Morrison hears about transfers, raises

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Superintendent Heath Morrison left Monday night's employee meeting with a list of new things to look into,  including the fairness of the teacher transfer process and questions about combined elementary/middle schools.

"My concern was that people weren't going to put issues on the table,"  Morrison said after the meeting,  which was closed to the public and press.  But he said about 150 employees showed up,  and many were eager to tell him how he needs to fix morale and trust.

Morrison,  who started July 1,  wasn't defending old practices or laying out new plans.  The latter will come sometime after his meetings with the public and employees end in mid-November.

That won him high marks with some who attended.  Lachone Winston,  a teacher at Bruns Academy,  said Morrison seemed intent on getting each speaker's point,  rather than giving an  "OK, but ..."  type response.  "He is a listener,"  she said.

Among the issues that came up,  according to Morrison and participants,  was whether the teacher transfer process works as it should and whether students in the growing number of K-8 schools are prepared for the transition to high school.  Morrison said he didn't have answers yet,  but  "trust me, tomorrow I'm going to be asking questions."

Of course,  raises came up as well  --  in particular,  the fact that some administrators got large market adjustment raises in addition to the 3 percent given to all employees.  Teachers were not eligible for the market bumps,  which are based on a 2007 study of jobs comparable to some CMS salaried and hourly posts.  "In our break-out session,  we were hot about that,"  Winston said.

After the session,  Morrison voiced frustration that the market hikes are creating resentment just as teachers finally get their first raise in three years.  But he declined to say whether interim Superintendent Hugh Hattabaugh and his staff erred in pushing through those raises.

The market adjustments,  which cost a little over $4 million in county money,  were part of the raise plan Hattabaugh started pitching in January.  The board approved a specific plan in late June,  just before Morrison officially started work,  and approved a final budget last week.  Morrison said he was mainly aware of the 3 percent raises for everyone,  and started looking into specifics of the market hikes as public questions arose.

"In theory I agree with the market adjustment.  It's the right thing to do,"  he said.  But he said "the timing of it is not good,"  and the district was too slow to offer details and answer questions.

Some of the specifics are continuing to raise eyebrows.  Market raises went to principals who had already gotten significant raises when they were promoted,  in the five years after the study was done.  At least a couple of people in temporary jobs,  including one in a two-year Broad Foundation management training program,  got raises.  And perhaps most confounding,  state Rep. Tricia Cotham,  who isn't currently working for CMS,  is listed as getting a $6,883 annual raise.  Cotham was an assistant principal at East Mecklenburg High when she went on unpaid leave to serve in the state House.  CMS agreed to keep her on the payroll so she can return without penalty.  Her raise would kick in only after her return.

Meanwhile,  those who want to hear from Morrison or ask him questions will have plenty of chances Thursday.  He'll be on WFAE's Charlotte Talks that morning.  He's the speaker at a lunch sponsored by the Ballantyne and SouthPark branches of the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce at the Ballantyne hotel;  it's open to nonmembers who register and pay $45 for lunch.  And at 6 p.m. he'll hold the first of his public town hall meetings,  at Rocky River High in Mint Hill.

Classroom tech clock is ticking

With less than a month before school starts,  it's time to catch up on plans for the digital revolution that's looming in classrooms.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools is still moving toward a  "bring your own technology"  environment with wifi in every school,  though the pace has slowed somewhat during this summer's leadership transition.  Many public and private schools around the region are considering similar moves.  I'll be getting an update from educators soon.  Meanwhile,  if you're shopping for tablets, smart phones or other devices for your kids to take to school  --  or wondering what to buy  --  please give me a call  (704-358-5033)  or shoot me an email (ahelms@charlotteobserver.com) for a weekend story.

The CMS board will hold a public hearing on revisions to its student internet use policy on Aug. 15.  That "digital citizenship" policy,  designed to prepare for students to use their own devices at school,  generated lively commentary when I blogged about it in June.  So I was surprised and dismayed when a public hearing last week drew absolutely no speakers.  I felt like I bore some of the blame  --  I took a vacation right before the meeting and didn't alert readers it was coming.  The good news is there's another chance,  and I'll highlight it again closer to the time.  The hearing will come right before the board's vote,  so if you want to weigh in sooner,  consider sending a written comment.

