state is not finalized but yes, that CMS will look at a way to keep partners and programs already in place to help meet these state guidelines.
The board listened to a presentation from Jay Parker, Head of Student Applications and Web Development for CMS. CMS will need to change the way that all of their data is backed up due to changes from a vendor. In just six months, all of the data belonging to CMS will need to be put into a new software application. NC Data Wise(a state program) is going away and a new program from Pearson will take it’s place. This will be a time consuming and expensive change. At-Large Representative Tim Morgan asked Parker about why it took the schools in South Carolina two and a half years to make this same change. Parker explained that South Carolina did their migration 1 district at a time and this took longer than North Carolina is expecting for a similar migration. Parker also explained that CMS has a contingency backup that will help with this migration. Unfortunately with this entire migration concept, there is more unknown than known at this time.
Cyndee Patterson once again talked to the board about Strength Finders and Core Clarity. Patterson stressed that it is a myth that one must work on weaknesses. Patterson and Core Clarity are about finding and making wise use of one’s strengths. Talent+Skills+Knowledge+Use=Strength. This is the model for Strength Finders.
The idea is to find a team that has complimentary strengths and this will equal success. The major types are connectors, mobilizers, reflectors and engagers. Every person has a unique combination of these strengths. The CMS Board has all of these major types represented and has a large variety of personalities on the board.
The next idea is for the board to train in the following areas: with Nancy Bronner, on CRSS(Center of Reform for School Systems), with Mike Whitehead from the Center for Intentional Leadership, with the National School Board Association and the North Carolina School Board Association(this conference is in early November of 2012). District 4 Representative Tom Tate and District 5 Representative Eric Davis are anxious to start CRSS Training.
The next board meeting will be November 13th, 2012 at 6:00 pm in the government center. The government center is located at 600 East Third Street, Charlotte, North Carolina. The Superintendent will present his 100 day plan on November 26th at 6:00 pm at the Blumenthal Performing Arts Center. The Blumenthal Performing Arts Center is located at 130 North Tryon Street, Charlotte, North Carolina.

The CMS Intergovernmental Relationship Committee(iGov) met at 8:45 am on the fifth floor of the government center on Monday, October 29th. Co-Chairpersons At-Large Representative Tim Morgan and Vice-Chairperson Mary McCray, District 2 Representative Richard McElrath. District 3 Representative Joyce Waddell, District 5 Representative Eric Davis, Dr. Heath Morrison and CMS Associate General Counsel Jonathan Sink were all present. CMS Attorney George Battle and Chairperson Ericka Ellis-Stewart were not present.
District 2 Representative Richard McElrath is not happy with some of the goals of Project LIFT. This is because of the current economic makeup of the schools and neighborhoods in the LIFT corridor. McElrath believes that if Project LIFT is successful in low socio-economic schools and neighborhoods that Charlotte will continue to divide neighborhoods in this fashion. If neighborhoods have to be segregated, McElrath would prefer to see the segregation by race rather than by economic status.
Dr. Heath Morrison would like to see all neighborhood schools become strong schools so that all parents will want to send their children to the neighborhood schools. Morrison’s idea is to give principals and School Leadership Teams(SLT) the flexibility to work with the teachers to change the culture of the neighborhood school to make each school strong. Morrison also wants to re-evaluate all magnet school program. He would like to look at magnet schools with long waiting lists and talk about whether or not this school can be expanded. Morrison would also like to look at other magnet programs that do not have long waiting lists and see if these programs should be smaller. Overall, the idea from Morrison is to customize each neighborhood or magnet to the needs of each community.
At-Large Representative Tim Morgan talked about the part of the legislative agenda that includes Project LIFT. Project LIFT would like to add 20 days to the 180 days in order to make up for summer learning loss. One of Project LIFT’s goals is to implement a modified year-round school calendar in order to make a significant difference in the lives of students.
The CMS legislative agenda is progressing toward completion and will be sent to a full board vote on November 13th.
The next iGov meetings are November 1st at 9:00 am in the government center. The vote before the full CMS board will be at the regular board meeting on Tuesday, November 13th starting at 6:00 pm in the chamber of the government center. The government center is located at 600 East Third Street, Charlotte, North Carolina.

Here’s the latest draft of the legislative agenda:

2013 Legislative Agenda:

THE CHARLOTTE-MECKLENBURG BOARD OF EDUCATION 2013 STATE AND LOCAL LEGISLATIVE AGENDA

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education (the “Board”) hereby adopts as its priorities and requests that either the North Carolina General Assembly or the appropriate arm of local government take action on the items listed below. The Board emphasizes that these priorities are specific to Charlotte- Mecklenburg Schools. As such, the Board does not speak on behalf of other school districts, but does encourage other districts and their governing boards to join with this Board for the purpose of collaborating and advocating for shared priorities:

State Items

1. Improve school performance grading by implementing a sensible, multi-measure approach that balances student proficiency with student growth.

