Relief on the way for eyesore elementary school

HUNTERSVILLE, N.C. — For years, Channel 9 covered parent complaints at Torrence Creek Elementary.

They said it's an eyesore, with portable trailers covering the playground, and students said it makes learning difficult.

Mallory Caldwell, 12, went to Torrence Creek this year.

"I didn't like them because if it rained, you had to walk through the mud and the puddles, and whenever it snowed and it was really cold outside, you would have to walk all the way out there," she said.

"I just don't think they focus as well," said her mother Dawn Caldwell.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools officials said the mobile classrooms were necessary to serve as overflow classrooms for all of the students.

"I think at one point they probably had close to as many mobile classrooms on sight as they had in the building. so in excess of 30 mobile classrooms," Guy Chamberlin with CMS said.

Torrence Creek was once the most overcrowded school in all of CMS.

"The overcrowding at Torrence Creek was recognized the day we opened it," Chamberlin said.

Relief is finally coming.

Eyewitness News found Thursday all of the trailers are now being taken apart and moved.

Because of the 2007 bond referendum, CMS is building Grand Oak Elementary School which will serve as the relief school for Torrence Creek.

Still, the overcrowding issues aren't over for all of CMS.

In fact, the trailers currently sitting on the baseball field and in the parking lot of Torrence Creek will be moved to Bailey Road Middle School, where they will once again serve as classrooms.