Long-Range District Realignment Study

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CLICK IMAGE ABOVE TO ACCESS SCENARIOS A, B, &C RESOURCES PAGE (November 27, 2023)

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.

CLICK IMAGE ABOVE FOR MORE INFORMATION ON COMMUNITY MEETINGS


Updated Project Timeline



CLICK IMAGE ABOVE TO ACCESS SCENARIOS A, B, &C RESOURCES PAGE (November 27, 2023)

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.

CLICK IMAGE ABOVE FOR MORE INFORMATION ON COMMUNITY MEETINGS


Updated Project Timeline


Questions and Answers

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    I live in the Wellington Chase community, Options A and C are the same and have us losing Harris Rd Middle School and Option B has us losing Odell Elementary and Harris Rd Middle School. If this were to go through, we would lose out on all three of the schools that we were originally assigned within a span of 3 years. This is wholly unfair as school assignment played a big role in our decision to move to the area. Both Harris Rd MS and WROE are less than a mile from our community and now our children are potentially being forced to go to schools 20 mins away, driving past these two schools on the way! Please look at the distance from Wellington Chase to WROE and HRMS. Zoning should, at the very least, take into account relative proximity to the school, not just road boundaries. These proposals are not fixing the overall problem of school capacity, it is just shifting around students and inconveniencing parents with transportation issues, not caring about health and mental well being of students.

    annmathew28 asked 4 days ago

    Thank you for your feedback. We appreciate your participation and input. Please note, the boundary scenarios as presented are working concepts for realignment, and no final decision has been made by the Board of Education.

    Please submit your concern directly through the survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/CCSRedistricting Feedback such as this will be taken into consideration as we move forward in the process of preparing a final realignment plan to present to the Board of Education. The survey is the central location for concerns, suggestions and feedback for each draft scenario presented at this time.

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    I live in Wellington Chase Community. Both WR Odell Elementary and Harris Road Middle are less than a mile away and are walking distance from our community. It does not make any sense to send our children to schools miles away. Our community is relatively small and would not make any impact on the capacity issue the county currently faces. Please consider the relative proximity of neighborhoods to the schools when making zoning decisions. These frequent rezoning doesn't help address the actual capacity issues but rather just keeps shifting students around and is causing inconvenience and mental stress to the families already assigned to the schools. Instead of wasting time and money on rezoning, make plans for building new schools as the county's school needs keeps increasing.

    samrejo asked 4 days ago

    Thank you for your feedback. We appreciate your participation and input. Please note, the boundary scenarios as presented are working concepts for realignment, and no final decision has been made by the Board of Education.

    Cooperative Strategies, as presented in their ten-year facilities master plan, has recommended the construction of three new elementary schools, a replacement elementary school, one new high school and two replacement high schools. Those recommendations can be viewed on slide 28 of this presentation:  Presentation to the Board of Education 09 18 2023 

    Land has been purchased for the future southern high school and the Northwest Cabarrus High School replacement. 

    Funding for additional land or any future school construction, including the Northwest Cabarrus replacement and southern high school, would need to be approved by the Cabarrus County Commissioners.

    Please submit your concern directly through the survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/CCSRedistricting Feedback such as this will be taken into consideration by Cooperative Strategies as we move forward in the process of preparing a final realignment plan to present to the Board of Education. The survey is the central location for concerns, suggestions and feedback for each draft scenario presented at this time.

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    We live in Wellington chase which is on the north side of 73 but within walking distance of both Odell ES and HRMS. Can we please rereview your options to add HRMS as well as we dont have it currently as one of our options? This will affect all the kids from our neighborhood who are currenly in these schools and will significantly affect our home prices also.

    Priyadharshini asked 5 days ago

    Thank you for your question. We appreciate your participation and input.  Please note, the boundary scenarios as presented are working concepts for realignment, and no final decision has been made by the Board of Education.

    These requests, as well as other included as questions on this page, are being shared in real-time with Cooperative Strategies, CCS staff, as well as members of the Board of Education. Proposed solutions, such as this, will be taken in consideration as the process moves forward.

    We appreciate your feedback, and we encourage you to please use our survey to submit feedback on each option scenario specifically so we can continue to gather this information. You may access the survey directly here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/CCSRedistricting    

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    We are new to the area. I have elementary school students as well as a High School student. I'm concerned about the elementary level children, but the real concern is my High Schooler. She'll be a Junior next year. As I mentioned, we are new to the area. She started at Cox Mill her Freshman year and didn't know anyone. She's involved with extra curricular activities which include multiple athletic teams. I understand the need for "Long Range Growth" adjustments but in all 3 proposed scenarios, my child will need to start her Junior year over at a new High School. Why, with a Long Range plan, would we need to impact upper classman?? This part makes no sense to me. I understand the elementary and middle school level kids, though there will be hardship and adversity with those groups as well, but impacting an upper classman (Junior/Senior) doesn't sit well with me.

    Antis asked 5 days ago

    Thank you for your question. We appreciate your participation and input.  Please note, the boundary scenarios as presented are working concepts for realignment, and no final decision has been made by the Board of Education.

