CMS students return to the classroom

CHARLOTTE — Back-to-school season is in full swing across North Carolina, with several counties returning to the classroom Monday morning.

Included in that list is the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School District.

And well before school doors opened, Channel 9′s Jonathan Lowe observed lots of activity at the CMS Wilkinson Boulevard bus lot.

Some of those buses were already heading out on the road for the first day of the 2024-2025 school year.

CMS school officials said they will have 839 buses on the road Monday morning.

This will cause drivers to once again be on the lookout for flashing red lights and stop arms.

Parents have also been advised to download the Here Comes The Bus app so they can stay up today on where their child’s bus is.

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“Please be patient and alert; we are going to be introducing 141,000+ students back into the traffic pattern. And one way or the other, we’d ask that you please be patient and alert and look out,” said CMS Chief Operations Officer Tim Ivey.

During last week’s back-to-school briefing, district officials confirmed that they still have 38 bus driver vacancies they were trying to fill.

The district also said a record number of students have registered to ride the bus this school year. The number reached more than 100,000, according to CMS.

The district also wants to remind parents and students to leave the three-ring binders and metal backpacks at home.

“Sometimes with our scanners, we were getting false positives, so students were going through, it was slowing down the process. So we did interviews, we talked to our student advisory committee, we talked to teachers, we talked to principals, we actually piloted, and so that decision was made last year,” said CMS Superintendent Dr. Crystal Hill.

This year, CMS is expected to welcome more than 600 new teachers. And while more than 90% of their teaching positions have been filled, there are still almost 300 vacancies.

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