MECKLENBURG COUNTY, N.C. — In a tense discussion Tuesday night, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education members talked about historically missing the mark on how the district conducts comprehensive reviews of its schools.
"I don't have a clear picture still, and I know we're talking about this, what comprehensive means," Stephanie Sneed, CMS's board vice chair, said.
Board policy states the district should, "consider conducting a comprehensive review" of its Student Assignment Plan every six years.
The policy does not define what comprehensive means.
"We have many challenges to overcome," Jennifer De La Jara, an at-large CMS board member, said. "But I don't think that that should keep us from doing the right thing, and expanding our understanding and expressing the scope of what comprehensive means."
De Le Jara called for broadening the scope of reviews countywide, reviewing the current policy, in addition to asking for new data to help inform the comprehensive review discussions and decision-making.
"I'm not suggesting that we need this data tomorrow," De La Jara said. "But I do think it's important that we come to a consensus and a timeline."
For years, the district has focused on individual areas of the county when assessing boundary changes, student assignments, and feeder pattern changes.
"What's happening in South County is going to affect the whole district," Lisa Cline, who covers the southern portion of the county, said.
Most recently the district has navigated hundreds of parents who have pushed back in the past few weeks on changes to school boundaries and feeder patterns in South County schools due to overcrowding.
These reviews hold great importance because they are consequential for thousands of students.
A review can impact where a student is assigned to go to school based on where they live. It can result in a sibling going to a different middle school then their older sibling did due to changes in a feeder pattern. It can also impact boundary changes that could result in your child being bussed to a school miles away from their house.
The district uses three main data points to guide its decisions on changes to boundaries and feeder patterns.
They include the overall socioeconomic levels of schools, the number of students in the school, and the utilization of schools. Utilization refers to how many brick-and-mortar classrooms are available versus students.
"I have schools that are at 150% capacity and schools that are at 80% of utilization," Melissa Easley, a board member covering the northern portion of Mecklenburg County, said. "What can we do? We can't do anything, we can't make those decisions, and we can't look at the ripple effects that many of you have mentioned, without getting that data."
New board members have questions about the current data points' validity and significance.
"Data, it has no meaning if there [isn't] actual analysis behind it," Summer Nunn, a board member, said. "It's just a bunch of numbers."
Five of CMS' board members are newly elected and missed the bulk of how the district collected and analyzed the data used to inform current decisions.
There are also calls to include other things like transportation in the discussion of comprehensive reviews.
"I really think that we have to look at bus stops, that are important to us, we have to look at magnet programming, we have to look at where the assigned magnets are, you have to look at everything," Cline said.
The question of the night was how they define what comprehensive is and how they get the district up to date.
Cline suggested slowing down on any final decision until they get the answers.
"We can't just go, "Oh, this is due on May 9, and we're going to do it and check it off and keep going,'" Cline said. "And that's what gotten this board in trouble in the past. So now, we all have a commitment to get it right."
No final decisions were made on changes to how to approach future comprehensive reviews. The conversation is likely to come up again, but for the moment plans are still on to vote on the South County school changes in May.
Contact Shamarria Morrison at smorrison@wcnc.com and follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.