Nov. 25, 2025

Mental health of students and staff. The deep fear among Charlotte-Mecklenburg’s fast-growing Hispanic population, a sense of vulnerability shared not just by recent immigrants but by children born in the U.S. The challenge of running a public school system on last year’s budget while legislatures are financing a growing percentage of private-school students with new money this year.

Those were among the topics discussed this morning as Dr. Crystal Hill returned to the Forum. It was not a day for big announcements. But there was talk of initiatives – new partnerships with outside organizations interested in helping out; a telehealth linkage not tied to family insurance coverage that can put students in the doctor’s office without leaving campus; a determination to commit CMS staff time to capture and then share with the community the students’ stories that don’t make the news.

Many of the academic achievement improvements were captured in the superintendent’s presentation slides, downloadable as a PDF here.