Shamaiye Haynes

Mecklenburg County 2025 Election Results: Transit Tax Passes, Democrats Sweep Charlotte City Council and School Board

Mecklenburg County voters approved a landmark transit tax, re‑elected Mayor Vi Lyles, and delivered a clean sweep for Democrats on the council and school board in Charlotte's 2025 municipal election.

CMS Board Denies Hill's $2.1B Budget 8-1, Gives Her Two Weeks Without Saying What to Change

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Board of Education voted 8-1 Tuesday night to deny Superintendent Crystal Hill's $2.1 billion budget and gave her two weeks to come back with a revised version — without saying, in open session, what to change. After the vote, Hill asked four times for direction at the dais. Chair Stephanie Sneed declined and adjourned. The revised budget is due May 12.

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.

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 Restored All Four Foster-Care Liaisons. A Judge Explained What 20 Years of That Investment Had Built.

District Court Judge Elizabeth Trosch spent nearly two decades in juvenile court before showing up at the May 12 CMS board meeting to explain what the district's sustained investment in four foster-care liaisons had actually produced — and why it had made Mecklenburg County a national model.

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 Just Committed a School Site to Educator Housing for 99 Years. Now IHSF Has to Raise the Money.

CMS unanimously approved a 99-year lease option with Innovative Housing Solutions Foundation for educator housing adjacent to Garinger High School. IHSF must secure fundraising by June 2027.