Parents and community members came out in full force Tuesday to voice concerns about Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools’ proposal to reassign about 800 students in 2025 as part of a magnet shuffle.
The original plan, which Superintendent Crystal Hill presented to the board at its meeting Aug. 13, would switch school assignments, move several magnet programs, join two elementary schools and convert Davidson K-8 into an elementary school, moving middle school students to nearby Bailey Middle.
Tuesday was the first public hearing about the plan and more than 30 people signed up to talk to the school board.
Dilworth Elementary
Community members and board members raised concern particularly about plans to move non-magnet, neighborhood students from Marie G. Davis to Sedgefield Middle School and Dilworth Elementary, which is already overcrowded. Marie G. Davis is currently a K-8 International Baccalaureate magnet.
CMS is building a new campus at Park Road to accommodate more students, but the new building will not be ready by the 2025 school year.
Hill proposed an alternative option at the following board meeting on Aug. 27 that would postpone the plan at Dilworth Elementary by a year. It was originally slated for August 2025.
Several parents and community members who addressed the board at Tuesday’s meeting cited concerns with the plan at Dilworth.
“Dilworth Elementary School is currently overcrowded,” said Roberta Fox, parent of a third grader at Dilworth. “We’re making the best of it, but it’s not ideal. We don’t have enough campus parking for teachers. Our art teacher’s classroom is on the stage in the gym.”
At the start of the school year, CMS expected 640 students at the school, which is designed to hold 560. By the second day of school, there were nearly 700 students. CMS previously estimated that, with the addition of students from Marie G. Davis, the school could expect an enrollment of up to 740 next school year.
“Adding 100 more students while we are at this campus is not a solution, in my opinion,” Fox said. “I think it’s unfair to both Marie G. Davis students and Dilworth Elementary students.”
Early college high school plans
Several students and teachers complained the district had not heard adequate community feedback or provided transparency in its plans to convert four “middle college” campuses into “early college” high schools by adding grades nine and 10.
CMS currently has two early college campuses with grades 9-12 at UNC Charlotte and Central Piedmont Community College’s campus near uptown.
The change would require all students to enroll in ninth grade, rather than 11th grade . Some attendees said this closes off options to students who may want to enroll later in high school.
“I see the value in allowing amazing students to emotionally and academically develop before making this change,” said Kim Tuttle, a teacher at Levine Middle College High School. “This change is a hasty decision that does not benefit every student in CMS.”
Several students and parents from Levine also addressed the board, asking its members to reconsider the plan. All ended with the same refrain: “We are Levine.”
Dorothy J. Vaughan Elementary School
The proposed plan also involves closing Dorothy J. Vaughan Academy of Technology, an elementary STEM magnet in northeast Charlotte, and moving students, faculty and programs to Parkside Elementary. However, several speakers objected not only to the closure of Dorothy J. Vaughan, but also the loss of the school’s name.
Vaughan was a respected mathematician at NASA and the first Black female supervisor of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics. She eventually became the first Black manager at NASA and was a character in the 2016 film “Hidden Figures.”
“To work at a school in this district named after an African-American woman who had such an incredible and consequential impact on society has been an honor,” said Tanya Mayes, a music teacher at the school who met Vaughan’s family when the school first opened eight years ago. “I believe we are representing the epitome and highest values of Dorothy J. Vaughan and that she would be proud of the work we are doing. I respectfully ask that you keep the name Dorothy J. Vaughan Academy of Technology.”
The board will vote on the plan at its next meeting Sept. 24.
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