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School board approves redistricting plans
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Published: December 15, 2009
CONCORD - Cabarrus County Board of Education has approved its redistricting plans for elementary, middle and high schools, but the votes were not unanimous.
The board approved the plans, with the exception of the new Harold E. Winkler Middle School, at its business meeting on Monday. Next month, staff for the school system will begin notifying families affected by these plans, said Jim Amendum, associate superintendent.
"It's not perfect, but I think we made the best decisions we could make," said board chairman Wayne Williams.
The vote for the elementary plans was 5-2, with board members Andrea Palo and Carolyn Carpenter dissenting.
The board was split regarding plans for middle and high school redistricting. Board members Palo, Carpenter and Tim Furr voted against the proposed plans for middle and high schools, requesting more time and other alternatives.
At the board's work session last week, most of the members agreed to move forward with a plan for elementary redistricting that uses Rocky River Road as a boundary for deciding what students will go to the current Harrisburg or to the new Patriots elementary schools.
Subdivisions south of Rocky River Road will be in the Patriots district, and the ones north of it will be in the Harrisburg Elementary boundary.
The board also held a public hearing and meeting later in the week about middle and high school redistricting plans and decided to vote on an original proposal it had reviewed in November.
The original proposal made it so the west side of railroad tracks that run along the eastern side of the county will attend Northwest Cabarrus middle and high schools, and those on the east side will attend Concord middle and high schools.
Over the past month, the board had held several public hearings regarding the redistricting proposals.
At the elementary public hearings, many Bradford Park neighborhood residents asked to stay in the Harrisburg district. While most of the board members said it made sense to be consistent in its natural boundary rule and avoid detouring buses to bring students south of the line to Harrisburg Elementary, Palo made a substitute motion this week to consider the Bradford Park residents' proposal.
The substitute motion failed, with only Palo and Carpenter supporting it.
When it came time to vote for middle and high school plans, board members said they were still not completely happy with the final plans, but said they could not fix some issues right now. Carpenter requested the board table the vote until next month and made a substitute motion to do so.
"This is affecting a lot of people's lives, and I want to make sure I have a lot of time to look at this," Carpenter said.
Amendum said the system would need to begin staffing plans for schools opening in 2010 around mid January.
Carpenter's substitute motion was supported by Palo and Furr but failed with a lack of votes.
One reason Furr wanted to wait on voting was, like other board members, he said he was not happy with the current proposals for J.N. Fries Middle School's district. Because enrollment numbers would not be balanced among middle schools if they did not send students to Fries, board members said there were no other options right now.
"We need to address this in the near future, but I do not believe we can address it before the next school year," Williams said.
The board discussed making Fries a magnet school, or one with specialized curriculum, at its business meeting, but staff for the school system said doing this is a lengthy process.
Board members decided last week to postpone redistricting plans for the new Harold E. Winkler Middle School, because they were still torn about proposals for it, and it will not open until 2011.
Maps of the approved redistricting plans for elementary, middle and high schools will be available soon on the Cabarrus County Schools Web site at www.ccsweb.cabarrus.k12.nc.us.
• Contact reporter Jessica Groover: 704-789-9152
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