Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools cancels classes May 1 ahead of Raleigh teacher rally
The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education voted unanimously to cancel classes May 1 after a slew of educators requested leave to participate in a march for more public education funding.
Instead, the district will hold an optional teacher workday on May 1 for schools on the traditional academic calendar. A make-up school day won’t be required.
Educators from around the state plan to gather outside the capitol in Raleigh next Friday, demanding more state investment in public education. The rally is organized by the North Carolina Association of Educators.
The CMS board called an emergency meeting Friday after over 1,875 of the district’s around 9,000 total educators had requested leave by Wednesday evening, according to public records. On May 1 last year, for comparison, there were 1,210 teacher absences.
A total of 2,622 teachers had requested leave by 6 a.m. Friday.
“Trust that we don’t make this decision lightly,” CMS Board Chair Stephanie Sneed said prior to the vote. “This is a greater issue that we have been dealing with for quite some time when it comes to funding for our schools … We need the support from our state in order to do what’s best for children.”
CMS is the ninth of the state’s 115 school districts to cancel classes on May 1 because of the rally. The only other local district that has announced an optional teacher workday on May 1 is Kannapolis City Schools.
Elizabeth Bertke is a CMS teacher and parent. She believes the vote shows the board supports teachers’ rights.
“I think that communicates that they support our right to not just protest but to get what we need from the state,” Bertke told the Observer Friday. “It shows that they believe this is an issue and that they support teachers and staff in these schools.”
The rally comes one month after the NC Supreme Court overturned a 2022 decision in the 32-year-old Leandro case that would’ve required the state to transfer hundreds of millions in additional dollars to public schools.
Meanwhile, North Carolina remains the only state in the country that hasn’t passed a budget for the current fiscal year, which began in July. Without one, state employees like public school teachers have gone without a state pay raise this school year.
Several CMS schools started rejecting leave requests for May 1 earlier this week, out of concern there would not be enough staff, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Association of Educators President Amanda Thompson told the Observer in an email Thursday.
The CMS board has supported higher teacher pay and additional funding for public schools in recent years, including in its legislative agenda adopted in February 2025.
“CMS supports legislation that provides CMS, and all local education agencies, additional financial resources for early childhood and Pre-K through 12th-grade education,” it states.
With the change, CMS doesn’t have any more days it can waive this school year. It does have one additional virtual school day it could use if needed.
This story was originally published April 24, 2026 at 12:02 PM with the headline "Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools cancels classes May 1 ahead of Raleigh teacher rally."