Plan to split CMS into 3 districts hits nerve with local NAACP chapter

A plan to split Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools into three districts has hit a nerve with the local chapter of the NAACP.

Eyewitness News first told you about the plan last week.  It was proposed by a group that thinks the CMS district needs a drastic change.

The plan would create three districts with their own school board and taxing authority.  The boundaries are not clearly defined yet, but the proposal suggests a northern district that includes Davidson, Cornelius and Huntersville.  The southern district would have Mint Hill, Matthews and Pineville.  And the remaining central part of the county would be a district in its own.

Some parents told Eyewitness News they understand why some would want a change.  Right now, CMS gives more money per student to high poverty, often inner-city schools, which leaves some suburban parents feeling slighted.

Reverend Kojo Nantambu, who represents the Charlotte branch of the NAACP, told Channel 9 that plan is "nothing but an age old attempt to do an end around on civil rights and Brown vs. the Board of Education."  He said it is "just a political ploy to put us back into the dark ages of "separate and unequal" because he said the poorer, inner-city schools would wind up with less money.

Tom Davis represents a group called "SPARK" that has proposed the plan to dismantle CMS.  He said Nantambu doesn't have his facts straight. 

"This is not a race issue," he said.  "The numbers document a good, diverse population." 

Davis showed an Eyewitness News crew a chart with the demographics of schools that would make up the north district, some of which have a majority of African-American students.

Davis said people living in the central zone would also likely get more money than those in the northern and southern districts based on the way taxes are collected in Mecklenburg County. 

“We're not out here to fracture the community,” Davis said. “We're out here to actually move the process, talk about it, and get something so that we can solve these problems." 

Those problems, Davis said, include a "lack of accountability" among leaders in such a large school district.

Any change to CMS has to be approved by lawmakers.  The NAACP is encouraging people to contact their lawmakers now and encourage them not to support the plan.