Hundreds of CMS students will have new classroom iPads in August,  thanks to the district's program offering the devices to teaching teams with good plans for putting them to use.  As many of you have noted,  such devices can be both a blessing and a challenge.  THE Journal (it stands for Technology Horizons in  Education) offers this list of  "Five Things Not To Do During an iPad Rollout."

And as always,  keep me posted on questions, issues and trends you're seeing as schools go digital.  I'm solidly in the digital immigrant generation and some of this flies right over my head,  but tech-savvy readers are a big help.

A supercharged CMS newsroom?

Terry Abbott,  who comes to town this week to review Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools' communications program,  has strong views about school districts shaping how they're viewed.

"School districts must create their own supercharged newsrooms to find and deliver compelling, dramatic stories about success  —  and failure too. The sea change occurring in the news business gives school districts more opportunities to find and tell their own great stories and get more positive coverage in the media,"  Abbott wrote in a 2009 District Administration article titled  "Taking Control of Your District's News."

Superintendent Heath Morrison is paying $20,000 for a communication audit by Abbott, who chairs Drive West Communications.  Abbott is a former chief of staff for the U.S. Education Department, former press secretary for Houston Independent School District -- and even a former newspaper reporter.


Communication audits Abbott did for Wake County Schools in 2011 and for Washoe County Schools when Morrison was hired to head that district in 2009 may offer a glimpse of what he'll be looking at and thinking when he scopes out the scene in CMS.  Two years later,  Morrison described the "communications transformation"  that followed from that audit  (you've got to love an official PowerPoint that includes the header "Official Test Score Reports = SNOOZEFEST!").


Covering a communications audit poses a unique challenge for education reporters.  Abbott will likely be critiquing our coverage and how well it conveys the CMS message.  And he has invited a group of education reporters to provide input for the audit.  It's a sensible request from someone who wants to get the full picture,  and after 10 years of covering CMS I'm chock full of opinions about what works and what doesn't. But reporters don't participate in issues we cover,  and after talking with my editors,  we decided the Observer would not attend.


Morrison says the findings of this audit will be made public as he prepares his plans to move forward.  I'll be eager to read and report on what Abbott says about CMS,  and even more curious to see how his recommendations play out.

CMS helps launch suburban coalition

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools is among 10 large countywide and suburban districts nationwide launching a coalition to make sure the needs of suburban schools aren't overlooked in federal policy, according to a recent EdWeek report.

"The needs of some of these larger,  suburban,  very successful districts are different from some of the  'crisis-of-the-moment'  issues you see in some of the city districts," coalition chairman Jack Dale of Fairfax County, Va., is quoted as saying.

Robert Avossa,  who left CMS to become superintendent of Fulton County Schools in suburban Atlanta, is quoted as saying districts like his face some of the same challenges as urban districts,  including a growing number of students from low-income or non-English-speaking homes.  But they're sometimes left out of policies focused on aiding the most distressed schools.

Ericka Ellis-Stewart,  chairman of the CMS board, said Superintendent Heath Morrison participated in a conference call about the coalition and plans to brief the board soon.

Thanks to the MeckEd newsletter for the heads-up on this article.

CMS raises: Quirks and ironies

The release of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools' market adjustment raises has raised questions and highlighted some strange twists in the system.

Let's start with principal pay, a hot topic for years.  Teachers, principals and assistant principals are all on state pay schedules, leading some to wonder why the administrators were eligible for market bumps while teachers were not.

That's because the state scales prescribe exactly what a teacher makes based on experience and credentials,  but give a range for administrators,  says CMS Human Resources Chief Dan Habrat.  CMS used the market raises to bump 58 principals and 34 assistants higher in their range.  Thus, East Meck Principal Rick Parker,  whose $93,000 salary was apparently the most out of whack based on the 2007 study,  ends up with a 19 percent raise after a $14,744 adjustment and the 3 percent across-the-board raise.

