Two CMS school board members vote against new school boundaries, some parents still hoping for changes

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (WBTV) - Leaders with Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools voted Tuesday night to approve new boundaries for the southern part of the district.

Not all of the school board members were on board, as the vote passed 7 to 2.

This comes as plans for a relief high school on Community House Road is set to open in 2024 and a relief middle school is scheduled to open in 2025.

Julie Tache, a CMS parent who lives on Windy Rush Road off of Rea Road in South Charlotte, describes the new boundary lines as arbitrary.

“I’m actually standing in front of my house right on my street,” Tache said. “Here’s the boundary line right here, the middle of my road. So all these houses you see behind me, all my nice neighbors, they’re being zoned for a different high school than my kid.”

When Tache bought the house it was zoned for Myers Park High School.

“We all knew that was going to change,” she said. “Everybody knew it was going to change. Everybody was fine with it. The thing that we never anticipated was all of our children being split up.”

She says her daughter will go to South Meck, while most of her friends, including some right across the street will go to Providence High School.

“We were listened to to a point, but then you just made a decision and then once we got past that, we were told no, this is going to be it,” she said of the school board’s process.

The lack of opportunity for input towards the end of the process is part of why school board members Lisa Cline and Summer Nunn voted against the final recommendation.

“We did really well up until like what I call the five yard line, and then it felt like a lot of it got dropped on us the final three weeks,” Summer Nunn, who represents District 6, told WBTV.

Cline says the district is working with parents on a case by case basis.

“Mistakes happen and we want to make sure every house is and that’s supposed to be in the neighborhood is is qualified for it,” Cline said.

Tache says all of the high schools are great options, she just doesn’t want her daughter split up from most of her friends.

“I don’t really think it matters where you want your kid to go to school,” she said. “It’s the bigger picture of why are our kids not being kept together?”

Cline also wants to remind parents they can apply to have their children reassigned to a different school than what they’re zoned for. She says that’s going to be possible in the high schools because of the changes they’re making, ensuring no one school is overcrowded.

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