Three large North Carolina school systems have already decided to cancel classes on May 16 because so many teachers plan to rally for education funding as lawmakers convene their legislative session.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Superintendent Clayton Wilcox said Friday that about 2,000 teachers and staff members already said they would be absent that day, a number he expects to grow in the days ahead, and there aren’t enough substitute teachers to stand in for them.
“I can’t guarantee we’ll be able to open all schools on May 16 with the staff needed to maintain student safety, so we’ve decided to make it an optional teacher workday,” Wilcox said in a news release. He said teachers have a right to make their voices heard in Raleigh, and he’ll try to ease the impact of the closure on working parents.
“We have the chance to show our children, our students, our young people that we will stand up for them, that we care about their futures,” Wilcox said. “I ask our teachers and staff, and our colleagues around the state, to represent our community and our children with dignity and respect. Our children are watching.”
Similar moves were announced earlier in Durham County, where more than 1,000 teachers requested a personal day, and in Chapel Hill-Carrboro schools, where nearly a quarter of the 1,200 teachers requested the day off, The Herald-Sun of Durham reported.
The “March for Students and Rally for Respect” is being organized by the North Carolina Association of Educators, whose members are unhappy with the Republican-controlled legislature’s decisions on teacher salaries and school funding.
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