Tense meeting as CMS parents digest boundary proposals
Parents worry about socioeconomic diversity, stability for high school juniors and other issues as CMS releases proposed school boundaries for tens of thousands of south Charlotte students
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Analysis: Parents spar over new student assignment lines for 23 south Charlotte schools
◼️ Concerns about IB and other magnets
◼️ Debate over changes to socioeconomic diversity, school proximity
◼️ ‘The rug has completely been pulled out from under us’
Hundreds of parents turned out for a meeting Monday night at Myers Park High to see the latest proposed school boundary maps and ask questions of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools officials.
by Cristina Bolling
Tempers flared Monday night in the Myers Park High School cafeteria as parents digested Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools’ latest draft plan to change the boundaries of 23 south Charlotte schools to make way for a new high school and a proposed new middle school.
The changes for many schools are vast under the proposed plan, and they affect tens of thousands of families who are zoned for four of Mecklenburg County’s biggest high schools, along with seven middle schools and 12 elementary schools.
In some cases, the boundary discussions are pitting neighbor against neighbor and rifts between friends who don’t agree on the next steps CMS should take in deciding which students will go to which schools. That tension was on display Monday night, as some parents aired frustration with the proposed maps as well as other parents’ advocacy for boundary requests they don’t agree with.
➡️ View the new CMS maps for yourself in a 54-page presentation
Hundreds attended Monday’s meeting, some arriving with typed-up copies of “talking points” they were prepared to speak about aloud and leave with CMS staff.
The crowd became rowdy at the start of the meeting, when CMS leaders asked them