The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Board of Education will hold a public budget workshop Saturday at 8 a.m. at the Government Center, after the board voted earlier this week against adopting Superintendent Crystal Hill’s $2.1 billion budget proposal.
The vote Tuesday appeared to catch Hill off guard and left her uncertain about how to amend her spending plan ahead of the board’s March 12 deadline. By state law, the district must submit its budget to the county by May 15. After that, the county commissioners will decide how much to give CMS, on top of the state's funding allotment.
Board Chair Stephanie Sneed said the Saturday meeting is intended to give the superintendent clearer direction. Speaking with WFAE on Thursday, Sneed said she believes a final budget is not far off.
“It is not a complete overhaul,” Sneed said. “That’s why I’m confident that we’ll get there and get there timely. We just want to make sure that we’re in alignment and that we’re getting the best options possible.”
Board members offered few specific objections during Tuesday’s meeting. Instead, they raised more general concerns about whether the budget was meeting needs in the areas of student mental health, resources for teachers and efforts to close achievement gaps. They also implied that they did not have clarity or enough information about the budget's impact on the district.
Board members Liz Monterrey-Duvall and Shamaiye Haynes have also questioned the efficacy of a $2.4 million investment into a program called Capturing Kids Hearts, which purports to improve school culture. Monterrey-Duvall said she’d prefer that money go toward Behavior Modification Technicians.
In her newsletter Thursday, Monterrey-Duvall said she had two specific concerns. She said CMS hasn’t been clear about how it makes calculations about teacher allotments and whether resources are being distributed equitably.
Second, she said the board’s strategic plan requires CMS to invest in social-emotional and character development strategies that “successfully engage students.”
“That word successfully sets an evidence bar,” she said. “I’m not confident that all of the programs currently funded to meet that bar are actually meeting it.”
Several board members also suggested they felt that they weren’t getting adequate answers to their questions and concerns. In her newsletter, Monterrey-Duvall referenced the tight constraints in this year’s budget, brought on by both declining enrollment and the lack of a state budget.
“I also want to be fair to Superintendent Hill. Her job is to bring a budget that is a responsible steward of public funds given the resources available,” she said. “That is exactly what she did. But the board’s job is to understand the full picture, including what the constraints in that budget mean for kids. When a budget doesn’t name the gaps it’s leaving behind, we can’t do our job. We can’t make an honest case to the county. We can’t pursue Leandro funding with any clarity. We can’t tell you, our constituents, what our children are actually going without. That transparency is what we’re asking for.”
Board member Charlitta Hatch echoed that sentiment, arguing that the tight budget didn’t justify not meeting student needs.
“The questions being raised are not new,” said Board Member Charlitta Hatch in a Facebook post Thursday. “We’ve been asking these same questions since December and the answers are not changing in a way that meets the needs of our students and families. Understanding the why is not the same as meeting the need. At some point, we have to say: This does not meet the moment.”
Public records show board members submitted numerous questions to staff ahead of Tuesday’s vote. A handful of questions — specifically around how the district tracks the impact of changes in teacher allotments on individual schools’ programs and services — did not have answers recorded.
Sneed said she believed that the board’s desire for more information reflected a need for more engagement with staff.
“So the bottom line is every board member should feel comfortable that they have all of the information they need in order to be able to make a decision,” she said. “So even if information is provided or not, it’s still maybe more information needs to be provided in a particular area in order to be able to make that decision.”
