A proposed bell schedule change at the South Academy of International Languages is raising concerns among parents who say it could leave students on long bus rides during rush hour.
South Academy of International Languages, known as SAIL, is a K-8 magnet school in southwest Charlotte that buses students in from all over Mecklenburg County for its language immersion programs. The current bell schedule starts at 8:15 a.m. and ends at 3:15 p.m. The proposal would shift that to a 9:15 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. schedule starting in the 2027-28 school year.
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Jeannette Lang, who lives in the northeastern part of the county, has four kids and planned to send all of them to SAIL’s German immersion program. One already finished the program, two are currently enrolled, and a fourth isn’t in school yet.
Lang said the later dismissal time would make her pull her children from SAIL. She worries it would force her kids to ride the bus across the county at the peak of rush hour.
“We've had twice this year where their bus was delayed. So they were picked up at 4:40, which would be, I guess, the normal time then,” Lang said. “And the bus didn't make it here almost until 7:00. So we can completely forget any after-school activities. They can completely forget being kids at this point because it would be from 7:00 to 7:00, a full-time job.”
Lang, who is from Germany, said the program has helped her children maintain their German heritage.
“I speak fully fluent German, and I tried since birth talking to all my kids in German, but all they were constantly telling me is, 'Mom, please stop speaking that funny language,'” Lang said. “So they never wanted to pick it up. But then, I don't know, magically as soon as they started kindergarten at SAIL, they were able to speak, and they all can communicate with my mom, who lives in Germany, and that's very important to me because she doesn't speak English.”
No other German immersion programs are available in her transportation zone.
“I'm very heartbroken if that happens because we've been through this program. We know how great it is,” Lang said. “I'm heartbroken for the kids because they all have friends. They love the schoolteachers.”
CMS did not respond to a request for comment. But at a September school board meeting, district officials said CMS evaluates bell schedules every year to look for efficiencies in transportation. This change is one of several officials say are necessary to accommodate future school transportation routes, particularly since CMS approved new magnet program changes for next year as part of its recent comprehensive review.
“Under our existing model, these additions would require more buses and drivers,” said interim Chief Operations Officer Nicole Portee. “Instead, CMS transportation is strategically rebalancing existing routes and bell times to prepare for future school routes while maximizing the use of our current resources.”
CMS, like many school districts, faces severe bus driver shortages.
But parents at SAIL say bell changes affect them in unique ways. Its Japanese program, the only one of its kind, buses kids in from all over the county. Its German program buses kids from across two separate transportation zones, spanning roughly two-thirds of the county.
“I think our biggest concern, though, comes down to that 4:15 dismissal, where we are a school that's at Nations Ford and (Interstate) 77 on the very south end of the county, and getting those youngest students,"
said Jessica Slade, a parent with two children in the German program at SAIL. "So a 4-year-old, 5-year-old, 6-year-old is on a bus for two-plus hours to, say, home in Huntersville.”
Slade said she's concerned that families will leave, which could impact things like teacher allotments and funding, and that students who set out to find a unique language-based education will be forced to return to traditional classrooms.
“We're not only losing students that we can't replace, but then those students aren't given the education that they started with and that they were prepared with,” Slade said.
Slade and other parents say CMS hasn't informed them enough about the benefits of the change.
It’s not the first time SAIL parents have tried to halt CMS changes. Last spring, parents argued that proposed changes to transportation zones would have left some students without a bus, forcing many to leave the program. CMS reversed course and altered its plan.
