CMS plans to cut 760+ positions. What’s next for hundreds of employees?

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools will eliminate more than 760 positions as it copes with the end of COVID-19 relief funds.

A total of 768 positions funded by the pandemic dollars “will be dissolved,” Superintendent Crystal Hill told reporters after a CMS budget workshop Monday. The “vast majority of those positions are filled,” Hill said. Most of the positions are guest teachers, and they’re a small portion of the more than 20,000 teachers, support staff and administrators CMS employs.

Hill cautioned that CMS is “doing everything humanly possible to make sure that our employees stay employed.” That process will include trying to shift many people whose positions are going away into the district’s other vacant positions, which currently number almost 1,000. That includes hundreds of openings for certified teachers in addition to hundreds of non-teaching openings.

“We’re not talking about anyone losing jobs … They may lose the position that they’re in because the position is going away, but we’re not talking tonight about people losing their jobs,” Hill said.

CMS previously said it was planning for the “COVID cliff,” the expiration of $190 million in pandemic relief funding, with $60 million of that tied to staffing. That’s a portion of the more than $540 million in federal relief funding the district received during and after the pandemic — money that went towards tutoring programs, staffing, mental health initiatives and more.

Breakdown of eliminated, open CMS jobs

Hill said she’s hopeful the moves will help address the district’s teacher shortages.

“The goal is when we start at the beginning of the school year that we will have a lot less teacher vacancies, and we’ll be able to have staff in front of students,” she said. “So while this is, you know, really tough to handle, the way that we’ve organized everything, we are planning that it will be the very best impact for our students and also preserving our staff as well.”

CMS currently has 464 vacancies for certified teachers and 526 openings for non-teacher positions, Hill said.

CMS officials say they hope the 700-plus people whose positions are being eliminated will take some of those jobs. More than 500 of those affected by cuts are guest teachers, CMS chief financial officer Kelly Kluttz said.

Many of them aren’t certified teachers, but Hill said the district’s teacher residency program can help those who aren’t licensed get the certifications they need.

“There’s no reason why our employees wouldn’t qualify for positions that we have available,” she said.

It’s not clear, Hill added, how many of the COVID hires will walk away from CMS rather than take another job in the district.

“The biggest issue is going to be the change that our people experience,” she said.

Other COVID cliff impacts, CMS staffing changes

In addition to the loss of positions, the end of COVID relief could affect recruiting and retention efforts, Hill acknowledged.

“The vast majority, the large onslaught of bonuses that we’ve been able to provide have been (federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds) funded,” she said.

State and federal money could preserve some bonuses, but CMS has “no way of knowing” what the impact of that will be on staffing, Hill said.

The COVID-related cuts will add to a previously announced shakeup in how the district aligns schools across the district. CMS currently organizes schools in nine learning communities based on geography. Last month, Hill announced CMS will restructure to align schools by education level.

CMS plans to “swap out” 411 positions that were allocated to schools under the outgoing model. Hill said that decision is based on feedback from principals, who were already “exchanging” those positions for other jobs.

“We believe that the new positions that we’re standing up are exactly the right positions that we need to achieve the goals and the guardrails that the board has put forward,” she said.

CMS board chair reacts

Speaking to reporters after district staff’s presentation, board Chairwoman Stephanie Sneed said the board stands behind Hill and her team.

Still, Sneed said, she’s aware hundreds will feel the impacts of what’s coming.

“They’re people, people that support our students and are families,” Sneed said.

She added that the board is going “to do everything they can to put pieces into place to make sure we’re supporting Dr. Hill and staff, that we can retain as many of these people as possible.”