*Add a student growth measure that is equal to the student proficiency measure so that schools are more fully and accurately assessed.

2. Providing adequate funding and budget flexibility.

*Provide sustainable funding to pre-K programs.

*To the extent there are funding cuts, let local school districts decide how to implement those cuts (e.g. limit state-mandated line item cuts).
*Grant more flexibility in allowing local school districts to determine how resources are used in pre-K-12 education.

*Provide financial incentives to local school districts to be efficient with their allotted funds, such as allowing districts to find creative efficiencies with funds, including but not limited to transportation, so that savings can be channeled back into the classroom.

*Find a solution to the major budget calendar challenges that districts experience every summer when they are allotted funds in late June, so that districts have more time to optimize their decision-making with regard to their allotted funds.

3. Elevating and enhancing the teaching profession through reforms in evaluation, compensation and career status.

*Review and reform tenure laws to ensure an appropriate balance between due process rights and the ability of local school districts to be flexible in making personnel decisions.

*Clarify definitions of teacher tenure reforms found within all proposed tenure legislation.

*Allow teachers who have earned and continue to maintain career status to retain such status, while providing other teachers with at-will employment contracts not to exceed four years.

*Find a solution to the major Human Resources calendar challenges that districts experience every summer, so that more time can be invested in making better personnel decisions.

*Clarify evaluation standards and give local school districts the flexibility to adopt additional evaluation standards suited to their local realities.

*Examine, evaluate, and implement sustainable alternative compensation models which reward teacher performance.

*Establish funding plan that ensures that compensation is secure throughout various economic cycles, particularly with regard to pay for performance plans.

*Implement a phased, multi-year approach to raise teacher base pay to the national average, and implement a pay-for-performance compensation structure that attracts, keeps, and provides opportunities for teachers to earn above the national average.

*Provide relief to superintendents by allowing a superintendent’s designee to act on his/her behalf in the personnel appeals process.

4.Providing flexibility for Project L.I.F.T. schools so that they become a zone of innovation.

*Modify funding from positions to dollars for Project L.I.F.T. schools.

*Grant more flexibility in allowing CMS to determine how resources are used in pre-K-12 education at Project L.I.F.T. schools.

*Examine and implement sustainable alternative compensation models which reward teacher performance at Project L.I.F.T. schools.

* Allow teachers who have already earned and continue to maintain career status to retain such status, while providing other teachers with at-will employment contracts not to exceed four years.

*Partner with the State to develop sustainable solutions to funding an extra 20 school days for Project L.I.F.T. schools.

5.Ensure a level regulatory playing field for public and charter schools.

*Establish one set of rules for both charters and traditional public schools to follow.

*Provide final chartering authority to local boards of education so that local boards become the chartering authorities, while allowing charter applicants who have been denied charter status to appeal to the State Board of Education.

6.Providing flexibility with regard to establishing school calendars best-suited for their local environments.

*Repeal school calendar law.

*Enable local districts to construct school calendars governed only by state constitution parameters.
*To the extent a 185-day school calendar is implemented, provide the funding to cover the extra expenses incurred.

7.Providing taxing authority.

*Empower local boards of education to set tax rate for the local portion of public pre-K-12 education spending.

*Allow phase-in period for LEAs to make desired electoral adjustments.

Local Items

8.Establish joint effort to advocate for shared priorities in Raleigh.

*Find and advocate for joint solutions to shared budget calendar challenges, including a solution to the State’s annual May 15th deadline that requires school districts to submit their budgets to their respective county commissions without knowing their respective funding levels for the year ahead.

9. Improve the working relationship between the Mecklenburg County Board of Commissioners and the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education through a series of meetings and interactions to discuss shared priorities and impacts, since each elected body’s decision-making impacts the other elected body and their shared constituents.

*Find a solution to the major Budget calendar challenges that CMS experiences every summer when it is allotted funds in late June to provide CMS with more time to invest in making optimal student-centered decisions with its allotted funds.

*To the extent the Mecklenburg County Board of Commissioners establishes that there are funds available to fund capital projects for the local school district, those resources should be allocated solely in accordance with the priorities established and communicated by the Board of Education.

10. Partnering with Mecklenburg County’s seven municipalities to provide sworn law enforcement officer services at designated schools.
Request that the City of Charlotte revert to its 2010-2011 level of law enforcement services that it provided to CMS.

