Ann Doss Helms

This week Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools faced troubling allegations about its past, even as leaders try to focus on school safety for the coming year. A lawsuit says CMS overlooked reports of child abuse against a private after-school operator in 2013. That man is now behind bars after being charged with taking indecent liberties with a 6-year-old student last year.

Hate mail and racist remarks have long been a reality for people in public life – especially for African Americans. But instead of quietly commiserating with colleagues, a few Charlotte officials are calling out those messages in public meetings.

Along with “The dog ate my homework,” teachers in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools may hear a new excuse from students this year: “My parents didn’t hear the bus coming.”

A rebellion against North Carolina’s school calendar law has gotten the attention of state lawmakers. About a dozen districts have started earlier than the law allows. One key legislator says the state can’t keep looking the other way, but it’s unclear whether officials will ease up or crack down. 

Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board members talked about stability when they gave Earnest Winston a three-year contract as superintendent earlier this month. But it turns out fine print in that contract means he doesn’t have much job security. 

Normally there’s nothing controversial about kids going back to school in August. But in a handful of North Carolina districts near Charlotte, local leaders are defying state law – or at least stretching it – to roll their buses early. 

How do you get teens to spend part of their summer vacation thinking about architecture and public policy? The Urban Land Institute of Charlotte turned to something that might sound a bit crazy: Hip Hop Architecture Camp. 

Updated 4 p.m. 8/2/2019

Smarting from the fallout of two superintendent searches that ended in failure, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board voted Friday to name Earnest Winston superintendent with no plans to conduct a search.

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools board has hired a global public relations firm for $30,000 that specializes in crisis management to deal with the aftermath of the suspension of Superintendent Clayton Wilcox. The board suspended Wilcox Monday with pay.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Superintendent Clayton Wilcox has been suspended by the board of education. After a meeting Monday morning between Wilcox and some school board leaders, CMS officials announced his suspension in an email. Wilcox, the district’s fifth superintendent in 10 years, has only been on the job two years.

Updated at 12:45 p.m.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Superintendent Clayton Wilcox was suspended after meeting with school board leaders this morning.