CMS looks to split K-8 schools

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools consolidated some elementary and middle schools into K-8 schools during the recession to save money.

Now that the district is working to redraw school boundaries, CMS is trying to split some of those schools apart.

The outgoing superintendent wants the board to vote on how they will split up their eight K-8 schools on April 6, but board members only got the proposal on Wednesday leaving some asking if this process is happening too fast.

"It would be too quick for them to do it," said Gerald Conner, who has family members who would have to switch schools.

The board is being pressed to vote on three proposals to split students who attend K-8 schools into designated elementary and middle schools.

Some parents are concerned because the plans would go into effect in the 2018-2019 school year when the new student assignments starts, but others think the plan has merit.

"The big kids and little kids together, they get in fights and stuff like that," Conner said.

CMS's first proposal would send middle schoolers at Bruns Academy to Ranson Middle School.

The second proposal would send middle schoolers at Berryhill, Reid Park and Westerly Hills schools to Wilson Middle School.

The third proposal would break apart five K-8 schools to create two middle schools, which would send younger students to five elementary schools.

"I would like to see the elimination of all the K-8s," Ricky Woods, the pastor of First Baptist West, said.

Woods works with many students in Charlotte's K-8 schools.

"We're not getting any academic results," he said.

The only proposal that would get rid of all of the K-8s is the district's second plan, but that would take two phases and four years to complete.

Woods doesn't know why CMS would keep any K-8 schools, when at Berryhill, the highest performing K-8, 75 percent of the students did not meet state reading standards for college and career levels in the 2015-2016 school year.

"At some point we have to say OK, enough’s enough. We tried this, lets scrap it," Woods said.

If the board approves any of their three options, the renovations to their schools will cost millions of dollars.

Opponents of the proposals said the options only disperse the K-8 students to schools in the same area, so it wouldn't break up high concentrations of poverty.

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