The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Board of Education voted Friday during an emergency meeting to make May 1 an optional teacher workday. The decision to cancel instruction follows several other school districts across the state, as a large number of teachers statewide have requested leave to join a rally for public school funding in Raleigh that day.
No makeup day will be required, and the board did not add any instructional days in the last two months of the school year. Even with the change, CMS will still be in compliance with state law, which mandates a minimum of 1,025 instructional hours per year.
CMS administrators told the board they are seeing a large number of teacher requests for leave. And they cited concerns about a lack of available substitutes and “concerns about the district’s ability to operate schools safely,” given the number of…