Chicken Little School Board
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools officials have released a list of 32 schools that could face major changes next year, from reconfigured student-assignment boundaries to shutting down individual schools. Or not.
School officials stress the list is only preliminary, crafted around and aligned with the school board’s newly concocted set of so-called guiding principles that covers the likes of student assignment, transportation, student achievement and operational costs.
The list of 32 schools targets locations from across the county, each of which was identified as having problems with overcrowding or under-utilization, low student proficiency, or high operational costs. The list includes one pre-K site, 11 elementary schools, 12 middle schools, five high schools, and three special-needs schools. Officials said that the list could be expanded to include additional schools, or that some of the existing ones might be dropped from consideration.
How the district moves forward depends on what recommendations the Board of Education receives from CMS staffers next week, based on further review of individual schools and how they align with the board’s set of guiding principles.
Using those as benchmarks, CMS staff developed a rating index that uses four main factors to compare schools: academic proficiency, academic growth, per-pupil cost, and the physical condition of a school. Because the school board made academic growth a top priority, it was given extra weight in the rating formula.
The rankings pulled by the schools lumped in the preliminary list run the gamut. Lincoln Heights, for example, was tagged with a per-pupil operating cost of $11,044, but is only operating at 53 percent capacity with a 59-percent student proficiency. Compare that to Highland Creek, with its $5,157 per-pupil cost, 157 percent capacity and 87 percent student proficiency. The full list of 32 schools and their respective ratings is available here.
Superintendent Peter Gorman cautioned that the list is just a starting point for discussions, and subject to likely change. Gorman went so far as sending a district-wide e-mail to CMS employees to help quell any speculation or angst about potential school closings or wholesale changes – even though it’s far from certain either would occur.
“Whenever lists are made, anxieties rise,” Gorman wrote. “That’s understandable. But I hope that our employees and our parents and the community at large will see this list for what it is: a starting point for Board discussions.”
While CMS received less funding than usual this year, and the prospect for the same looms next year, officials insisted talk of school closings or other radical changes were not directly related to budget cuts.
Instead, Gorman said, the changes being considered are meant to provide the district with better and more efficient ways to use existing resources, particularly in cases where schools are currently being under-utilized.
The public is slated to have an opportunity later this month to weigh in on any changes the school board proposes; or doesn’t, as the case may be.
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