Latest news with #Charlotte-MecklenburgSchools
Yahoo
a day ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
CMS moves some graduation ceremonies after Bojangles Coliseum hockey conflict
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools is moving the site of some of its high school graduations this month due to the Charlotte Checkers' continued playoff run. After the American Hockey League Checkers advanced to the Calder Cup Finals Tuesday night, meaning one of their games at Bojangles Coliseum would interfere with the CMS ceremonies typically held there. The June 13 ceremonies scheduled there will now be moved outdoors to PNC Music Pavilion. The times will remain the same as the original venue: 8:30 a.m. | South Mecklenburg High School Noon | Palisades High School 3:30 p.m. | Mallard Creek High School 7 p.m. | Garinger High School Each affected school shared the change with the families of its graduating seniors Wednesday. It read, in part: 'Considering travel arrangements, work schedules, and family gatherings that have been planned for months, we have worked diligently to keep the same date and time. We have secured PNC Music Pavilion, 707 Pavilion Blvd, Charlotte, NC 28262, for the ceremony, and will provide more logistical information for families soon.' The letter reminded parents the Spectrum Center, the district's traditional venue for its largest schools, is not available due to renovation construction. Ceremonies are slated to return there in 2026. 'Your graduate's achievement remains the focus of this celebration, and we are committed to making this ceremony as special and memorable as originally planned,' CMS schools said. A full CMS graduation schedule can be found here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Axios
22-05-2025
- Business
- Axios
This old Sugar Creek motel site is turning into affordable townhomes in the low $200Ks
A Sugar Creek budget motel — widely considered predatory by the adjacent historically Black neighborhood — is being redeveloped into 39 affordable townhomes for first-time homeowners, priced around $190,000 to $230,000. Why it matters: The development, named Hoover Townes after longtime Hidden Valley teacher Brenda Hoover, will house families earning 60% to 80% of the area median income, at a time when rising housing costs are pricing families out of Charlotte neighborhoods. Four townhomes will be reserved for Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools teachers. What they're saying:"For a three-bedroom, two-and-a-half bath townhome — you can't find those price points anywhere in the city of Charlotte," says Marcus Kornegay, executive director of local developer Prosperity Alliance. He estimates monthly mortgage payments will range from $1,000 to $1,400. The median sale price of a house in Hidden Valley was $360,000 last month, up 38.2% over last year, according to Redfin. The roughly $8 million project is feasible only because the city purchased the land for $4.2 million and transferred it to Prosperity Alliance for $1. Construction partner True Homes is building the homes at cost, forgoing profit. Driving the news: The Economy Inn was demolished, and grading and other site work are underway on the land. Prosperity Alliance expects to start building homes toward the end of the year and is targeting mid-2026 to move in the first families. The big picture: The Sugar Creek Road and Interstate 85 intersection is one of the city's corridors of opportunity. In historically underinvested areas, such as Beatties Ford and Albemarle roads, the city has strategically spent money to spur revitalization, from adding street lights to implementing new police programs. This redevelopment is one of the initiative's more ambitious undertakings, as partners had to work through relocating families staying in the motels and environmental challenges. The project is also a step toward the city's goal of reducing the number of hotel rooms in the Sugar Creek area. The intersection has become a cluster of cheap motels that draw crime and trap low-income families in a cycle, spending hundreds each week to live there and never being able to save up for permanent housing. Zoom out: Nonprofits and private investors are repurposing other nearby motels. A Washington investment group is converting the Rodeway Inn and Speedway Inn into about 200 micro-apartments with amenities, including a game room and co-working space. Local nonprofit Heal Charlotte has repurposed the former Baymont Inn on Equipment Drive as transitional housing for families to get their footing. Flashback: The Hoover Townes site used to be the site of an Economy Inn and another abandoned motel known for criminal activity, says the area's City Council representative, Danté Anderson. After the city bought the land, neighbors said they would prefer that for-sale affordable homes replace the motels. Some city leaders were skeptical, suggesting it was a lot of money to pay off a slumlord, as WFAE reported at the time. How it works: DreamKey Partners will help identify potential homebuyers. Through a partnership with Pinnacle Financial Partners, Hoover Townes will provide enhanced down payment assistance through the House Charlotte Plus program. What's next: Shawn Kennedy, executive director of Prosperity Alliance, says people are already applying. "They're getting their credit situated. They're getting ready to buy," he says. "These houses won't be delivered for a year, so hopefully at that point [the families]'ll be ready to go."
