Inequalities in CMS school district By Brandon Hamilton | April 21, 2021 at 10:22 PM EDT - Updated April 21 at 11:24 PM
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (WBTV) - By its own account, Harding University High School, in west Charlotte, doesn’t have what other high schools in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School District.
The school does have the No. 1 track and field team in the country.
However, the school is raising questions about athletic field problems, along with inequities across the district.
With all the rain this spring, drainage issues at Harding University High have created an uneven track.
Harding University HS needs new field
Simply put, those at Harding University High feel like CMS is neglecting them and putting them at a disadvantage.
Barringer Academic Center
Barringer elementary school will soon become Charles H. Parker Academic Center, another step in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools quest to replacing names that honor white supremacy with those marking Black history.
After the racial reckoning of last summer, Superintendent Earnest Winston announced he would identify and
Barringer Academic Center in west Charlotte touted the Barringer family’s role in developing that part of town. But
a historian’s research showed family members were active in the white supremacy movements of the 19th and 20th centuries. Charles H. Parker
A naming committee chose to honor Parker instead. He was born into slavery in 1844 and died free in 1939, having developed homes, churches and a school in the West Boulevard area. According to a biography provided to the school board, he helped create Moore’s Sanctuary A.M.E Zion Church, Amay James Presbyterian Church and Plato Price School for Black children.
WFAE Signs, flowers and stuffed animals left as tributes to Dr. Robert Lesslie are seen Friday at Riverview Family Medicine and Urgent Care in Rock Hill, South Carolina. Lesslie was one of six people including his wife and two juvenile grandchildren shot to death at his home Wednesday in York County. The person authorities suspect in the slayings died after apparently reportedly shooting himself.
In the past few weeks, there have been mass shootings in metro Atlanta and Boulder, Colorado. And now another one hit especially close to home in Charlotte this week when six people were shot and killed in nearby Rock Hill, South Carolina. Prominent doctor Robert Lesslie, his wife, Barbara, their two grandchildren and two workers at their house all were killed Wednesday evening. Authorities say former NFL player Phillip Adams shot them all before taking his own life early Thursday morning.
Listen • 8:51 Former CMS Board Chair Arthur Griffin (right) Zooms in to a board meeting to comment on proposed changes to teacher contract policy.
A proposed change to Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools’ policy on teacher contracts is raising questions about teacher quality and racial equity. Hundreds of teachers a disproportionate number of them Black could be denied four-year contracts next year.
The proposed policy revision first came up in February. It didn t attract much attention, with the spotlight focused on how and when to bring students back for in-person classes.
But it centers on one of the most important and difficult challenges for American school districts: How to identify strong teachers, get them into classrooms where the students need them most and keep them there.