The federal government granted Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools $542 million to help educators and students cope with the COVID-19 pandemic. At a special meeting Friday, the school board reviewed plans to put the remaining money to use in the year the school system has left to spend it.
Katie Sunceri, who’s in charge of the district’s federal programs, told the school board CMS has at least $24 million left for new efforts and may shift more money to meet the most urgent needs, such as hiring multilingual staff and “street teams” who can connect with students who are chronically absent (see the full presentation here). The money needs to be spent by September 2024, and staff is crafting a budget for 2023-24.
So far CMS has spent the money on such things as:
- Providing summer school and after-school tutoring.
- Hiring social workers, counselors and psychologists and providing in-school therapy sessions to support students’ emotional needs.
- Providing retention bonuses for about 18,000 employees.
- Paying for long-term substitutes who are stationed at schools to help cover for vacancies, absences and leaves.
- Contracting with nurses who can help cover schools.
- Providing interpretation services to help schools communicate with families who don’t speak English.
- Improving indoor air quality at 49 schools.
- Buying laptops and tablets to make sure students could stay connected when classes were remote.
Sunceri said CMS has been tracking the short and long-term results of investments so far, though all the data isn’t in. Board Chair Elyse Dashew said that will be important as people evaluate a historic infusion of money for education.
“And I think it’s making a difference, but we are going to have to show the skeptics that it has,” she said. “And where it hasn’t we have to show where it hasn’t and what we’ve done about it.”
Board member Jennifer De La Jara says CMS has been criticized for not spending the money fast enough, but Sunceri’s presentation showed the district has spent 52%, compared with 45% for a national comparison group. Another 17% of the CMS money is under contract but won’t be paid until services are delivered. Most of the rest has been designated for various projects.
“I want to thank you all for that great work of having us moving quicker and responding to the needs than the national average,” she told Sunceri.
Several board members talked about the challenge of making the transition in subsequent years, when the extra federal money dries up.
“It’s going to take a number of years to recover,” Dashew said. “Our kids will still be recovering when the (federal) funds expire.”
Federal money currently accounts for about one-quarter of the CMS operating budget, roughly twice what it was before the pandemic aid. County money covers about the same portion, with about half coming from the state.
Interim Superintendent Crystal Hill will present a budget plan to the school board on March 28.
