Cabarrus County Schools welcomes back students with new classrooms

CONCORD, N.C. — Thousands of students in Cabarrus County Schools will be walking through brand-new doors when the school year begins on Wednesday.

With the rapid growth across the county, this is the first year for three schools. Channel 9’s Hannah Goetz got an inside look at two of those campuses and learned about the state-of-the-art classrooms going inside.

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At Coltrane Webb STEM Elementary School, the community gathered together to cut the ribbon for a new building on the site that dates back 140 years.

“This school stands on historic ground, but it was built with tomorrow in mind,” said Cabarrus County Schools Superintendent Dr. John Kopicki.

The building will be able to serve 756 students in grades K-5.

“This new facility provides learning spaces designed to encourage curiosity, exploration, and hands-on learning, giving students opportunities to ask questions, solve problems, and think beyond the classroom walls,” Kopicki said.

Coltrane Webb joins two other new campuses: Cabarrus County Schools Opportunity School, and Mary Frances Wall Center at Beverly Hills. All three are an investment to help keep up with the growth.

“We’re going to be able to serve more students in this building than our last building,” said Tracy Thiery, director of pre-K for CCS. “Also, everything is under one roof.”

Thiery says she can serve 63 more students now that they have more room. They’ll also be able to provide screening and evaluation services for 3,4, and 5-year-olds on site, as well as support services.

“What early intervention does for children and families, so I’m very proud to be able to do this each and every day,” Thiery said.

So far, the feedback has been positive.

“We had our open house on Friday and it was they didn’t want to leave their new school. It wasn’t that they were scared to come to school. It was that they didn’t want to leave their brand new building,” Thiery said.

But the real test will be when these empty hallways and classrooms are full of future leaders on that first day back.

Channel 9 has been following the growing pains in Cabarrus County -- in November, we learned the district has nearly doubled in the last two decades. From 2010 to 2020 alone, the student population went up 21%, leading to overcrowded classrooms and mobile classrooms to accommodate all of the growth.