It's T-minus 12 days until the start of school, and Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools leaders proclaimed at the school board meeting last night that they are ready.
They also presented a grab-bag of numbers and statistics regarding what they're expecting for the first day, and I thought I'd share them here.
More students coming. CMS is expecting to have 754 more students this year than it had at the 20th day of school last year. The vast majority is coming from high school students, which Deputy Superintendent Ann Clark attributed to keeping more students from dropping out and promoting more from 9th to 10th grade. Interestingly, they're projecting a decrease in enrollment in elementary school (albeit only by one student). They didn't address why this is, but my guess is it's because most charter schools target early grades.
More buses, too. CMS is projecting to add 27 buses to its fleet this year, bringing the total 1,020, even as the number of students they expect to ride them will fall a bit. The district says this is because of new academic programs at schools around the county.
Less out-of-school suspension. The district has made changes to the code of student conduct, and one emphasis is on keeping students in the school even when they're being disciplined.
Still looking for teachers. CMS has 421 teacher vacancies, though 266 of those already have a recommendation. Superintendent Heath Morrison said that having 155 teacher openings without recommendations is ahead of where the district was at this point last year. The largest number of vacancies, 59, are in elementary school.
PowerSchool should be ready. The portal parents use for updates should be functional this year after many malfunctions last year as CMS shifted to a new system.
Wednesday, August 13, 2014
CMS projecting to have about 750 more students
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26 comments:
Andrew, what time do CMS school buses start running in the morning (first stop), and what time are they scheduled to end service in afternoons?
Since your new at this I will help you. CMS has no idea how many students attend and they report a actual estimated number a few months into the school year. Its always a larger number year over year. Can you say money grab?
Is that vacancy number from the website? Because many principals post 1 vacancy for a position that they need 5-6 people in.
Public school supporters have successfully battled legislative efforts in recent years that would have given tax credits to home-school families and allowed home-schoolers to take online classes free from the state’s virtual public school.
Interesting how the public school supporters want money from "everyone", yet aren't willing to allow "everyone" to use those funds.
The home school families pay property taxes, also, yet simply choose to take control of their children's education. Last time I checked the home school children are scoring higher in most every way school children are measured - go figure!
How about finding out how many kids actual ride the bus? You ever see a car pool line? My kids ride the bus-its nearly empty.
Also-dig into PTAs holding parents hostage by not giving out any information unless you join.
And-if they can't figure out how many kids there are-wait until the suburban schools are even more crowded with our new apartments being built near ballanytne, endhaven and possibly hawk ridge. but that is 28277-so CMS doesn't care. Go sit on the floor suburbanites-but pay for all our programs.
Can you do some research into individualized learning? Our school is doing that this year and I'm concerned.
4:46 -- I am looking into the buses
6:43 -- Yes, I will be looking for the official count after the 20th day. This number is good to know to see if there are big differences when the real figure come out.
7:37 -- No, the number is from Ann Clark and her team.
8:03 -- I will be writing something on personalized learning in the next week.
Anon 7:51,
I have always been interested by how well home schooled children seem to perform with regards to academics, but then again, a one to one ratio and the potential for lack of integrity is a bonus, but I fail to see the connection with this article.
I thought it rather amusing that CMS claims they are ready when they have still have hundreds of teaching vacancies at this late stage. I suppose being ready is a relative term? And why does the school system need more buses for the same amount of students, I wonder how many ta's that could have been for the students?
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CHANGES IN CMS HANDBOOK
It is fortunate CMS makes such a strong and readable effort to inform parents about school polices. I didn’t see much difference between this year’s and last’s.
The real change isn’t in the Handbook. It is the new intent of the Board to prevent lives being thrown away when students get too deep into not realizing how seriously they are jeopardizing their futures. This is not a popular policy for many who believe there should be little tolerance for disrupting schools with persistent bad behavior or worse criminal activity.
It was a little difficult to compare the 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 Handbooks but here are two items that stick-out: Long-Term Alternative Suspensions and DPI Definitions of Crime
LONG-TERM ALTERNATIVE SUSPENSIONS
Lots of changes to the appeal process, mostly being more specific than 2013-14. However a noticeable change was clarifying that a student may have counsel at the final Board Hearing.
Didn’t find in 2013-14 or 2014-15 a definition of “counsel.” The Definitions section lists; Student, Board, Principal and Parent, but not “counsel.”
DPI CRIME DEFINITIONS
These definitions weren’t in the 2013-14 Handbook and I seem to remember a Board discussion about this being a new state law enacted in 2012-13. Very important to note that for 9 of the 16 DPI listed offensives, that if they occur at the rate of “at least two dangerous acts and a ratio of at least five dangerous acts per thousand students” the DPI may designate the school as “Persistently Dangerous.”
List of crimes that may lead to Persistently Dangerous designation.
