CMS Board of Education votes to allocate workday in emergency meeting so teachers can attend rally

CHARLOTTE — Seven years ago, teachers across the state gathered in Raleigh to advocate for change in publication.

Now, the teachers will rally again to advocate for their two biggest concerns they are facing now: spending per student and salaries of long time teachers.

At an emergency Board of Education meeting, board members voted to allocate Friday, May 1 as a teacher workday. This way, CMS teachers can attend the rally in Raleigh.

Officials with CMS said the vote was unanimous. Based on the number of already reported staff absences, district officials said they would not be able to safely support classrooms.

The work day still places CMS above the state’s required instructional time.

Josh Nixon is an English teacher at Challenger High in Catawba County. He said he loves what he does and he hopes that the rally will bring more attention to how much is being spent on each student in his classroom.

“Right now we are in an education crisis in the state of NC,” he said. “We don’t have a budget that has been passed. We are ranked very low as far as education funding efforts. There are a lot of reasons but the message is our students are most important.”

In 2018, more than 20,000 educators across the state traveled to Raleigh wearing red shirts to protest. They demanded higher wages, increased school funding, and better benefits.

Deanna Minetola teaches Patton High in Burke. She attended the last rally. She said she has been in the classroom for nearly 30 years.

“Veteran teachers who are literally not getting any steps or raises at this point,” she said. “They’ve raised our healthcare premiums. I effectively took a pay cut this year”

Channel 9 reached out to Catawba, Burke, and Caldwell Counties who all said that they are monitoring the absenteeism rate of teachers for next Friday and said that, as of now, it is not high enough that they would have to cancel school.

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