CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools has a vision.
The district released the 2024 strategic plan, What Matters Most, on Friday -- outlining several goals for the next five years.
The first was to ensure every student graduates with meaningful employment or higher education opportunities. The second was to ensure every student has access to a rich, diverse and rigorous curriculum.
In focusing on academic achievement, the district said their plan includes a consistent K-12 curriculum for every student, saying it will support clear expectations and outcomes. They say the curriculum will also focus more on teachings that better reflect the students’ cultures, identities and experiences.
CMS said the third goal was to ensure every student has access to more social and emotional supports, saying they’ll be increasing social, emotional, and mental health resources and access.
“The things these kids go through these days, just normal emotional issues, the social media impact that’s having on our kids today, and the public shaming and the challenges they have to face that we didn’t have to ever face as a child…we need to get these children the best social and emotional staffing professionals we can, because it’s about making sure our kids are safe in schools,” said Charles Jeter, government relations coordinator for CMS.
The strategic plan also had an outline of the district’s plans to increase safety -- including three types of random and unannounced safety screenings, where groups of students will be wanded and their bags searched.
CMS said they’ll perform these by screening either an entire classroom, an entire building, or an entire school, saying individual students will never be randomly selected.
“The safer they feel, the safer they are, the healthier they are the better they’re going to learn and that’s our responsibility, we take it seriously,” said Jeter.
No word from CMS as to when the screenings will begin, but they said they expect to provide an update next week.