--Assault Resulting in Serious Personal Injury:
--Assault Involving Use of a Weapon:
--Kidnapping:
--Rape:
--Robbery with a Dangerous Weapon:
--Sexual Assault (not involving rape or sexual offense):
--Sexual Offense
--Taking Indecent Liberties with A Minor:
On the DPI list of crimes but NOT serious enough to result in a Persistent Dangerous designationse
--Assault on School officials, Employees, and Volunteers
Bolyn McClung
Pineville
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Cut out the Ivory Tower and its black hole drainage of money completely.
Home school or Private School
All administration with its no student contact and waste would be cut as well.What a glorious day that would be for the taxpayers of Meck County.
Bolyn, there should be NO tolerance for persistent bad behavior and criminal activity by high school students. But, gotta raise those graduation rates somehow.
8;03pm Good points. The morning buses in South charlotte are empty, and principals/administrators know that most of the students are dropped off via carpool. Why the number of buses running on the road, at least in the mornings, is a mystery to most of us parents. Someone should let the CMS transportation dept know.
The CMS Data Merry Go Round is up and running!
In 2005, CMS projected 53,000 new students over the next decade, which would have put the total enrollment at about 160,000.
Right now, we're ate 144,000.
Last year, CMS used overcrowding as the #2 bulletpoint begging voters to pass the bond referendum. They project CMS will add 20,000 over this next decade, which will put the number IN TEN YEARS where they projected it to be today.
We all know voters believed CMS' BS and passed the bonds.
Now we will have a whopping 750 more students in 2015.
What's even more pathetic is CMS is including students not dropping out and promoting more from 9th and 10th grade.
What's the REAL number of students NEW to CMS being added?
Add to that MORE school buses to move around fewer students.
I don't want to hear another person moan about how much it costs to bus magnet students.
You people voted for those bonds and the BOE who keeps supporting this fiasco.
....and the dumbing down continues...
How many new ESL students are new in the district or are expected to enroll?
First article of the year and 'Start Time Guy' is back to hijack every thread regardless of the subject.
What happens when a parent that only has a high school education home schools their kid? How do they teach the kid tougher subjects when they can't do them?
Given CMS' history with "projected" numbers (student enrollment, student assignment, graduation rates, etc..) and it's ineptness at providing an accurate count of students until the end of last school year, is it any wonder our state decided to make "radical" changes in projected enrollment funding? Public charter schools do not have the benefit of projected enrollment funding. Just saying.
Alicia
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TO: ANON 9:28AM
Parents who homeschool aren't on an island by themselves. They can use their own skills, hire tutors, go to online courses for anything from kindergarten to college. They aren't limited to straight education sites. Museums, research centers and general information sites are available.
Homeschool parents probably don't think they are better teachers than the public schools. They likely believe they can make better choices for their children. That should be an easy concept to grasp.
Bolyn McClung
Pineville
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9:28, a couple of things happen. One the kid is safe. Two, the kid actually gets to learn how to research and learn new things on their own. Many advanced concepts in math and science are more up-to-date on the web resources than the textbooks used in schools these days. Add also, most CMS classsroom teachers get very little time to teach between social services and just maintaining order takes most of their time.
And third, you might do a little research yourself on the NC home school association and really learn about how our children are getting educated who have the best chance of saving this country. Public schools have long missed serving the average student. CMS has almost made it an art form to ignore the students who have "demonstrated" the potential to learn and achieve at the highest levels. Sure they keep a few "tokens" around to parade out in front of the critics but there is no sincere effort to educate all the children. It is only a matter of who you need to placate and keep voting for the incompetent BOE members.
Personalized learning = the school asking for money to furnish classrooms??!
Also someone said their PTA requires membership for communication. Isn't that just shooting them in the foot? Why would they not want to communicate with the entire school. Our school does that too - check out a south charlotte elementary schools Facebook page (school starting with H in 28277).
I'm certainly not an expert on homeschooling but I can tell you that EVERY college and university my children looked at and applied to included homeschooling on their application. Homeschooling has gone mainstream and is no longer considered "off the grid".
My sister-in-law homeschooled her two children who went on to attend Brown University. A former neighbor of mine, who was an admissions officer at Williams College, homeschooled her children. The charter school I work for just hired a Chemistry teacher who has been homeschooling her children.
On the other hand, my student teaching experience included working with a 12-year-old homeschooled student who arrived half way through the school year functionally illiterate. This student was home but I'm not sure they were schooled. I question how the state of NC addresses educational neglect.
Alicia
Take back our schools,
Sorry, but I don't agree with with this statement.
"Public schools have long missed serving the average student."
I think you have judged all public schools based on your issues with CMS. For myself, I could not be happier with the education each of my children are receiving in KCS schools. Others may not agree and that's okay, but we are very pleased with what we have seen so far.
4:46, got an answer for you: 6 a.m. average for first stop, 6 p.m. average for last stop.
Andrew, that is funny that CMS says "average" time 6am and 6pm. They have specific bus stop times on their schedules and I'm sure the first is before 6am, but they don't want that out in the press!
how many total CMS students are there?
9:59
Enrollment - 142,612
(if this posts more than once, blame the stupid moderation program being used)
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