Manatee Musings

Week of May 12-17, 2025

Author

Rick Mohrien
May 11, 2025

Congratulations on helping us to become a CKH National Showcase School!

The Week Ahead

Table of Contents

CKH End of Year Survey

CMS is asking all staff of CKH schools to complete the End of Year CKH Survey. This will provide us with key information as we head into the summer and plan for the 2025-2026 SY, with a goal of continuing to be a National Showcase School for CKH! Use the button below to take your survey.

AM Carpool Updates

As we approach the end of the school year, let's make these final weeks count by ensuring our carpool runs smoothly and safely. Your role in the morning drop-off is crucial, and here's how we can all contribute:

  • Be outside at 7:15 AM: Arriving at 7:10 AM gives you a few minutes to settle in and prepare to greet our students with a smile. If you are unable to attend carpool, please let me know. 

  • Safety First: With many students arriving, it's important to be alert and attentive, especially in the early morning when visibility is low.

  • Welcome Every Student: Greet each child warmly, regardless of their grade. Our goal is to provide the crown experience for all families.

  • Stay at Your Assigned Spot: Please avoid clustering with colleagues. Stand at your designated cone to ensure all car doors are attended to promptly.

  • Flexibility is Key: If we're short-staffed, be prepared to assist with opening multiple doors to keep the flow moving.

Thank you for your dedication and teamwork. Together, we can finish the year strong and continue to make a positive impact on our students and families.

PowerSchool Data Leak Update

We want to keep you informed of a recent update related to the PowerSchool data breach that occurred in late 2024 and was reported in January of this year. Yesterday, several school and North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI) employees across the state received messages from threat actors claiming to possess data from that breach. We have been informed that several Canadian school districts have received similar messages as well. Based on the current status of our investigation, we believe that the threat actors have access to the same data tables that were originally compromised. These data tables include student and staff names, contact information, social security numbers (limited student social security numbers), birthdays, medical notes, passwords (limited) and parent/guardian information. NCDPI has already notified appropriate law enforcement agencies, who are actively investigating this incident.

IMMEDIATE ACTIONS REQUIRED IF YOU RECEIVE CONTACT FROM THREAT ACTORS:

If you received this message:

  • Do not open any links embedded in suspicious messages.

  • Do not reply or engage with the threat actors. State law prohibits interaction with these individuals (N.C.G.S. 143-800).

  • If you received such a message, please report it immediately to Mike Howard, our CMS Cybersecurity Officer at [email protected]  and NCDPI’s Cybersecurity Team at [email protected]. 

  • IMPORTANT REMINDER: PowerSchool has taken full responsibility for this data breach. There was nothing that NCDPI or any North Carolina public schools could have done to prevent this incident.

We understand that this is a concerning update in the PowerSchool SIS data breach incident, and we are committed to ensuring that CMS staff is fully informed of the robust support services in place to help protect your personal information.

  • PowerSchool has extended their contract with Experian to offer identity protection and credit monitoring services through July 1, 2025 for all affected students and educators, however NCDPI is advocating for a significantly longer enrollment window so that all impacted users have enough time to enroll in the protection services provided by PowerSchool.

  • Affected individuals can enroll in identity protection and credit monitoring at no cost to themselves here. Services include:\

  • Two years of complimentary identity protection for all students and educators affected

  • Two years of complimentary credit monitoring for all adult students and educators affected

  • These services are available regardless of whether an individual's Social Security number was compromised.

  • Additional protection: Impacted users can freeze their identity for free through the North Carolina Department of Justice.

As we continue to work through this incident, we are committed to supporting you, as well as our students and families with care and transparency. Thank you for your continued commitment to our students and communities.

CMS AI Updates

CMS is excited to share an update on the effort to create our vision for Artificial Intelligence (AI) in education. We gathered input from more than 10,000 families, educators and community members through surveys, focus groups and interviews. 

We invite you to read the CMS AI Vision Report, now available at cmsk12.org/ai. This report shares themes in what we heard and outlines some of our next steps. We want to continue taking time to develop a thoughtful vision, which we are excited to complete and share in July.

