CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools will be able to restore 141 teaching positions in the 2010-2011 budget, district officials said July 28. The positions can be restored before the school year begins because the state did not cut funding to CMS as much as expected.

District staffing is allocated through teacher allotments, which are calculated for each school based on the number of students. In its budget planning, CMS anticipated that decreases in state funding would require increasing class sizes by two students. But the actual decreases only required an increase of one student per class. Thus, the number of teachers needed increased by 141, based on the allotment formula.

“We’re pleased to be able to have more teachers than we expected,” said Superintendent Peter C. Gorman.

Not every one of the 178 schools in CMS will get another teacher. 

As part of the budget planning for the 2010-2011 school year, CMS used scenarios that put teacher cuts among the last cuts to be made. The worst-case scenario – the one based on the largest expected reductions of funding – required a reduction in force of 1,034.75 positions, with 580 of them teaching positions.

The cuts were spread across elementary, middle and high schools and the district notified affected employees in the late spring and summer.

As final decisions are made about teacher allotments at each school, the district may post job openings on its Web site, www.cms.k12.nc.us. Only a handful of teachers remain in the pool, the group of career-status teachers who were displaced by the reduction in force. But district officials cautioned that the teaching positions needed by the schools may not align perfectly with the teachers in the pool because of individual school needs.

“The budget process in North Carolina for school districts has a long period of uncertainty built in,” Dr. Gorman said. “We have to notify employees affected by a reduction in force before we have the final numbers.”

Thus far, CMS has received $602.6 million in state funding for 2010-2011. The final adjustments in state funding will be made after school starts. The total amount of county funding also remains unresolved as local officials put final touches on the budget for Mecklenburg County.