This story first appeared in WFAE Education Reporter James Farrell's weekly newsletter. Sign up here to get newsletters from WFAE straight to your inbox.
We are quickly approaching the first day of school on Aug. 25, unless you are one of the scofflaw school districts that’ve started classes already with nary a care for North Carolina’s calendar laws.
This past week’s Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools board meeting was marked by tensions around immigration enforcement, which is sure to be a continued issue throughout the year as educators and immigrant advocates alike continue to monitor for ICE activities at and near schools, now possible, after the Trump administration lifted guidance that once considered schools protected from enforcement. More on that shortly.
But parents can also refer back to that board meeting for some helpful information on how to get ready for the first day of school, including a reminder that CMS is switching over to Infinite Campus, the new student information system where you can find grades, schedules, attendance records and all that fun stuff. CMS officials recommend ironing out the kinks now before open houses begin this week.
With all that in mind, here’s a look at some of the story lines we’ll be paying attention to as school starts.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement
If Tuesday’s meeting was any indication, immigration is on many community members’ minds going into the school year. And not just in Charlotte – school districts around the country are entering uncertain times, preparing for the possibility that ICE agents show up on campus.
“Kids are scared of going into school again, parents are scared of taking their kids to school, and that fear is not paranoia, but based on the reality that families are being harassed all across the country," one resident, Mayra Trinidad, told the CMS board on Tuesday.
We’ve seen heightened tension around this issue since the Trump administration lifted guidelines that prohibited ICE from entering certain sensitive locations, such as schools and churches.
As my colleague Julian Berger reported earlier this year, this change in policy caused a lot of local concern, with some groups pushing CMS to do more to prepare for the possibility of ICE’s arrival. This came to a head in May when a parent was detained near the Charlotte East Language Academy.
This week, many speakers referenced news that surfaced in July about a webinar for CMS principals that noted lobbies and school parking lots were considered “public” places – where ICE would now be able to enter without permission, given the Trump administration’s new policies opening schools up to enforcement. (You can watch that webinar here.)
CMS has said this is the same for any member of the general public or any law enforcement agency, and has maintained that ICE “cannot indiscriminately wait to speak to a student, parent, or member of staff in public areas.”
At the board meeting this week, board members insisted that schools are safe and welcoming to all students regardless of immigration status. They’ve said there are protocols in place to deal with the presence of ICE. Board member Dee Rankin noted that ICE cannot just “set up” on a school campus, and said that if ICE agents lack a valid warrant or subpoena, they must leave.
In August, the district added a new regulation to its policy on law enforcement. The regulation spells out the procedures regarding immigration enforcement specifically. You can read that policy here. Among other things, it does, indeed, note that principals should instruct ICE agents to leave if they don’t have a valid judicial warrant or subpoena – and instructs principals to call the CMS Police Department if ICE agents refuse.
What’s clear at this point is that we’re in uncharted waters – we’ve seen major shifts in how ICE operates (appearing at courthouses, for instance, with no notice to local authorities), and ICE has not historically conducted operations at schools, so schools are scrambling to create policies and procedures and community members have questions and concerns. There’s no way to truly predict what ICE's presence at schools might end up looking like.
To date, ICE has not conducted any operations at any CMS facility. But all of this shows that just a mere possibility is having an impact on classrooms and school communities – and will likely continue to do so throughout the school year.
Student Assignment?
Last fall, the school board passed a flurry of student assignment changes largely affecting magnet schools (those changes will take effect this year). This was part of the district’s comprehensive review, which is required by board policy every four years.
For a while, there had been a lot of talk about doing a deeper dive into student assignment – the board reviewed a ton of data back in November. But after the board asked for more time in December, it didn’t come up again.
CMS told me back in May that the district was reviewing “data related to the ten-year forecast and the review of our Choice programs,” and that the district would “present our findings to the board during the 2025-2026 school year.”
In her newsletter last month, board member Liz Monterrey-Duvall noted that Phase II of the Comprehensive Review is on the docket for the 2025-26 school year, so it appears likely we could see some evaluation of current enrollment boundaries and more magnet programs.
Literacy and post-pandemic learning
Educators and researchers continue to monitor how students are recovering from the learning loss of the coronavirus pandemic. Last week, for instance, I reported on a new study that showed students have largely plateaued since the pandemic, making it difficult to bounce back to where they were pre-pandemic.
Last school year, I focused a lot on literacy and reading scores, given North Carolina’s massive investment in the science of reading training for teachers. Statewide, we’ve seen that investment pay off in big gains for younger students – K-3. But progress has been less clear for older students in grades 3-8, which made last year’s end-of-grade exams particularly important to watch.
In the first week of September, we should get our first look at how students fared.
Locally, CMS will be paying attention to whether the district hit the annual targets that put it on pace to achieve its goals. From a literacy perspective, that means increasing the percentage of K-2 students scoring at benchmark on their DIBELS tests from 67% to 91% by 2029, and increasing the percentage of 3-8 students scoring Career and College Ready on their EOG exams from 31% to 50% by June 2029.
School safety and communication
Communication was a key theme last year, after a string of controversies drew criticisms from parents.
There were the unexpected suspensions of principals at Ardrey Kell High School and Randolph Middle School, which prompted outcry from parents frustrated by the lack of explanation or notice. There was the concern about a series of school threats that were first publicly disclosed in the media, which prompted Superintendent Crystal Hill to issue a video apology.
CMS officials didn’t explicitly discuss any of that at the latest school board meeting, but they did unveil a new way parents can communicate with the district – an online tool they call “Let’s Talk,” which they say allows parents to go to their school website, type in questions, concerns or feedback, and expect a timely response from the district.
Board member Summer Nunn hinted at the importance of improved communication in a July Facebook post announcing she was not seeking reelection this year.
“Communication — both at the board level and within CMS — is an area of real opportunity,” Nunn wrote. “It takes more effort than it should to stay informed, aligned, and truly effective in this work.”
Hey, speaking of who’s running and not running for reelection…
Board elections
We’ve got what could be a consequential board election this year.
Six of the board’s nine seats are up for grabs this year, and we already know two incumbents are not seeking reelection – Nunn and Thelma Byers-Bailey.
I did an overview of who’s running back in July. You can read that here, and stay tuned for more coverage in the weeks and months ahead.
