In case you haven’t heard by now, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools is once again in the market for a new superintendent. The school board on Tuesday fired Earnest Winston, who is now the fourth CMS superintendent in the past decade to leave before reaching the three-year mark. We’ve reported on what this means for the future of the district. But now we want to see how the decision impacts local businesses.
“I think the business community generally wants to have strong, stable schools,” the Charlotte Ledger business newsletter’s Tony Mecia told WFAE’s Marshall Terry on this week’s installment of BizWorthy. “You know, it's an economic development tool — along with many other things — that when the city of Charlotte and economic developers go out and they pitch the Charlotte region, they say, ‘We have a great airport, we have a great location, great weather, strong business community — and we have good schools.'”
So, how does yet another change in CMS leadership factor in? Mecia says that remains to be seen — but that efforts to improve schools could be seen as positive.
“Obviously, we don't know, and it's too early to say, you know what this move means for the future of the school system,” Mecia said. “And then by extension, what does that mean for economic development? But it's certainly an important part of the Charlotte area's growth.”
Speaking of things that might convince people to move to Charlotte … the city’s getting a new space to play pickleball, which is apparently all the rage these days.
“You're now seeing pickleball courts built around the center city and in neighborhoods like that,” Mecia said.” This is one called Rally entertainment that's envisioned for the LoSo area, and it's going to have eight pickleball courts, two cocktail bars and what it calls a 'culinary program,' so good food. And why do we need one of these? Well, I guess it's apparently it's what people want. I guess.”
You can listen to the full BizWorthy conversation above. Here’s a quick look at what else Mecia and Terry chatted about this week:
- A new Chick-Fil-A is being proposed in Charlotte’s Grier Heights neighborhood — awfully close to another Chick-Fil-A.
- A new tower has been approved for the SouthPark site that currently houses a movie theater.
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