*Partner with the Towns of Cornelius, Davidson, Huntersville, Matthews, Mint Hill, and Pineville, so that neither the amount charged nor the formula for calculating the amount charged increases with regard to law enforcement personnel provided to CMS by these municipalities.

11. Encouraging Mecklenburg County and the seven municipalities to work with CMS to promote and develop safe, stable neighborhoods, more job opportunities, affordable housing, and sustainable economic conditions for the benefit of CMS students, their families, and the communities in which they live.

*Convene the seven local municipalities in Mecklenburg County and the Charlotte- Mecklenburg Board of Education to discuss shared priorities and impacts.

*Establish, support, and maintain programs that provide services to CMS students and support CMS’s overarching educational goals.

*Work to identify the most effective and efficient social services agencies for CMS students and families.

Updated: 11/1/12 Distribution Date: 11/13/12

The CMS Board met in workshop mode at Mallard Creek High School at 1:00 pm on October 30th, 2012. Seven public speakers spoke before the board on one topic: University Park. The parents who spoke want to keep University Park open and do not like the idea of combining with First Ward nor do they like the year-round concept.
All consent items were approved except D1 on the lease of one of the closed schools, Midwood. Item D1, Midwood, was pulled from the agenda. CMS Staff Members Mike Raible and Dennis LaCaria spoke before the board on the possibility of a change in who is leasing Midwood. It is possible that other groups will be able to lease Midwood in the future. Later in the agenda, D1, the lease of Midwood was approved by the board.
A public audit of the CMS budget has been completed. Sheila Shirley and her staff from accounting gave the presentation. The staff from accounting that were presenting were: Luellen Richard, Ronnie Greene, Dennis Covington and Sheila Shirley. This audit looked at the overall financial health of CMS. Currently, CMS is receiving a larger percentage of its budget from Federal dollars than in the past. This translates to less flexible dollars for CMS. The ratio of assets to cash for any organization should be 2:1 and CMS is now at 3:1. One downside of the major cuts over the past five years has been the amount held in reserve. CMS now has an eight percent reserve that equals five days in reserve. When breaking down this money, this is 18 days of county money in reserve. CMS does not have debt service obligations. The fund balance for CMS is low at 1.5%. Dr. Heath Morrison explained that the state’s pay for performance model is not as flexible as it was in the past. The State of North Carolina has stipulated that LEA’s(local education agency) must have pay for performance in place before March 1, 2013.
Deborah Heath is now the new principal at Clear Creek Elementary. Heath was the assistant principal at Independence High School and was present for this happy announcement.
Superintendent Dr. Heath Morrison does not want First Ward to be a year-round school at this time or include University Park as part of the proposed year-round concept. The board voted unanimously not to implement this First Ward/University Park concept. First Ward and University Park will continue to be separate schools in CMS. The public who were present were elated by this vote.
Vice-Chairperson Mary McCray and At-Large Representative Tim Morgan, who are the co-chairpersons of the Intergovernmental Relationships Committee(iGov), each presented different parts of the legislative agenda to the full board. Morgan presented the items on the agenda relating to the state. McCray presented local items on the agenda. Morgan thanked all of the committee members for their work and relayed that this committee met more often than originally anticipated. The iGov Committee did meet every week in order to have the draft agenda ready for this meeting. Morgan added that CMS needs to decide if some items are suggested by CMS alone or with other large, North Carolina School Districts. One of the agenda items talks about the need for an earlier date to the final numbers of the state budget. Morgan explained that Virginia has an April deadline and would like North Carolina to have a similar deadline. This will help local school districts get their budgets finished earlier. And in turn, this will help teachers and staff know just what will happen by the May 15th deadline and what will be coming for the fall quarter.
At-Large Representative Tim Morgan asked about career status for teachers. This is just an idea now but CMS is proposing a dual system for career status. This new idea is to have some teachers with career status and some new teachers would have a limited contract(varies: 1 year – 4 years). CMS is considering this now and the state would have to approve before it is implemented. It might take as long as 20 years for career status to completely go away. Another idea is to bring all CMS teachers up to the national average with regards to salary. This would need to be done in phases due to cost constraints. If all of the teachers have their salaries increased, this would cost CMS $100 million. It would cost the state $1 billion to implement this same salary increase. This increase will make CMS more competitive and hopefully will attract better teachers.
The next workshop meeting will be on November 5th at 1:00 pm at Phillip O.Berry High School. The next regular meeting will be on November 13th at 6:00 pm in the chamber of the government center. The government center is located at 600 East Third Street, Charlotte, North Carolina.