Melissa Balknight

CMS Is Cutting Four Foster-Care Liaisons. The County Doesn't Know Yet.

CMS Eliminated Its Pre-K Coaching Staff. The Kindergarten Pipeline Is the Replacement.

CMS Board Unanimously Approves Hill's Amended Budget — Two Weeks After Denying It 8-1

Two weeks after rejecting Superintendent Crystal Hill's $2.1 billion budget 8-1, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Board of Education unanimously approved her amended version on Tuesday. The same operating envelope now carries six negotiated changes — including the elimination of the $2.4 million Capturing Kids Hearts contract and the reinstatement of all four CMS-DSS educational liaison positions. The state budget remains the variable holding everything else still.

CMS Ends $2.4 Million Capturing Kids' Hearts Program and Redirects Funds Toward Direct Classroom Support

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools will end its use of Capturing Kids' Hearts and redirect the program's $2.4 million budget toward classroom-based instruction and a competitive procurement process.

CMS Board Committee Spent Six Weeks Rewriting Family Engagement Policy. Then They Found the Real Problem.

The Family and Community Engagement Ad Hoc Committee is drafting the district's first standalone family engagement policy — and discovered there are no written rules for how board members use district staff.

CMS Final Program Choice Plan

Superintendent Crystal Hill's final Program Choice plan, presented to the CMS Board of Education April 28, would consolidate the district's choice programs into six themes, cut programs at 11 schools, add programs at four, and convert all four middle colleges to early colleges. Public hearing May 12; board vote May 26; implementation 2027-28.