CMS schools will return to full-remote until mid-January
Plus: CMS board members explains their votes; Judge recused from school lawsuit; Big week for charity lunches; City to make economic development announcement today
Good morning! Today is Wednesday, December 9, 2020. You’re reading The Charlotte Ledger, an e-newsletter with local business-y news and insights for Charlotte, N.C. This post is sent to paying subscribers only.
Citing spiking county Covid cases, CMS board votes to move to all-virtual classes — although data show no significant transmission in schools
When was the last time you saw students protesting to go back to school? More than 50 students and parents held a rally Wednesday in Midtown Park in support of reopening classrooms. Signs included “No more Zooms! My eyes hurt,” “Remote is a joke!” and “I miss my friends!”
by Cristina Bolling and Tony Mecia
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools will move back into all-remote learning starting Monday, and buildings will remain closed to students until Jan. 19, with the exception of pre-K students and middle and high schoolers taking state-mandated exams.
The CMS Board of Education made the move in a 6-3 vote Tuesday night, citing the recent Covid surge in Mecklenburg County that has put the district’s public health metrics in the “red zone.” Currently, Mecklenburg has a Covid test positivity rate of 10.9% and 220 cases per 100,000 people — numbers that are double those in summer and fall.
Elementary students have been attending in-person school two days per week since Nov. 2. Tuesday’s decision pushes back the in-school return date for middle and high-schoolers by two weeks. Middle and high schoolers were due to return on a three-week rotating schedule Jan. 5.
CMS originally planned for middle schoolers to return Nov. 23, but pushed their return date back to January because administrators said they lacked enough bus drivers.
Although the public health metrics were designed to be just one component of the district’s decision making regarding whether schools should be open, on Tuesday night they were the driving factor.
CMS schools have been open to elementary students for the last six weeks, with relative success.
There have been no reported Covid clusters of five or more related cases since schools reopened, and school officials have said there have been no signs that the virus was being transmitted in school buildings. Infection rates among students and staff have remained low, mirroring national research, school and health officials have said.
CMS data released Monday showed that from Nov. 25 to Dec. 4, there were 67 new Covid cases among the 41,688 in-person students and 94 new cases among the district’s 19,106 staff.
Still, CMS Superintendent Earnest Winston said he was recommending the move to full-remote “in the interest of protecting the health and safety of our students”:
Certainly we all want that, where conditions merit, that they be in-person. As it relates to the health and safety of our students, we believe — I believe — that based on the metrics that we have discussed tonight that show there is substantial community spread, and those metrics also show that there is a rising positivity rate. Couple that with the discussion from our public health experts who fully expect to see an increase in the community spread of Covid-19 the weeks ahead. We’ve got a couple of holidays approaching. Simply put, we believe it is in our best interest for the health and safety of our students to return to remote instruction.
Two weeks ago, the CMS board voted to give Winston the ability to switch individual schools from in-person to remote on a case-by-case basis if Covid cases surfaced in certain schools. The idea was to avoid closing the entire district if only a few schools were experiencing high numbers of Covid cases.
On Tuesday night, some board members questioned why they would take a blanket approach to closing school buildings when there was a more targeted plan already in place.
“It’s a bit of a light switch you’re throwing here,” said Sean Strain. “You’re moving from an individual (school) response to a district-wide response. He continued:
You’ve skipped over, for example, pulling out a classroom because you’ve had broad transmission in a classroom, to broad transmission to a school, to broad transmission to the district. I’m a little confused by the logic that skips all those layers and levels we’ve talked about and goes straight to imposing further remote learning on our kids.
What data show: The decision comes as national health experts have started to say with more clarity than in previous months that students belong in school, because research shows the virus spreads less there.
Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said last week: “I just think it’s healthy for these kids to be in school. That said, they’ve got to do it safely and they’ve got to do it responsibly. And when this was started over the summer, no one really knew for certain. They thought that these public health measures would work. But now, the data clearly shows us that you can operate these schools in face-to-face learning in a safe and responsible way.”
