Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools on Wednesday unveiled a new draft of boundary plans for a new southern middle and high school, one officials say does more to balance socioeconomic diversity than the plan released last month.
“We got resounding feedback from the community that really what they were most concerned about was socioeconomic status diversity. So SES diversity was what led us through this revision of the draft,” CMS facilities planning director Dennis LaCaria said.
About 350 people came to South Mecklenburg High to learn details of the latest revision (see the new plan here). Some thanked CMS officials for doing more to avoid creating greater concentrations of poverty at South Meck and other schools.
“Socioeconomic status matters,” said one parent of a middle school student. He said higher poverty levels at South Meck would have harmed students' academic prospects. “Life’s not fair, but make it even. Give these children a chance.”
But others blasted district planners for changing the previous plan they supported.
One speaker, who identified himself as a CMS parent and former teacher, said CMS had “overcorrected” based on complaints from people who didn’t like the March plan. He said the latest plan forces some students to have longer trips to school, with little real gain.
“That is not a good math equation,” he said to applause. “How do you justify harming these students, harming their study time? Now that we’re driving 45 minutes, how are we going to serve on PTAs when we have to work?”
Change for many neighborhoods
The shifting school boundaries have been in the works for more than a year and have generated controversy — at a time when the district has new leadership and big plans to ask voters to approve bonds for further school construction. The changes are driven by the need to create attendance zones to accommodate a new high school being built on Community House Road, between Ardrey Kell and South Mecklenburg high schools, and for a new middle school the district hopes to build in the same area.
The high school is scheduled to open in 2024, and CMS hopes to have the middle school built by 2025.
The new plan makes significant changes from the one the district rolled out last month. It affects the attendance zones for four high schools, 10 middle schools and 14 elementary schools — including four middle schools and seven elementary school that were not part of the last draft. Meanwhile, six schools that would have seen changes under the last plan are not part of the latest one.
The March plan drew protests from families who said it would undermine diversity at South Mecklenburg High by creating poverty levels that could reduce the school’s attractiveness to teachers and families. Fifty percent of South Meck students would have come from low socioeconomic status neighborhoods under the March plan — more than at the other four high schools in the mix combined. That’s been reduced to 30% under the revised plan, similar to the levels at Myers Park and the new high school.
Ardrey Kell and Providence high schools will have no low socioeconomic status neighborhoods in their zones under the new plan.
CMS labels all census blocks in Mecklenburg County as low, middle or high socioeconomic status, or SES, based on family income, adult education levels, home ownership, English proficiency and single-parent households.
Heather Salam, an Olde Providence parent, supported the plan that would have sent her neighborhood to South Charlotte Middle and Providence High. She said she would support a serious districtwide study of busing for diversity. But she said this shift accomplishes little, in a part of the county that's generally higher income than Mecklenburg as a whole.
“I think that trying to balance SES perfectly in the southern wedge is a shallow attempt that is not going to move the needle in CMS in general,” Salam said. “So I think that home-to-school distance should take priority in this particular case.”
The new plan also does more to balance the use of classrooms, officials say. For instance, some families worried that the March plan would leave Carmel Middle School only about three-quarters filled, while South Charlotte Middle would be about 30% over capacity. Both schools would be close to 100% utilization under the new proposal.
The school board has now pushed back its timeline — again — for making a decision. LaCaria said planners need a couple more weeks to make sure they can figure out such things as changes in magnet programs and how many grade levels would be allowed to stay at their current high school as changes phase in.
Here’s the latest schedule:
- Noon Thursday: Virtual presentation on the new draft https://cms-k12-nc-us.zoom.us/j/93686533570?pwd=K3IrYmttZVNKS0JLWWc3WFFsSWJBdz09
- 6:30 p.m. Thursday: In-person presentation at Providence High cafeteria.
- Noon Friday: Virtual presentation https://cms-k12-nc-us.zoom.us/j/99430390279?pwd=eG9NYU8va2dFZ2JOK3YrU3BUMTl3QT09
- 6 p.m. May 23: Public hearing at the school board meeting at the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Government Center.
- 6 p.m. June 6: School board votes.
Check here for any changes.