    Historically, Cabarrus County Schools has realigned attendance boundaries as a reactive approach to growth in pocketed areas of our county. One of the objectives of this particular long-range study is to position CCS for projected growth over a longer time frame to avoid, as best possible, the need to realign year-over-year.

    We understand the implications that this, and any, realignment may have on families affected by boundary adjustments. We appreciate your feedback, and we encourage you to please use our survey to submit feedback on each option scenario specifically so we can continue to gather this information. You may access the survey directly here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/CCSRedistricting    

    The conceptual proposals developed by Cooperative Strategies are grounded in a framework that focuses on four key tenets: Balanced Utilization, School Level Feeder Patterns, Proximity, and Diversity.  Stakeholder feedback, current boundary assignments, school level enrollment/utilization data, and historical/future growth data were used to guide and frame the development of the key tenets.  Each of the conceptual scenarios has certain aspects of the framework that are more prominent than others in their design.

    Conceptual Scenario A

    Focuses mainly on filling R. Brown McAllister (partial utilization) and slightly addressing feeder patterns from elementary to middle. Least impact in terms of total number of students and focuses exclusively on a short-term solution for a small number of schools. Does not address future growth.  Does not align with facilities master plan proposal and long-range planning efforts.

    Conceptual Scenario B

    A plan that looks to balance utilization across all school facilities with mobiles to be between 80%-90%.  Attempts to evenly distribute students across the grade spans to take advantage of current capacity.  Creates more feeder pattern splits and impacts the largest number of students of any conceptual scenario.  Presents challenges for proximity as well as transportation. 

    Conceptual Scenario C

    A longer-term balance of utilization with future school construction and future growth in mind.  Cleans feeder patterns for elementary, to middle, to high school for continuity.  Makes more of a concerted effort to move each school diversity factor closer to the district average where possible. This scenario impacts more students than conceptual scenario A and less than conceptual scenario B.

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    On my last question you answered that due to growth in the northwestern side of the county you are forced to move kids to far away schools. I would ask you to consider moving the new developments on Odell school road to northwest cabarrus middle rather then moving established neighborhoods on northwest of hwy 73 to far away schools. The kids in new development can easily adjust to schools there as they are either in the process of moving to these developments or have not even started middle school. Moving kids from Waterford, Pelham point and Wellington chase who are already in the middle of their middle school years will be very detrimental to the social and emotional well being of these kids. Why are you making it difficult for children already enrolled in Harris road middle school in favor of new neighborhoods who have no established connections in this area. Cabarrus county has always been unfair to our kids and it’s time that they make an effort into providing a stable spenvironment to these kids. Give us the option of finishing our middle school years keeping in mind the last few turbulent years due to COVID and early start of school.

    Parent asked 4 days ago

    Thank you for your feedback. We appreciate your participation and input.  Please note, the boundary scenarios as presented are working concepts for realignment, and no final decision has been made by the Board of Education. 

    At this time, the three concept scenarios presented are receiving feedback from the community.  A final recommendation will be presented to the Board of Education in January with an expected vote on aby realignment decisions in February, 2024.

    We appreciate your feedback, and we encourage you to please use our survey to submit feedback on each option scenario specifically so we can continue to gather this information.  Cooperative Strategies is using this feedback to assess any adjustments that may be necessary for Conceptual Scenarios moving forward. You may access the survey directly here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/CCSRedistricting

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    My child in Mount Pleasant middle school is involved with agriculture, along with my oldest, who is a graduating senior from Mount Pleasant high school. The options given, and scenarios b and c do not allow them to remain active in things they are accustomed to and things that will be included in their future plans. Why not go further over with the realignment and add to Mount Pleasant since it is the least populated now, and looking into the future versus taking away from it and adding everywhere else. This may be my third comment but I just keep thinking about all the issues this realignment will cause and negative impacts it will bring. We honestly don’t know what the future holds and the last realignment which the area I’m referring was involved in that realignment was supposed to be beneficial and it was only several years ago. We also have people who bought in our area for the Mount Pleasant Schools. Many have already said they will pull kids and I’d hate to see the school system loose kids. Please reconsider the mpms and mphs realginment that is currently showing.

    Brandy asked about 24 hours ago

    Thank you for your feedback. We appreciate your participation and input.  Please note, the boundary scenarios as presented are working concepts for realignment, and no final decision has been made by the Board of Education. 

    At this time, the three concept scenarios presented are receiving feedback from the community.  A final recommendation will be presented to the Board of Education in January with an expected vote on aby realignment decisions in February, 2024.

    We appreciate your feedback, and we encourage you to please use our survey to submit feedback on each option scenario specifically so we can continue to gather this information. You may access the survey directly here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/CCSRedistricting

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    Noting that the presentation deck contains household income (supplemental links for the final deck), so I am assuming there is awareness, with Option B seeming to blindly redistribute students based on capacity, has consideration been paid to the qualifications for Title 1 funding, and the possible unintended consequence of losing that funding through any changes in that scenario or the other two scenarios? Asking because we previously attended a Title 1 school that lost funding and it made a big difference in supporting our teachers (printers, paper, supplies, etc.).

    thejess asked about 22 hours ago

    Thank you for your question. We appreciate your participation and input.  Please note, the boundary scenarios as presented are working concepts for realignment, and no final decision has been made by the Board of Education.  

