CHARLOTTE, NC — Adding new schools means drawing new boundaries, and that can cause tempers to flare.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools announced a new plan this week to move more than 2,500 kids next school year to relieve overcrowding. Parents are voicing their frustrations with the process.
“We have continued to experience enrollment growth,” says CMS superintendent Dr. Heath Morrison. “Matter of fact, from 2001 we’ve seen 43,000 additional students in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools.”
Hickory Grove, Windsor Park and Albemarle Road elementaries in East Charlotte are bursting at the seams. The same is true for Highland Creek in North Charlotte, and Huntingtowne Farms and Montclaire in South Charlotte.
CMS will build two new schools for 2015. Oakkhurst Elementary will re-open as a partial magnet school. Starmount Elementary will open its doors again to kids in the neighborhood, but some who live within walking distance will be bused elsewhere.
“We’re going to be bussing kids down South Boulevard, which is heavily trafficked, to bring them here, while they’re passing busses leaving the neighborhood to go to South Boulevard to go to different schools,” says Starmount resident Buddy Perry. “And so it’s expensive; it’s dangerous and it makes no sense to me.”
Budget cuts forced CMS to close schools during the recession. As things bounce back, some feel schools are not a priority.
“When they are wanting to develop an area, or considering it, we have to be at the table to show them what the numbers are,” says Mary McCray, Chair of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education. “How it’s going to impact the schools that would be serving that area.”
And many worry that some kids are getting left behind. Especially economically disadvantaged students in neighborhood schools across the Queen City.
“Several members of the school board ran on platforms of ending the segregation of the EDS balance,” says Huntingtown Farms resident Erin Pushman. “And still, nothing is changing.”
“This is a long process, by design, so that we can make sure that we can get the best boundary, the best option in front of the board,” says Scott McCully, .
CMS will hold a public hearing on the reassignment plan at Garinger High School on October 28th. The board is scheduled to vote on the plan November 19th.
