High-poverty schools in Charlotte will get fewer teachers next year based on a plan approved Tuesday by the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board.

The decision, approved in a 6-2 vote, is part of a larger cost-cutting plan aimed at eliminating $100 million from the district’s $1 billion budget.

In essence, the board voted to change a formula that assigns additional teachers based on each school’s poverty level. Even under the change, schools with the highest rates of poverty will still get higher teacher levels, but those levels will be reduced starting next year.

The plan is expected to save the district about $8 million.

In other moves related to the budget, the board voted to:

• Delay making a decision on whether to dramatically reduce the Bright Beginnings pre-K program for 4-year-olds who lack skills they need for kindergarten.
   
• Shuffle school schedules so that CMS can make better use of available buses.

High-poverty teachers

CMS currently uses a formula to assign additional teachers to high-poverty schools. It counts the number of students at each school who qualify for free or reduced-priced lunch and multiplies that number by 1.3. So if the state provides one teacher per 25 students (actual ratios vary by grade level), CMS would provide an additional teacher for each 83 low-income students. CMS currently uses that formula to add an additional 800 teachers district.

Under the change approved Tuesday, CMS would use a multiplier of 1.25. That means it would take 100 low-income students to get an additional teacher.

Board members Joyce Waddell and Tom Tate voted against the change.

Bright Beginnings

Superintendent Peter Gorman has proposed cutting Bright Beginnings enrollment from 3,200 this year to 1,178 next year. He also proposed closing all five prekindergarten centers and eliminating pre-K classrooms from elementary schools that don't have poverty levels of at least 75 percent. His plan would save the district about $10.4 million.

But after emotional pleas from parents and child advocates, the board voted to table the issue until its next meeting in February. Residents who spoke out in opposition of the cuts said they worry that pre-kindergarten students who need early academic attention would not get it. Eliminating early intervention, they said, could cost the district more later on.

Staggered schedules

The board voted 7-1 to shuffle school schedules next year to make more efficient use of buses. The change, which will save the district about $4 million, means most schools will have new start and dismissal times, and elementary students will spend an extra 45 minutes in class each day.

Board member Kaye McGarry voted against the change.

Less funding for schools

Some of the toughest cuts for CMS may still lie ahead. Like school districts nationwide, CMS is expected to receive less state and local funding next year. In anticipation, Gorman’s cot-cutting proposals would eliminate more than 1,500 jobs, including more than 600 teachers.

The district already has reduced or redirected $185 million since the 2007-2008 budget year, including the elimination of hundreds of teacher jobs and the closing of some schools. In addition to receiving less state and county money, North Carolina schools also will face budget shortfalls next year when federal economic stimulus dollars dry up.

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