    Yes, CCS staff is reviewing each plan, including Conceptual Scenario B, carefully for any impacts to Title 1 funding.  The internal redistricting committee, including Student Services representatives, will continue to review and monitor for these funding implications.

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    My Children are attending WR Primary & WR Elementary school. Due to scenario 3 the Harris wont be our middle school. We opted Pulte new canon run community ONLY for good schools. Why only our Cannon run is getting targeted here because its New Construction OR because its not fully occupied yet and hence the oppose is less ? Harris middle is 0.8 miles from Cannon run and its very sad & frustrating to see the scenario 3. Our children have to leave behind their friends and have to start from zero. Its very unfortunate for us new home owners that Cannon Run is a CCS target !

    deepaliw asked 5 days ago

    Thank you for your feedback. We appreciate your participation and input. Please note, the boundary scenarios as presented are working concepts for realignment, and no final decision has been made by the Board of Education. 

    The largest impact of new housing has occurred and continues to occur in the northwest part of the county. Many developments which have been completed in the last few years have added children to our school's causing capacity and class size issues. Development that is currently underway is expected to add even more pressure to the schools in the northwest area. The draft proposal scenarios are a direct result of the growth occurring in the county and are not meant to target any one particular community or area, but simply a necessary, but difficult, response to the growth in student population in Cabarrus County. 

    This is an important part of the process to gain feedback from the community regarding each scenario. Please use our survey to submit feedback on each option scenario specifically so we can continue to gather this information. You may access the survey directly here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/CCSRedistricting.

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    I live in Pelham point which is across the street from Harris road middle school. When asked why we are being moved across town to a school far away , you have in the past answered with “ As previously presented by Cooperative Strategies, it is not possible to assign all students to their closest school given the density of population in certain areas and future growth expected in Cabarrus County”. This answer does not follow your own criteria of proximity, keeping kids in their close by schools and time it takes to get to schools. This county has a severe bus driver shortage where the buses are either doing double runs or running so late that kids are getting to school 30-40 minutes late everyday and late coming home in afternoon. If a neighborhood is walkable/bike able that helps with the bus route shortage. Your answer also goes against your own proposed boundary options because you are assigning heavily populated neighborhoods on coxmill road to Harris road middle which are further from the school to begin with.. The neighborhoods on coxmill were assigned to winkler middle and now you are moving them to Harris and taking our neighborhood out of Harris. Doesn’t make sense to just herd kids around from one school to another. You are also not giving enough time to families to make decisions if they want to move to other areas or be forced to go to schools which are not conveniently located. Pelham point is a small neighborhood of around 100 homes and it doesn’t impact the overall student population at Harris road middle. The students at Harris road should be allowed to finish their middle school years in peace. I would strongly suggest to defer this realignment for the next few years as we just got out of the unstable Covid years, are in the middle of a school year that started early against state laws, and students and teachers barely got any relaxing time in summer and already are burned out. The school board cannot punish students for their wrong decisions and should be open to listening to the community which elected them.

    Parent asked 5 days ago

    Thank you for your feedback. We appreciate your participation and input. Please note, the boundary scenarios as presented are working concepts for realignment, and no final decision has been made by the Board of Education. 

    The largest impact of new housing has occurred and continues to occur in the northwest part of the county. Many developments which have been completed in the last few years have added children to our school's causing capacity and class size issues. Development that is currently underway is expected to add even more pressure to the schools in the northwest area. The draft proposal scenarios are a direct result of the growth occurring in the county and are not meant to target any one particular community or area, but simply a necessary, but difficult, response to the growth in student population in Cabarrus County. 

    This is an important part of the process to gain feedback from the community regarding each scenario. Please use our survey to submit feedback on each option scenario specifically so we can continue to gather this information. You may access the survey directly here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/CCSRedistricting

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    We moved to Concord from out of state just for the reason of good schools. Rezoning some communities just for the reason as New community is unfair. Before taking a hard decision to move we spent lot of time on researching about school zones and housing communities. Bought the house in new community at high inflation price at high interest rate is just because close proximty to Elementary and Middle schools. Option C looks like it is more targeted on rezoning newer communities which is unfair.

    NN2020 asked 5 days ago

    Thank you for your feedback. We appreciate your participation and input. Please note, the boundary scenarios as presented are working concepts for realignment, and no final decision has been made by the Board of Education.

    Please submit your concern directly through the survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/CCSRedistricting Feedback such as this will be taken into consideration as we move forward in the process of preparing a final realignment plan to present to the Board of Education. The survey is the central location for concerns, suggestions and feedback for each draft scenario presented at this time.

Page last updated: 04 Dec 2023, 03:28 PM