CMS may change school assignments and magnet boundaries. See if your school is affected
Some Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools students may attend different schools in the 2025-26 year under a proposed student assignment plan revealed Tuesday.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Superintendent Crystal Hill revealed the changes to student assignment to magnet schools at Tuesday’s board meeting. The proposed changes don’t take effect until the 2025-26 school year, but the choice lottery for the 2025-26 school year begins this fall.
The district is overdue for a thorough review of student assignment, which board policy requires every six years. The last review was in 2017 with the next one scheduled for 2023. But CMS did not conduct a new review that year due to the addition of new board members and the transition to a new superintendent.
This review will involve three major phases, and Tuesday’s report is part of the first one, which extends through September.
“Phase One is focused on expanding creative arts programming, expanding Montessori programming, improving school building facilities and utilization and expanding our early college offerings,” Hill said at Tuesday’s meeting.
The proposed changes would affect approximately 2,230 of the district’s more than 141,000 students, according to CMS estimates.
Assignment changes largely have to do with the $2.5 billion bond package approved by voters last year, as facilities are upgraded and new ones are constructed.
Community members got a preview of the changes at several public engagement sessions held throughout the district and online in July, though the bond projects were approved by voters in November. There will be a public hearing about Hill’s proposal Aug. 27, and the board will vote Sept. 10.
Here’s a look at the proposed changes.
Arts Magnets
University Park Creative Arts Academy will become an arts magnet for students in grades K-5 throughout Mecklenburg County.
First Ward Creative Arts Academy will serve as the county’s arts magnet middle school.
Northwest School of the Arts, which currently serves middle and high school students, would exclusively become a high school.
Non-magnet students currently assigned to University Park and First Ward Creative Arts will be rezoned to Bruns Avenue Elementary School. Families can also apply for a transfer or enter the lottery process.
Montessori Magnets
Montessori magnet students currently at J.T. Williams will move to Marie G. Davis, which will become a Montessori magnet school for grades 7-12. Marie G. Davis is currently a K-8 International Baccalaureate magnet.
Neighborhood, non-magnet students will be reassigned to Dilworth Elementary School and Sedgefield Middle School, while IB students can select an IB magnet program at a different campus. Families can also apply for a transfer or enter the lottery process.
J.T. Williams will be converted to alternative education programs.
Multiple board members raised concerns about students being reassigned to Dilworth Elementary School, which has a brick-and-mortar capacity of 560 students. With the additional students, enrollment at the school could reach a maximum of 740 — 180 more students than the current building is designed to accommodate.
Dilworth Elementary School is scheduled for significant renovation and expansion beginning in 2026, but school district officials said the proposed plan involves utilizing additional space at the school and potentially bringing in additional mobile trailers.
Early College High Schools
High school programs at Central Piedmont Community College’s Cato, Harper, Levine and Merancas locations will add ninth and 10th grades. Those campuses will become early college high schools like the ones the district already has at UNC Charlotte and Central Piedmont’s campus in uptown.
Other Changes
Davidson K-8 School will become solely an elementary school. Middle school students will be reassigned to Bailey Middle School.
Dorothy J. Vaughan Elementary School students will move to Parkside Elementary, and Vaughan will be closed due to aging facilities.
