At the CMS board meeting on Tuesday the debut – and return – of the temporary superintendent | WFAE 90.7

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg School Board is meeting on Tuesday to approve a request for a budget for 2022-23 to send to the Mecklenburg County Commissioner. Last month superintendent Ernest Winston brought the board a plan that will seek an increase of $ 41 million from the county.

This will be the first regular meeting since the board Winston fired at an emergency meeting last week. Interim Superintendent Hugh Khatabo is due to make his first public report since Monday began work.

Khataba is a retired administrator who worked at CMS for five years, including previously serving as interim supervisor in 2011-2012. His contract runs until June 2023.

This budget plan – a total of $ 2 billion – includes more than $ 300 million in federal aid for COVID-19, which can be spent over the next few years. He wants to ask Mecklenburg County Commissioners for $ 579 million, up 7.6% from this year.

Some of the proposed initiatives are:

• Spending nearly $ 8 million in county money to increase local allowances for teachers. By adding more to the state’s salary, CMS hopes to attract teachers to a market with fierce competition.
• Using $ 6 million of county money to raise the minimum wage of teaching assistants from $ 15 to $ 16.50 per hour.
• Spending $ 3.7 million from the county to better serve English language students. There are almost 24,000 such students in the CMS. The plan calls for hiring 32 faculty to work with these students and setting up a special academy with extended hours for English learners.
• Use $ 5 million of county money for building maintenance, including filtration systems to improve indoor air quality.

There is no public comment period. They take place during the first meeting of the month, which means that the next opportunity for the public to speak out about Winston’s dismissal and express an opinion on what will happen next will be May 10.