City Smart: CMS turnover rate to new tanning bed regulations

• Turnovers are better when they are fruit-filled. This school year, 1,420 teachers left Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools to teach elsewhere or do something else. This is 16.5 percent of the teacher population and is the highest turnover rate that CMS has experienced in more than a decade.
• Even elected officials pull all-nighters. Last week, the North Carolina legislature wrapped up their long session with a flurry of last minute bills, discussion, and cookies from Insomnia Cookies. The session ended for the year at 4 a.m. This picture of Rep. Tricia Cotham sums up the all-night extravaganza nicely. They will reconvene for a short session April 28, 2016. The months in-between will likely be spent campaigning since one of the bills they passed this session moved all of the primary elections to March 15, 2016.

2 Happy Things

• Effective October 1, you must be 18 years or older to use a tanning bed at a tanning salon. Looks like teenagers are relegated to spray tans this winter.
• Novant Health Hemby Children’s Hospital is a St. Jude’s Affiliate Clinic, which means that hospital can offer the latest research and treatments doctors can prescribe. It is the only affiliate clinic in the Carolinas and also serves Virginia and Georgia.

1 Random Thing

• 2014 population estimate for Charlotte is 809,958. That puts Charlotte at third, behind Austin and New Orleans, as fastest-growing cities. Just wait until all these people figure out that we have better weather and less humidity than Austin and New Orleans.

Closing thought 

The general election is Tuesday, November 3. In addition to mayor and city council, we will also be electing three at-large school board members for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education. We’ve talked a lot about education this election. There’s a lot to think about – teachers leaving for other school districts, hiring a new superintendent, what to do about high concentrations of poverty in our schools, and the increasing pressure to compete with private and charter schools.

There are currently 145,117 students enrolled in CMS. I challenge us to vote on their behalf – one voter per child.

145,117 votes for this general election. That’s still only 22.7 percent turnout.