CMS plans to begin teaching new material via remote learning during coronavirus closure

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools will begin teaching new content to students on March 30, pending approval from the state, district officials told the school board in a Tuesday presentation.

The start of remote learning with new curriculum comes after Governor Roy Cooper issued an executive order, extending the closure of schools in the state from the original March 30 date to May 15. Under the first, two-week long closure, CMS teachers and administrators organized a supplemental learning program for students, where no new concepts were introduced.

The closures are an attempt to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus. As of Tuesday afternoon, Mecklenburg County had 142 positive tests for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.

The district will also exempt students from midterm exams, deputy superintendent Matt Hayes said. The state’s request to waive end-of-year testing requirements was approved by the federal Department of Education, but a full waiver of the requirements would require a vote of the General Assembly.

Carrying out the school year online is an unprecedented challenge for a district like CMS, with its nearly 150,000 students, many of whom are considered to be in poverty and might not have consistent access to WiFi and technology. In addition, CMS enrolls numerous students with special needs and students for whom English is not their first language, additional challenges for ensuring equal access to good teaching.

The district has been working to fill in those gaps. The CMS Foundation, a non-profit that raises money for the district’s initiatives, announced that Panthers owner David Tepper and other donors made a $1 million gift for 6,000 WiFi hot spots. CMS chief technology officer Derek Root said that the district has received about 100 of those so far.

“Hot spots are a hot item in the country,” Root said, acknowledging the delays in acquiring and distributing them.

Remote learning still needs final approval

Root said the district was working to send the right devices to students who use iPads as part of their special needs accommodations, while other students will use Chromebooks. Root and Hayes said getting devices to students and beginning to teach online would be easier for the upper grades, which already use technology as part of instruction.

CMS’s tentative plan for remote learning involves non-digital work plans for grades K-3, and online platforms for upper grades. But final approval to start remote learning, along with other details, will require guidance from the state, Superintendent Earnest Winston said.

“I was on a call with superintendents across the state, and there are many questions that remain,” Winston said.

Other questions that require an answer from the state include whether CMS will be allowed to grant emergency leave pay to hourly staff who cannot work remote jobs. Currently, the state has directed local school districts to assign tasks to hourly employees in order to keep them working.

In CMS, that means cafeteria workers transitioning to running school meal distribution sites, as opposed to school lunch. Some bus drivers have begun driving routes to deliver meals, instead of picking up students. So far, CMS has provided 293,000 meals to children across the county since schools were closed last Monday.

CMS asked the state for the ability to keep those workers on the payroll, for whom remote work or other assignments are not “feasible or productive.” But limited guidance has been provided as of Tuesday.

“Some things we just don’t have answers to right now,” Winston said.