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
There were an average of 449 unfilled absences on Fridays in April and May 2025. So far this school year, the highest number of unfilled absences this school year has been 560.
As of Friday, the district was juggling 1,934 unfilled absences for May 1 — a fourfold increase. Including filled absences, the district has a total of 2,622 absences requiring a substitute. CMS said those numbers were fluid and continuing to increase. The district employs around 9,000 teachers, meaning close to a third of teachers have already requested to take May 1 off.
Many parents will be left scrambling to find childcare or take time off work with the unexpected closure next week. CMS board members said they understood teachers' desires to be heard before they approved the change unanimously.
"Trust that we didn't make this decision lightly," said Board Chair Stephanie Sneed. "However, this is a greater issue that we have been dealing with for quite some time in terms of funding for our schools. And understand the reason that the requests are being put in for our teachers to have the ability to voice their opinions on getting the proper support for our school systems."
CMS officials said they are trying to keep After School Enrichment Programs, or ASEP, open on May 1, and will notify families of the program's status as soon as they can. ASEP usually offers enrolled families child care on teacher workdays.
Growing absences
Some schools have been bracing for the impact of higher teacher absences. Ardrey Kell High School Principal Susan Nichols told staff in an email Wednesday that she was pausing approval of any additional absence requests for May 1 due to the high volume of requests and limited availability of substitutes.
“This decision is being made out of concern for overall staffing and coverage in the building,” Nichols wrote. “I also need to ensure that we are able to provide appropriate instruction as well as adequate student supervision and safety throughout the day.”
CMS has already seen a sizable loss in instructional time this year, after back-to-back winter storms resulted in canceled school, delayed openings and remote learning schedules for nearly two weeks earlier this year.
The North Carolina Association of Educators is organizing next week’s “Kids Over Corporations” rally, which they say is meant to demand better school funding from the General Assembly as North Carolina regularly ranks at or near the bottom of school funding and teacher pay rankings.
That comes as the state still lacks a budget, is debating corporate tax cuts and has expanded private school vouchers. It also comes in the wake of a state Supreme Court ruling overturning the Leandro school funding decision. A recent state report showed that average teacher salaries have declined 1% as the budget impasse halted proposals for teacher raises.
NCAE says thousands of educators, parents, students and other community members will participate.
Republican leaders have criticized the protest. A spokesperson for Phil Berger’s office told the News & Observer: “Changing a school calendar to capitulate to the far-left teachers union does nothing but harm the very students they claim to want to help.”
Not all school districts have supported the effort — the New Hanover County School Board voted down a proposal to turn May 1 into a teacher workday and dismissed the protest as “politically motivated.”
Local school speaks out
Some school communities have organized to support the movement, even before May 1.
On Friday morning, dozens of parents, teachers and students stood outside the First Baptist Church West, across the street from Oaklawn Language Academy, a world language immersion K-8 school in CMS. They held signs calling for more school funding, gave speeches and then walked in solidarity to their school to start the day.
Oaklawn teacher Erin DeMund called it a “walk-in.”
“To sort of highlight the way that the General Assembly is turning their back on us and walking away, we are instead walking in to do the work that we do every day to educate the children of North Carolina,” DeMund said.
The lack of a budget has created a unique challenge this year, but veteran teachers like DeMund say funding issues have been slowly eroding public education for years.
“It’s slow and it’s over time,” DeMund said. “When I started, we had an instructional assistant in every K-2 classroom. That is unheard of now. When I started, the health insurance for employees was much better, and that’s gone now. And it’s just these things, they’re slowly chipping away and chipping away and chipping away.”
DeMund said she believes symbolic actions like next week’s planned protest in Raleigh help demonstrate to the community “how much people really do care about public schools.” And they help remind Raleigh that the community is watching. But she also acknowledged the difficult decision that was facing the board ahead of Friday’s vote.
“I am happy that I am not on the board and don’t have to make that decision,” DeMund said.
Angelica Acosta Garnett is a parent of three kids who attend Oaklawn. She’s a former teacher herself. She said public education is one of the hallmarks of American society – and it’s time for a change. She said teachers are under too much stress.
“You’re expected to be a miracle worker, and that is absolutely ridiculous,” she said. “You’re expected to meet the emotional needs, the physical needs, the academic needs of your students day in and day out. You become the parent when you’re in the school. But you’re not provided a decent wage. A lot of our teachers have two or three jobs – that to me is absolutely insane.”
She said she’s supportive of teachers going to Raleigh to protest.
“We all need to show up,” she said.
Speaking to the crowd, Acosta Garnett’s daughter, Gabby, said her school is special – and said she wants Raleigh to help keep it that way.
“Lawmakers, why are you stealing our futures?” she asked. “Why are good teachers leaving? Why do billionaires just get the money intended for our building, our books our learning? Just think about that. Lawmakers, think about your next move, because you are breaking our promise.”
