CMS will try input meetings again after parent outcry about south Charlotte assignments
Reassignment plans circulated last year roiled parents in south Charlotte. Now, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools will try again to get community feedback before reassigning students from its three largest high schools.
CMS has rolled out a new timeline to ensure district leaders receive input before a school board vote scheduled for late May. The sessions will recap feedback the district has received since the beginning of the south Charlotte feeder pattern discussions in 2022.
The district is providing updates and community engagement sessions throughout March and April.
“We had 1,000 people fill out a survey and received hundreds of emails,” said Claire Schuch, director of planning services for CMS. “We looked at all of the different results.”
South Charlotte parents rallied last year around existing boundaries with a new high school planned at 12218 North Community House Road, near Interstate 485. It would shift feeder patterns in August 2024, with a goal of relieving overcrowding at the district’s three largest high schools — Myers Park, Ardrey Kell and South Mecklenburg — and dozens of elementary and middle schools that feed into them.
Schuch during a Tuesday news conference said Providence High and East Mecklenburg High schools also could be affected. But she said no new draft scenarios will be shared until the end of this month.
This time around, CMS will also include in discussions a south Charlotte relief middle school that could be part of a possible bond package on the November ballot. It would relieve overcrowding at Community House, Jay M. Robinson and Rea Farms middle schools.
The earliest the new middle school would open is the 2025-2026 school year.
Schuch says CMS is taking parents’ concerns seriously.
Parents’ petitions outline concerns
Laura Grant, parent of a 10th grade student at Myers Park High and seventh-grader at Randolph IB Middle School started a petition on change.org in late November because current and former parents of Sharon Elementary students do not want to be split off.
Parents contend draft plans late last year show some or all of Sharon Elementary families being rezoned from Myers Park to South Mecklenburg High.
Another parent, Deborah Martin, started a petition on change.org in January asking for CMS to fix the Olde Providence Elementary feeder pattern, which previous draft scenarios made worse, Martin wrote.
The petitions have received roughly 1,300 signatures combined.
“CMS should follow their four core principles when a redistricting year and new high school are in play,” Martin wrote. “The Olde Providence community is overwhelmingly in favor of rezoning all Olde Providence Elementary students to Providence High School.”
Parent feedback encouraged
Both Martin and Grant contend CMS’ process of redefining boundaries for south Charlotte has given parents limited opportunities for community engagement and feedback. Martin says there’s been limited social media presence and a lack of public announcements.
Grant wrote in a Dec. 13 email to the board the roll out of possible student reassignments has “been less than acceptable.”
“Delayed information, secrecy, private groups discussing confidential maps without proper feedback from the community, misrepresentation of data …” Grant wrote.
Martin in a March 9 petition update pleaded with parents to write letters to board members, attend board meetings and speak during public comment sections and display car magnets and yard signs that say: “Keep OP Kids Together - Fix Our CMS Feeder Pattern.”
Schuch said Tuesday officials listened to prior input and will use information from previous and future meetings to drive decisions. She said parents are concerned about traffic, overcrowding, social and academic impacts of a change in schools and diversity. She also says CMS is trying to avoid splitting up feeder patterns.
“We’re really focused on keeping neighborhoods together,” Chief Operations Officer Brian Schultz said.
Recap meetings, where officials will go over what they’ve learned so far and present next steps, happened Tuesday. Another one is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at Myers Park High School.
Draft scenarios will be presented at meetings at 6:30 p.m. March 27 at Myers Park High; 6:30 p.m. March 29 at South Mecklenburg High; and noon March 30 via Zoom. A second series of meetings with draft scenarios will take place:
▪ April 19, 6:30 p.m. at Ardrey Kell High School
▪ April 20, noon in a Zoom meeting.
▪ April 20, 6:30 p.m. at Providence High School
▪ April 21, noon in a Zoom meeting.
For more information, go to cmsk12.org/Page/9342
