CHARLOTTE, N.C. — As the region's largest school district tries to manage a growing number of students, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools data shows 40 percent of its schools are overcrowded.
Some by hundreds of students; one high school by more than a thousand.
A report identified 67 overcrowded schools in all, 11 times more than nearby Gaston County, and there's currently only funding to renovate or replace about a third of those schools.
Collinswood Language Academy, a well-respected magnet school in Charlotte, is at the top of the list of overcrowded schools based on student enrollment alone.
"We have I think 800 students in a facility that's probably supposed to hold 400," Parent Teacher Association President Kerry Richman-Connors said. "The original building is only for kindergarten through fifth grade and so we have the sixth through eighth grade, which adds a lot more bodies."
As a result of the high number of students and many modular units, Collinswood is also at the top of CMS' new school list, thanks in large part to the longtime work of the PTA.
Voters approved $922 million in bonds last year. The money will help the district relieve overcrowding at 20 schools, including number two on the list, Ardrey Kell, which is almost 1,400 students above the planned enrollment.
The remaining elementary and middle schools that round out the top 10 have a combined 5,000 more kids than originally planned, according to CMS records. Those schools include Community House, Selwyn, Sharon, Elizabeth Lane, Bailey, J.V. Washam, Elon Park, and Providence Spring
The numbers are part of a recent CMS report, compiled to answer questions across the district and for an advisory committee to analyze in the future. The report offers no recommendations or changes to the current student assignment plan.
In the past, the district has changed boundaries and assignments to provide relief and capped re-assignments at some over-utilized schools. But the new report doesn't just look at the student population, it also looks at the number of classrooms, teachers and cafeteria space in every school.
According to CMS data, many overcrowded schools also have more teachers than traditional classrooms and less cafeteria space per student.
Back at Collinswood, once 2020 comes, parents and students are excited to say goodbye to the modular classrooms and hello to the real thing when the new school opens.
Nearby at Fort Mill Schools, there's a different approach to limit the use of modular units. The South Carolina school system freezes enrollment at a handful of schools until new schools are built or space opens up. That means if you move into a neighborhood zoned for a school with an enrollment freeze, your kids must go to a different school.