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and one of the top voices on the nation’s response to Covid, told CBS News this week: “The default position we should have is to bring the children back to school. It looks like now that the test positivity of children in school compared to the comparable community is really relatively low. It seems now maybe counterintuitive that the safer place to be for the children would be in school."
No recommendation from health department: During Tuesday’s meeting, Dr. Meg Sullivan, the Mecklenburg County Health Department’s medical director, walked through the county’s Covid numbers but offered no specific guidance about whether schools should be open or closed, even when pressed.
“My role here is to talk through community metrics,” she said.
Some board members characterized the advice from medical experts as contradictory and confusing and applicable only to places where community spread of Covid is low. Jennifer De La Jara, who holds degrees in interpersonal communications and education, said there were “contradictory statements that exist from our authorities,” such as doctors and government agencies. “Often times, they do put out dubious statements,” she said, without offering specifics.
Carol Sawyer, who has a psychology degree and has worked as a museum exhibit director and nonprofit consultant, said she had received a number of emails pointing out statements by medical experts, including the observation that schools in Europe have remained open despite high rates of Covid transmission. But she said there are “critical differences”: “In Europe, people don’t go bankrupt over healthcare. They have nationalized heath insurance and healthcare that is accessible to everyone. We are not in that condition."
More D and F grades during remote learning: Winston said students’ first-quarter grades were “of concern,” but he gave no specifics on how they differed from a typical year.
“I have talked with other superintendents across the state and some across the country and they’re seeing the same type of (increases in) the number of students who are receiving D’s and F’s,” Winston said. “I asked my team to review this information in first quarter, and what we found is that significantly more students are struggling.”
Issue heating up: The issue of opening schools to students has been divisive since the start, but has heated up recently as Covid cases have been spiking.
On Tuesday afternoon, a group of parents pushing to open schools gathered at Midtown Park. More than 1,000 people signed a change.org petition asking school board members to “fully open schools immediately.”
Online forums of teachers and teacher advocates have also been launching petitions and lobbying board members, asking to move schools to full-remote to protect teachers’ physical and mental health.
Heated public comments
On Tuesday night, more than a dozen parents and teachers from both sides of the debate appealed to the board.
Meredith Fox, who said she was a CMS teacher, told the board: “I can assure you, the real threat to students’ mental health will be unnecessarily losing a family member or a teacher. As board members, are you prepared to come console my students if I die or if their parents die? Will you look my grieving students in the eye and tell them you did a risk-benefit analysis and that our lives were necessary sacrifices?”
Leslie Neilsen, who said she was a middle school teacher, said she and her colleagues “are working at a breakneck speed and will not be able to maintain this for the very long term. … We are at war with this virus and our teachers are fighting in the trenches armed with Clorox wipes and face masks, while our commanders are leading from the comforts of their living rooms.”
Nikki Kirsch, who said she was a pediatric nurse, cited statistics showing a rise in pediatric ER visits for mental health crises since March as well as an increase in children being prescribed anxiety medications.
“I should not have to comfort a child who looks at me with tears in his eyes and says that he would rather be dead than continue learning this way,” Kirsch said.
Options for exams: With the first semester ending next week, exams are very much on the minds of middle and high schoolers. For students who are taking courses that require end-of-course statewide exams, those exams will still be given in-person Dec. 14-21. Students who don’t want to go into schools to take those exams can get an incomplete in December and take a make-up exam in 2021, school leaders said Tuesday.
Cristina Bolling is managing editor of The Ledger: cristina@cltledger.com
Bonus content: Why did CMS board vote the way it did?
If you want more hot school board coverage, check out our subscriber-only post that breaks down who voted which way — and why. CMS board members explain their votes … in their own words:
CMS lawsuit hearing postponed — judge had kids in CMS
A hearing on a lawsuit against Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools regarding its school opening plans was postponed until January, after a judge agreed to the CMS request to recuse himself.
A group of parents is suing CMS, saying that its decision to remain for so long in all-virtual instruction deprives students of their right to a sound, basic education guaranteed by North Carolina’s constitution. CMS, in filings last month, is seeking to have the lawsuit dismissed.