I was surprised to see strategic staffing principals on the adjustment list.   In his five years with CMS,  Peter Gorman made that program his showcase,  tapping top principals to bring a team into struggling schools.  Those principals got 10 percent raises,  and even in the midst of the recession he and the board found money to keep expanding that program.  Does this mean those top performers were still below 2007 market wages,  even after their 10 percent hike?

Well,  no.  Habrat told me last night that strategic staffing is considered a  "bonus program,"  with the 10 percent an add-on for taking on that specific challenge.  The market raises were calculated based on "core salaries" before the 10 percent hikes,  he said.

So does that means the 10 percent raises go away when the three-year strategic staffing term is completed and/or the principal moves to another school?   Again,  no.  Principals keep the 10 percent strategic staffing raise and the market hike as long as they're in a principal job with CMS (or even if they're reassigned but not demoted,  as witnessed by the fact that an assistant principal who was briefly a high school principal is consistently one of CMS' highest-paid employees).

An irony emerged when CMS released the long-awaited word on who got the top market raise of  $17,202.  It went to an executive director leading a five-year,  federally-funded pilot program designed to see if teacher performance pay could boost student achievement.  The job Susan Norwood now holds didn't exist when CMS did the 2007 study and won't exist by the end of this school year.  There's no sign yet that the TIF-LEAP merit-pay program yielded clear evidence on student achievement  --  but that doesn't matter,  because the market raises aren't based on program results or individual performance.

Back in 2007,  Deloitte Consulting looked at eight CMS executive director jobs  (transportation, public information, professional development, employee relations, human resources, budget, accounting and partnerships)  and compared those wages with pay for similar jobs in education,  government and nonprofit agencies.  The market scale they came up with is what was used to determine whether today's executive directors needed a bump to make competitive salaries,  Habrat said.

Finally,  it's worth noting that Superintendent Heath Morrison is launching studies of the effectiveness of his communications and HR departments,  saying both are crucial to the strategic plan he'll unveil after his first 100 days.  Without pointing fingers at individuals,  I think it's fair to say this provides a case study in room for improvement.

A month after the school board approved this pay plan,  CMS released specifics to employees and the public.  On Wednesday,  all employees got an email saying they could check their individual raise eligibility on the CMS  "employee self service" system.  But that system told teachers they weren't eligible for even the 3 percent raises.  Habrat said last night that was an error;  updating the teacher pay scales is more complicated and will take a few more days,  he said.  CMS is following up today with a correction.

Likewise,  I left the office at 8 p.m. Wednesday with no answers to follow-up questions based on the raise list.  Habrat called at 9,  after I emailed him, Morrison and spokeswoman Tahira Stalberte to say a "Habrat and Morrison weren't available to answer questions" story was online and headed for print  (Stalberte says Morrison was tied up in back-to-back community meetings).

Morrison has vowed to be nimble and responsive to public and press questions.  He and his team are going to face their share of curve balls in the months ahead.  But when you've got a month to prepare, we're still playing slow-pitch.

Update 5 p.m.:  Christine Mast has shared a CMS email noting that the $3.6 million county cost for the market raises was an estimate that turned out to be low.  The new email sets the tab at $4.35 million from the county,  including benefits,  and an additional $1.1 million from other sources,  such as federal grants and revenue from the lunch and after-school programs.

Three decline CMS board raises

Board members Rhonda Lennon,  Eric Davis and Tim Morgan said Tuesday they won't accept the 3 percent raises that the board unanimously approved for all Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools employees, including the board.

We're talking a token sum.  A 3 percent bump means the chairman's annual salary would go from $15,909 to $16,386,  an increase of $477.  The other eight would see their pay go from $12,237 to $12,605,  up $367 (there's some rounding in here).  If all nine board members declined their raises,  the district would have just over $3,400 to put into another cause  -- barely a blip in a $1.2 billion budget.

All three acknowledged the money won't accomplish much,  but said it symbolizes how much the board still needs to do to make employees, students and families whole after budget cuts in recent years.  Not only did teachers and other staff go three years without raises,  Morgan noted,  but the board closed schools,  changed hours,  limited some bus service and added athletic participation fees.

