Long-Range District Realignment Study

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Cabarrus County Schools has contracted Cooperative Strategies, LLC, to perform a long-range comprehensive realignment planning study. This study will include the assessment of student enrollment and projections, facility capacity and use, and the assessment of future growth and development.

The purpose of this study is to examine the distribution of student enrollments, demographics, facility use, and planned capital expenditures across the district by modeling long range enrollments through a complete assessment of growth and/or decline to create a sustainable realignment plan.

Cabarrus County Schools serves a geographic area of approximately ~360 square miles. This area includes exurban, suburban, and rural land use. The County is approximately 20 minutes northeast of Charlotte and is included in the metropolitan statistical area of the region. The district also serves five municipalities including Concord, Kannapolis, Harrisburg, Midland, and Mt. Pleasant.

Cabarrus County Schools student population grew 21% from 2010 to 2020 and has almost doubled over the last two decades. In addition to growth, there has been a legislative mandate for the reduction of K-3 class size which has resulted in a loss of seat availability across elementary school facilities. The district expects student population growth will continue over the next decade due to local economic growth (new companies locating and creating jobs in the area), a stable birth rate over the last five years, continued new home construction, and the expectation that net migration in North Carolina will be concentrated in major metropolitan statistical areas over the next ten years.

The historical growth has resulted in the construction of ten new schools over the last decade and the district has been in a cycle of realignment of school boundaries every few years. This study will help us understand how geographic boundary changes impact school enrollments and analyze such changes using geographic information systems for analysis of historical enrollments and future scenarios of population change.

CCS seeks a long-range, sustainable growth and realignment plan which assesses current school capacity, examines proposed build out of development and current student yields, analyzes proposed capital expenditures in alignment with growth and engages the community through the process for the realignment of school boundaries. Cooperative Strategies, LLC, will help the district determine the best course of action over the next 10 years while evaluating the many external factors contributing to growth.

The result of the district collaborating with the consultant will be the development and presentation of realignment options for the school district which have been vetted by the public, the internal project team, and board of education representatives. The plan will align with the future needs and assets needed for the district.


Updated Project Timeline


Cabarrus County Schools has contracted Cooperative Strategies, LLC, to perform a long-range comprehensive realignment planning study. This study will include the assessment of student enrollment and projections, facility capacity and use, and the assessment of future growth and development.

The purpose of this study is to examine the distribution of student enrollments, demographics, facility use, and planned capital expenditures across the district by modeling long range enrollments through a complete assessment of growth and/or decline to create a sustainable realignment plan.

Cabarrus County Schools serves a geographic area of approximately ~360 square miles. This area includes exurban, suburban, and rural land use. The County is approximately 20 minutes northeast of Charlotte and is included in the metropolitan statistical area of the region. The district also serves five municipalities including Concord, Kannapolis, Harrisburg, Midland, and Mt. Pleasant.

Cabarrus County Schools student population grew 21% from 2010 to 2020 and has almost doubled over the last two decades. In addition to growth, there has been a legislative mandate for the reduction of K-3 class size which has resulted in a loss of seat availability across elementary school facilities. The district expects student population growth will continue over the next decade due to local economic growth (new companies locating and creating jobs in the area), a stable birth rate over the last five years, continued new home construction, and the expectation that net migration in North Carolina will be concentrated in major metropolitan statistical areas over the next ten years.

The historical growth has resulted in the construction of ten new schools over the last decade and the district has been in a cycle of realignment of school boundaries every few years. This study will help us understand how geographic boundary changes impact school enrollments and analyze such changes using geographic information systems for analysis of historical enrollments and future scenarios of population change.

CCS seeks a long-range, sustainable growth and realignment plan which assesses current school capacity, examines proposed build out of development and current student yields, analyzes proposed capital expenditures in alignment with growth and engages the community through the process for the realignment of school boundaries. Cooperative Strategies, LLC, will help the district determine the best course of action over the next 10 years while evaluating the many external factors contributing to growth.

The result of the district collaborating with the consultant will be the development and presentation of realignment options for the school district which have been vetted by the public, the internal project team, and board of education representatives. The plan will align with the future needs and assets needed for the district.


Updated Project Timeline


Questions and Answers

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    How parents can participate in any of the in-person discussions related to this Realignment process.

    Sai asked 3 months ago

    Thank you for your question. We appreciate your participation and value your input.  The Community Focus Group application link will open at 8 a.m. on Sept. 19th and be available until 5 p.m. on Friday, October 6th.  Please visit this page to access the application.  There will also be public community meetings held across the district during the month of November.  As soon as those dates and sites have been determined, they will be posted to this page.

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    Follow up to my previous question. The program name is Learning Connections & right now there is only one middle school location. The location chosen was Mount Pleasant Middle School which happens to be all the way across the county from our home. Bus rides of over 1 hour would be hard on any student but is especially hard on EC children. I would like to know who is representing the EC kids rights & their contact info?

    EC Parent asked 10 days ago

    Thank you for your question. We appreciate your participation and value your input.  Exceptional children are currently represented by members of the student services department on the Internal Redistricting Committee.

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    Will you make sure parents from all districts and schools are represented in the focus groups? There are areas and schools that have been historically, and even as recently as last semester, ignored by county leadership. Please make sure ALL people are represented, especially those from the school districts the Superintendent has yet to have community meetings with.

