At the first Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Board meeting of the new year, the board’s newest members acknowledged recent glitches with the district’s school choice lottery system.
New board members Charlitta Hatch, Anna London, Shamaiye Haynes and Cynthia Stone all called for improved communication with families after a series of glitches caused frustration for parents who participated in the lottery last week. London said she’d continue to escalate concerns and push for better communication with families.
“Families do deserve transparency that builds trust; they deserve systems that work consistently, not just in moments of calm but especially in moments of challenge,” London said.
Hatch said she understood the lottery was “deeply personal” and that “when something doesn’t go as expected, it creates stress and uncertainty.”
“Children cannot wait for adults to get comfortable,” Hatch said. “They need us to get courageous. Courageous enough to ask hard questions, own mistakes, improve systems and not defend them.”
The district’s new online lottery system, Parchment, mistakenly listed some students as “waitlisted” to their chosen magnet programs even when they were supposed to be guaranteed a seat. That included many students whose siblings already attend a magnet program, who are supposed to be guaranteed a seat at their siblings’ school per CMS policy.