Thank you for being part of this effort as we work together to ensure that AI is a tool for empowerment and excellence for all CMS students and staff.

Payroll Changes for 25-26 SY

The CMS Payroll department is committed to keeping you informed about changes to pay dates in 2025. Starting in the 2025-26 school year, employees who are paid monthly will see a shift in their pay dates in November and December. This notice is being provided more than one year in advance to allow for proper planning and budgeting.

November: The pay date will move to Nov. 28, reflecting the last business day of the month in 2025.

December: The pay date will move to Dec. 31.

Pay schedules will remain the same for biweekly employees, with paydays every other Friday. There was only one exception to this during the 2024-25 school year when there was a minor adjustment of one day during spring break.

Why is this change happening? Historically, the earlier pay dates before the holidays were necessary when payroll was handled manually, and employees needed to receive their checks before breaks when banks and couriers were not operational. However, with modern banking technology, especially direct deposit, these logistical issues no longer apply. Funds will be deposited to your account on the pay date, even if it falls on a holiday. Please note that direct deposit is a condition of employment, ensuring your pay is deposited on time regardless of holidays or closures. For monthly-paid employees, this change also helps address the unusually long gap of up to six weeks between December and January paychecks under the current system. Moving the December pay date to the end of the month ensures more consistency and compliance with North Carolina General Statutes, which mandate regular, predictable pay intervals. The decision to adjust the pay schedule was made to ensure legal compliance and fairness across the board. Please rest assured that we have considered the impact on employees and are providing more than a year's notice for proper planning. If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to reach out to our payroll team or your supervisor.

Negative Annual Leave Balances

Any employee with a negative annual leave balance will have charges deducted during the April and (if needed) May pay periods. If there are sufficient earning in the April Pay Period, the entire balance will be deducted in April. Any balance remaining after the April pay period, if necessary, will be deducted from the May pay period.

For biweekly paid staff, negative annual leave charges will deducted from May and June pay periods, beginning with the first pay period in May.

Questions about this should be directed to the payroll department at 980-343-1839.

This legal alert provides information impacting every CMS employee when they create, share, and destroy records. Public records policy and law affects everything from emails, to text messages, to lesson plans, and beyond. Because records management is a part of North Carolina law, make sure you are aware of the following wildly important facts that are linked below.

Clothing Support For Students (MHES PTA)

The PTA understands the importance of having clothing items readily available in classrooms to address students’ needs quickly and discreetly. This ensures that if a student has an accident and needs a change of clothes, they won’t have to walk to the front office in wet or soiled clothing to access the Manatee Care Closet.

The MHES PTA is committed to minimizing classroom interruptions and supporting you in addressing these situations effectively. To help, we will help provide essential 2-4 sets of clothing items that can be kept in your classrooms. To request clothing for your class, please complete the form linked below:

You can use this form to restock as needed throughout the school year. Since this is a work in progress, we may adjust the form based on your needs and feedback. While the MHES PTA will do its best to fulfill all requests, please understand that our ability to gather and distribute these items depends on donations, volunteer support, and available funding. We respectfully ask for your patience as we work to meet these needs.

We also strongly encourage you to remind families to include a change of clothes in their child’s backpack, regardless of grade level. The PTA will share this reminder in our weekly updates to help ensure students are prepared for unexpected situations. Thank you for your unwavering dedication to our students. Please don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions or if you have additional needs.

CMS Good News Submissions

Share good news with CMS Communications!  Did you win an award? Have a colleague you'd like to give a shout-out to? Or maybe you have a classroom strategy you think is unique? Let us know! We'd love to hear from you.

Reminder: Atrium Clinic for Staff 

As a reminder, our Atrium Virtual Health Clinic isn’t just for students—staff can utilize it as well! If you need to see a provider, please reach out to Rick and/or Nurse Haley.

FAC Notes & Updates

Previous FAC Notes

Updates & Information

MHES Resources
CMS Resources