    Courtney asked 9 days ago

    Thank you for your question. We appreciate your participation and value your input.  The Community Focus Groups will be comprised of members representing each of the eight current high school attendance zones.

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    I am very concerned about the current timeline. No focus group has been established, and we're already in mid-September. You are looking to make changes for the next school year without parent input. There is a question from 10 days ago in which you answered that there would be an application link in the next 5-7 days. That timeline has passed. Please post the link as many of us parents/community members are interested in having our input heard.

    Michelle asked 5 days ago

    Thank you for your question. We appreciate your participation and value your input.  The Community Focus Group application link will open at 8 a.m. on Sept. 19th and be available until 5 p.m. on Friday, October 6th.  Please visit this page to access the application.

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    Who is representing the EC kids rights? I was quoted with a 1 hr & 23 min bus for my child at the beginning of the school year. Compare that to my other middle school child who has a bus ride of 20 mins. The location of the program he is placed in is not equitable to the students who live over on this side of the county. I would either like to see another location established for his program or the current location moved so that it's more equitable. https://disabilityrightsnc.org/resources/school-transportation/

    EC Parent asked 12 days ago

    Thank you for your question. We appreciate your participation and value your input. In conjunction with the district realignment study, a programmatic review is underway which will be assessing all school programming, including Exceptional Children's programs.

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    There has been many discussions about the neighborhood I live in being rezoned for elementary school next year. The high school was recently rezoned from Cox Mill to NW. now there is discussions we are hearing that we will 100% be zoned from WR Odell to Boger next year. WR Odell and Cox Mill elementary are both closer to us and we would have to pass WR Odell to get to Boger. We are concerned with the disruption this will cause children especially when WR Odell is trialing a play based curriculum this year. Parental involvement will be less due to the distance of this school from our residence. Is this the plan for all the neighborhoods on the opposite side of Highway 73? And what is you plan for children that you are doing a trial program with and then disrupting their learning by rezoning them? If you were to rezone how early would buses have to pick up children in order to drive such long distances to get to the school? How would you plan to address disruptions in consistency for children with IEP’s? How would you plan on getting parental involvement from families that would have to travel half an hour away to get to the school? Why is the state/ county not restricting development when the county does not have the infrastructure to hold more children in the schools and are forcing people out of school districts due to poor planning?

    Kelise asked 11 days ago

    Thank you for your question. We appreciate your participation and value your input.  At this time, no realignment or boundary criteria has been established by the Board of Education. Cooperative Strategies has completed their assessment of Cabarrus County Schools' facilities and is now gathering data, including enrollment projections, which will be considered when determining any necessary boundary adjustments.  Those data presentations will occur over the next few months and will be made available at public meetings of the Board of Education as the process moves into the late fall.  Updates will also be available on this website.  Please note the updated timeline on this website. In the next 5-7 days, an application will be posted to this website for those interested in applying for the opportunity to be a part of our focus groups which will begin to meet in October. Community meetings are planned for November where the community at large will be able to view collected data and have input on factors including those mentioned in your question. 

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    We need to be made aware when this is projected to happen in real time for our children. They’ve been through so much already and now you are going to uproot them from their school possibly for the 24’-25’ school year. The process keeps getting pushed back so please give us a realistic time frame of when you are going to release the maps of the neighborhoods and the plans. Also, what parents have to do to be eligible to be apart of the focus groups. DO NOT rush this process because it’s not fair to the established neighborhoods that have been here for years. Not our problem that all these new developments are being thrown up in a matter of a few months. There are barely any options for those of us that live in Midland with very high home values. We chose these homes for the certain schools that they were districted too.

    Momof2 asked 15 days ago

    Thank you for your question. We appreciate your participation and value your input.  At this time, no realignment or boundary criteria has been established by the Board of Education. Cooperative Strategies has completed their assessment of Cabarrus County Schools' facilities and is now gathering data, including enrollment projections, which will be considered when determining any necessary boundary adjustments. Please note the updated timeline on this website. In the next 5-7 days, an application will be posted to this website for those interested in applying for the opportunity to be a part of our focus groups which will begin to meet in October. Community meetings are planned for November where the community at large will be able to view collected data and have input on factors including those mentioned in your question.

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    As of August 2023, where are you at in the process, looks like there hasn't been progress according to the website since May. What are the criteria at this time?

    Nicole Demick asked about 1 month ago

    Thank you for your question. We appreciate your participation and value your input.  The timeline posted on this page has been updated to reflect focus groups being moved back to begin in October.  Cooperative Strategies continues to gather enrollment data and projections.  No boundary criteria have been established at this time.

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    The timeline suggests focus group meetings will be occurring in September. How are the members of the focus group being identified? Will information be shared with the community so that each has an opportunity to participate and/or volunteer for focus groups?

    lgibbs9604 asked 25 days ago

    Thank you for your question. We appreciate your participation and value your input.  The timeline posted on this page has been updated to reflect focus groups being moved back to begin in October.  More information on those focus groups will be forthcoming later in September.

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    Are focus group meetings still slated to begin in September? We have seen no applications to become part of the committee yet...any update would be great.

    ccsparent asked 24 days ago

    Thank you for your question. We appreciate your participation and value your input.  The timeline posted on this page has been updated to reflect focus groups being moved back to begin in October.  More information on those focus groups will be forthcoming later in September.

Page last updated: 19 Sep 2023, 05:00 AM