Charlotte is located in southern North Carolina.
Charlotte, North Carolina, is located near the South Carolina border and is home to Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools. The system is one of the nation's 25 largest school districts and is made up of 178 schools and enrolls more than 135,000 students. According to the CMS website, the districts ranks in the top five nationally for the number of new and total number of teachers who earned National Board Certification. Charlotte is North Carolina's largest city and the 20th largest city in the United States.
History
The first public school system in Charlotte was organized in 1882. Schools in Charlotte remained segregated until integration took place in 1957. In 1959 residents voted to merge the two school systems of Charlotte City and Mecklenburg County into one system, Charlotte-Mecklenburg. In 1964, the system still had 88 single-race schools, as well as vast differences in quality between the city and county schools. By the fall of 1970, all schools in the system were completely desegregated.
Budget, Mission and Vision Statements
As of 2011, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, or CMS, operates on a $1.15 billion budget. Per student, the system spends $8,523 per year. The system employs more than 16,000 people with more than 8,500 full-time teachers. Teacher salaries begin at $34,386 and average about $45,435. The system's vision statement is to "provide all students the best education available anywhere, preparing every child to lead a rich and productive life." Its mission statement is to "maximize academic achievement by every student in every school."
Schools and Students
The CMS system is made up of 178 schools. There are 100 elementary schools, 36 middle schools, 33 high schools, four alternative schools and 612 mobile or modular classrooms. There are also 11 magnet-school programs and 40 magnet schools. For the class of 2010 there were 7,681 graduates, and 65.7 percent of those seniors took the SAT. Students in the CMS system received $66.7 million worth of academic or athletic scholarships during the 2009-2010 school year.
School Zones
In March 2010, the CMS system was restructured from seven learning communities into five zones because of the year's budget-reduction process. The new zones include Central-Elementary, Central-Secondary, East, Northeast and Southwest. Students are assigned to their schools based on their residential address. For new residents of the system, the CMS website provides a link where parents can input their address to see their child's prospective elementary, middle and high schools.
Tags: North Carolina, Charlotte North, Charlotte North Carolina, more than, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools