Who Has To Go? Student Reassignment Plan Pits Elizabeth Lane Parents Against One Another

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – A CMS student reassignment plan is pitting parents from the same school against one another.

Parents spoke out at a school board public hearing on Tuesday night, saying they don’t want their kids to leave Elizabeth Lane Elementary in Matthews.

But the district says the school is overcrowded and wants to move nearly 200 students from Elizabeth Lane to a larger and newly re-built Landsdowne Elementary in 2021.

The school board plans to decide between a “blue” and “orange” assignment plan.

Parents are fighting to keep their kids from being the ones who are moved.

“Nobody likes to essentially battle another family or another set of parents…. but that’s just the reality of it,” says Elizabeth Lane Elementary parent Todd Fuller.

He and other parents who support the “blue” plan say many kids in their community walk to Elizabeth Lane.

“We’d like to see our community stay at Elizabeth Lane, especially given we’re close to the school,” he says.

On the other side, “orange” plan supporters like Gabriel Terejanu say they moved here with plans to have their kids go to Elizabeth Lane.

“Buying a home, it’s a big investment, so we make a lot of research, and finding out that now we have to be reassigned, obviously that’s going to be a problem,” Terejanu says.

He and other who live in the Beverly Crest community also worry the “blue” plan would split up student assignment in their neighborhood.

“And that’s not going to play very well, with the students being separated,” Terejanu says.

The school board is set to make a decision later this year.