Yahoo
06-05-2025
- Yahoo
PowerSchool says hacker deleted student, teacher records obtained in breach
An education technology company says information has been deleted after North Carolina student and teacher records were compromised in a hack. We reported earlier this year when PowerSchool was breached on Dec. 19. Hackers took information like addresses, Social Security numbers, and contact information. The company now reports that the data was deleted, after the alleged hacker said so. That's according to WRAL in Raleigh. WRAL reports that PowerSchool paid a ransom and then watched a video of the hacker deleting data. The breach affected school districts across the Carolinas, including Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools. PowerSchool is offering two years of free identity protection and credit monitoring to those affected. (VIDEO >> 'It's scary': Scammers show up in person after saying victims' accounts were hacked)
Yahoo
28-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Bill aims to standardize notifications over school threats in NC
A lawmaker in North Carolina introduced a new bill to standardize how and when parents are notified of threats or emergencies at local schools. This comes in the wake of a Channel 9 report about shooting threats targeting five different Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools campuses. Channel 9′s Evan Donovan has been covering this since the beginning and spoke with the lawmaker, who is also the mother of a CMS student. State Sen. Woodson Bradley's daughter goes to Ardrey Kell High School, so she was one of many parents who first found out about recent threats by seeing our stories. PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Parents upset school district didn't notify them of shooting threats more quickly Former judge gives insight to bond for man accused of threatening Charlotte schools Police now assigned to elementary school after threats Alleged threats against CMS schools spark debate on mental health system Now, Bradley wants to standardize how it's done statewide. 'I want to be crystal clear, this is not a finger-pointing bill, this is a partnership bill,' Bradley said. When we first spoke to Bradley after our investigation, she told us she had already been working on legislation to address threat notifications. This week, she introduced the 'school transparency act.' 'It would be statewide. If a credible threat came in, obviously, the school contacts law enforcement first. Depending on whether there's an active investigation going on, they would notify parents within the hour. If there was an active investigation, parents would be notified within an hour of arrest or as soon as the investigation is concluded,' Bradley said. The bill requires parents to be notified by at least two methods, one of them being a phone call, whenever there's a 'high-level emergency.' The bill leaves that up to school districts to define. Bradley says new policies already implemented by CMS would meet that particular requirement. Donovan got clarification from CMS on Friday. The district says its 'threat communication process map' and 'communication matrix for threats' were newly created in response to February's threats. They show a high-level threat toward a class or school would require notification to the whole school. It would come as an urgent alert, delivered through the ParentSquare app, email, and by phone. 'And, after an emergency, the school has to furnish a report: what they found, where it came from, what they did, how they made everything better. And that's really gonna start bringing this conversation together,' Bradley said. The bill also required districts to file an end-of-year report listing the number of threats, lockdowns, and evacuations. Districts that don't comply could be fined up to $5,000. That money would go into a new school security fund for use statewide. The bill was just referred to its first committee this week. (VIDEO: 14-year-old charged with making mass violence threats against Union County school)
Yahoo
18-03-2025
- Yahoo
Families of alleged targets of CMS fights question why their students were also punished
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — This school year has seen several violent incidents within Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, highlighted in March by two more incidents where families said the targets of reported assaults and fights were also punished. Queen City News has reported on two of these incidents — one at Mallard Creek High School involving a group of girls who reportedly attacked another female student; and an incident at Ardrey Kell High School, where a teenage girl was allegedly attacked by a male student. While both incidents are completely different, they are united in one thing: the families of the targets in both incidents said their child was suspended for ten days, along with the people who allegedly assaulted them. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools said they cannot comment on specific cases involving students due to privacy laws, however, the district's Chief Operating Officer Tim Ivey said last week, responding to a question about whether both the aggressor/aggressors and those they target are suspended as standard procedure, he said, 'Each incident is taken individually and we use a student code of conduct to determine who and if both parties would be suspended. So each incident is an individual incident.' CMS leaders update communication protocols following school threats The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Code Of Student Conduct indicated that incidents are looked at on a case-by-case basis, and does allow for a reasonable amount of self-defense. The minimum punishment for a fight or assault at a high school is a minimum 1 to 10-day suspension. The student who was targeted in the Mallard Creek incident told Queen City News that she did act in self-defense after a group of girls attacked her, but noted that the suspension she received was unjust. 'It doesn't make any sense,' she said earlier this month. 'I'm the one who got jumped.' Queen City News has sent a series of questions on standard procedures on disciplinary response for fights and assaults to Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools. As of Monday afternoon, they had indicated they had forwarded the questions to the relevant department, and will respond at a later time. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
