Parents Weigh-In on New CMS Student Assignment Plan

CHARLOTTE, NC – Parents are speaking out about Charlotte-Mecklenburg’s new student assignment plan.

75 schools are affected by potential boundary changes and changes to high school feeder patterns.

“I hope it just doesn’t affect kids negatively. You know, every kid deserves a good education,” says parent Daniel Santos.

Santos has questions has questions about the impact of the boundary changes.

He has a child at Cotswold Elementary.

“They give kids a lot of extra attention in this school,” Santos explains.

Superintendent Ann Clark’s plan combines Cotswold’s attendance area with Billingsville Elementary in Grier Heights – which is a lower-income school.

All kids in the combined area would attend Billingsville for grades K-2 and Cotswold for grades 3-5.

The move fits the district’s goal to diversify schools based on socioeconomic status.

Clark says it will also relieve overcrowding.

“It is an opportunity, rather than reassigning some students in the over-capacity school to an under-capacity school, to keep a school community intact but broaden the boundary to include two schools,” Clark explains.

Along with Cotswold and Billingsville, the plan calls for paring Dilworth Elementary with Sedgefield Elementary and Nathaniel Alexander Elementary with Morehead STEM Academy.

“I think it’s great,” says parent Laura Guiterrez.

Guiterrez has three children at Allenbrook Elementary.

Some students at that school would be reassigned to Westerly Hills Academy.

Guiterrez says she agrees with diversifying schools, as long as students aren’t assigned too far away from home.

“All the children, they’re all the same. It doesn’t matter about the economy. We’re all the same people,” she says.

Parents can weigh-in on the proposed changes during community meetings starting in May.

If approved the new student assignment plan would go into effect for the 2018 -2019 school year.