Changes could be coming to CMS’s academically-gifted program

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (WBTV) - If your student is at a Charlotte-Mecklenburg school, changes may be coming.

After a comprehensive review, CMS leadership is taking a deep dive into potential changes to their programs and facilities.

For one school, a proposed change to their gifted educational approach has caused a stir.

Irwin Academic Center is an elementary school that prides itself on being “LI-TD”, a gifted program standing for Learning Immersion and Talent Development that all kids at Irwin are part of.

When parents learned about a proposal to change that classification to International Baccalaureate, or IB.

LI-TD is a rigorous program for academically-gifted students. All kids at Irwin fall into this program. Meanwhile, IB, Hall explained, focuses on global and interconnected education, wherein both gifted and non-gifted children can learn.

So parents who selected Irwin for its accelerated program and diversity were relieved to hear their concerns were heard Wednesday night.

“What’s happening now is great, it’s positive, it’s effective, and we need to keep that going,” one parent, Azania Herron, said.

Walter Hall, the director of magnet programs at CMS, said they’ll keep the LI-TD program. Instead, they’ll now consider a gifted middle school in Dilworth to keep up students’ academic progression.

“No immediate changes here at Irwin,” Hall said. “We’re proposing certain things...to test what families want, what families like, what families need.”

While any changes wouldn’t affect students until the 2025-26 school year, parents, including PTA president Breana Jeter, reiterated, if it’s not broken, don’t fix it.

“Our TD programs is one of the only TD programs in the city where you’ll see just as many Black students proportionate to the size of the school as you’ll see white students as South Asian students as Hispanic students,” she said. “We don’t want to lose that.”

There was supposed to be a vote to these program changes in February, but that will not be the case anymore. CMS said it could vote on districtwide changes next year.

Related: Interim Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools superintendent talks school reassignments

Copyright 2023 WBTV. All rights reserved.