Judge Casey Viser agreed Tuesday not to conduct the hearing, after he disclosed that he has three teenagers enrolled in CMS schools. CMS lawyer Melissa Woods suggested that by having children in the district, Viser might have a conflict of interest: “In the interest of complete impartiality and objectivity, we would argue that the court should recuse itself at this time.”
A new judge will be assigned in January. —TM
Holiday charity lunches expect big fundraising, despite being virtual
There are two big holiday fundraising lunches this week — and they’re both virtual this year:
➡️ The 104th Good Fellows luncheon is today at noon, and anybody can watch online for free. It features remarks by Richard “Stick” Williams, former head of the Duke Energy Foundation; retired Gen. James Amos, former commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps; and Fred Whitfield, president of the Charlotte Hornets.
Mac Everett, the organization’s immediate past president, told The Ledger he expects the event to raise at least $1M — the sum it has hit the last two years: “People have been unbelievably generous this year. Under the circumstances in which we find ourselves, with more and more families that need help, we’re going to shock people with the number we report tomorrow.”
➡️ Good Friends Charlotte is holding its 34th annual fundraiser on Thursday at noon, and people can register and watch online. Last year, nearly 1,800 attended and raised more than $500,000 — and the organization hopes to surpass that this year. —TM
Details on Ledger reader holiday party
We’re happy to announce more details of our drop-in holiday party next week. And you’re invited!
WHEN: Thursday, Dec. 17, 5-7 p.m. Drop-in for a little bit and say hi. Or stay the whole time. Your call.
HOW: We are going to turn to a tech platform called Wonder (formerly YoTribe), which we used for our happy hour in October. It allows you to move in and out of small groups and have discussions with different people. We’d prefer to hold an in-person event but cannot for obvious reasons. On the upside, you don’t have to drive anywhere (or even get dressed up).
WHO: It’s open to loyal, paying Ledger subscribers like you — and anyone you care to invite. Here’s the link (we will send out several times between now and Dec. 17):
DRINKS: We have again reached a deal with our friends at Divine Barrel Brewing. We are paying them some money, and they’re providing our paying subscribers and party guests with a discount: $10 off an order of $30 or more. In other words, you should be able to get two 4-packs of beer 🍺 from a Charlotte brewery for around $20 — a pretty good deal. They also have wine 🍷. They deliver throughout Mecklenburg County. This offer is open to the first 30 people who take it, so if you want it, do it now. Go to their website and use the promo code “LEDGERPARTY” for the deal. Divine Barrel delivers Thursdays through Saturdays.
In brief
Economic development: The city of Charlotte is holding an “economic development announcement” today at 10 a.m. It includes a news conference.
Positive for Covid: Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Johnny Jennings announced he has tested positive for Covid. Ditto with Mecklenburg Chief District Court Judge Elizabeth Trosch. (WBTV)
Streetcar extension: The Gold Line streetcar is expected to begin carrying passengers in early 2021, the city says. It’s adding 2.5 miles of track. When it opens, “the line will extend west from the CATS uptown transit hub to the Beatties Ford Road/French Street intersection, then east to Sunnyside Avenue near the Elizabeth neighborhood,” Qcitymetro reported. [Corrected 12/10/2020 to reflect correct anticipated opening date.]
Camp North End plans: The developer of Camp North End, ATCO Properties, plans to demolish a portion of an existing building to make way for 202 apartments and a parking garage, according to a permit filed with the city. (Biz Journal)
At-home Covid tests for travelers: American Airlines is expanding its at-home Covid testing program to include travelers headed to part of the U.S. that require a negative test. The at-home tests typically have a 48-hour turnaround time and cost $129. (Observer)
Post office named: President Trump signed a measure naming a post office in northeast Charlotte after civil rights lawyer Julius Chambers. It’s at 2505 Derita Ave. (WSOC)
Programming note: Ledger editor Tony Mecia appears as a guest on 90.7 WFAE at 6:40 a.m. and 8:40 a.m. on Thursdays for a discussion of the week’s local business news in the station’s “BizWorthy” segment. Audio and transcripts are also available online.
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Executive editor: Tony Mecia; Managing editor: Cristina Bolling; Contributing editor: Tim Whitmire, CXN Advisory; Reporting intern: David Griffith