"It's those items that still bother me,"  said Morgan, adding that forgoing a raise is  "a reminder to me that we still have more work to do."

Davis,  a West Point graduate,  cited a military tradition:  "If it's time to eat,  the officers go to the back of the line. For me,  it's a statement of principle and priority."

Lennon,  who voted against the budget in the spring,  said she still has qualms about some items but voted for it Tuesday to show support for Superintendent Heath Morrison and other CMS employees.

Other board members said there's no point giving up the raises.  Richard McElrath noted that school board members make less than county commissioners and Charlotte City Council members.  "What do they do that's more important than what we do?  I think we should accept it because I think we earned it."

"The work that we do,  we have to value it and not minimize it,"  agreed Vice Chairman Mary McCray.

The trio aren't the first board members to say "no thanks" to a raise.  Larry Gauvreau did the same several years ago,  when he objected to a budget he called bloated.

Charlotte's charter choices growing

Updated Wednesday afternoon: The Charlotte region, already a haven for charter schools, is poised to add more to the menu, as the state's Charter School Advisory Board starts winnowing applications for 2013-14. Seven applications of the 25 applications that got the panel's nod this week are from Mecklenburg and surrounding counties (the state Board of Education makes the final call). One of the five rejected is from Mecklenburg, according to a report from Eddie Goodall of Monroe, executive director of the N.C. Public Charter Schools Association.

I wrote about the charter boom in April, when Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools planners said growth in the area's existing charters would shift about 1,000 more students to charters in 2012-13. A state tally shows that in the year that just ended, Mecklenburg County sent almost 8,300 students to charters and 137,500 to  CMS -- by far the highest total number of charter students of any N.C. county, and the highest charter-to-school district ratio in any of the state's large districts.

The seven Charlotte-area applicants that got approval from the advisory board would open up spots for about 3,000 students in 2013-14, growing to more than 8,000 as they expand and add grades in later years. The two largest would be located just outside Mecklenburg (students can cross county lines for charters), while the other five would target disadvantaged urban students.

The state Board of Education plans to vote on new charters in September. Here's what I know about the Charlotte-area charters that got preliminary approval.

Aristotle Preparatory Academy, a K-12 school which would be run by the national Challenge Foundation Academy chain and would target students in west Charlotte, with a focus on science, technology and math. Plans call for opening with 200 students in K-3, eventually growing to 950 in all grades.

Cameron Creek Charter would serve at-risk K-5 students in impoverished Charlotte communities, opening with 260 students and growing to 360. The founder is Sylvia Cole, who lists herself as both a CMS teacher and an officer of the Strawberry Mansion Area Renaissance Trust Corp. in Philadelphia.

Charlotte Choice Charter would target disadvantaged K-8 students in west Charlotte, opening with about 200 in K-5 and growing to just over 300. The founder is Linda Cruz, listed as a former teacher at CMS' Providence High and a former regional director for Academic Achievers Tutoring Program.

Cabarrus Charter Academy and Langtree Charter Academy would be run by the N.C. Charter Educational Foundation, which is associated with the Florida-based Charter Schools USA management company. They will offer a college-prep K-12 program with eventual enrollment of more than 2,300 in each school. Each plans to open with about 660 in grades K-6.

Invest Collegiate will be located in Charlotte's Wilmore neighborhood and aims to mix low-income students in walking distance with upper- and middle-income students for a diverse K-12 learning experience. The founding board includes educators from CMS' Eastway Middle and Pine Lake Prep charter school. Enrollment would start at about 560 in K-6 and grow to more than 1,100.

StudentFirst Academy, a private school in west Mecklenburg County, is seeking permission to convert to a charter school. The plan calls for it to serve about 600 K-12 students eventually, opening with just over 300 in K-6.

Meanwhile, the advisory board rejected the plan for Thunderbird Preparatory Academy, which wanted to serve almost 1,300 K-12 students with an international leadership program in north Mecklenburg.