CHCCS Discussing School Reassignment in Wake of Magnet School Vote

The Chapel Hill – Carrboro City Schools Board of Education voted 4-3 in September to transition Glenwood Elementary School to a full Mandarin language magnet school, beginning in the 2019-2020 school year.

The school has been operating with a Mandarin dual-language track in addition to a traditional track for students districted to the school for years, which has caused overcrowding in some years and a waitlist for the Mandarin program at times. The board vote earlier this fall was met with opposition from parents of traditional-track students at Glenwood.

Now, the school board is having to figure out the details on how the transition will logistically work.

Students who are already enrolled in the traditional track at Glenwood will be allowed to finish their elementary school education in the school, as long as the student population allows, as the district is set to transition year-over-year in adding a new cohort of the magnet school students until the traditional track is phased out.

Where those traditional track students will go and how much the transition will cost is coming before the school board Tuesday night. District staff are bringing two options for the board’s consideration.

Ultimately, according to the district, 226 students will have to be reassigned moving forward from Glenwood to surrounding elementary schools, including Ephesus, Estes Hills, Northside, Rashkis and Scroggs.

The two plans have varying proponents and detractors, according to district material. The plans would utilize larger spaces at some newer elementary schools; Glenwood is the oldest in the district. But, depending on the plan chosen, some facilities will still be under-used and transportation issues could prove to be a challenge or add costs to the district for additional buses in some scenarios.

Staff wrote that the district will save some funds moving forward because magnet schools are exempted from class-size legislation recently passed by the General Assembly limiting the number of students who can be assigned to one classroom. That could save costs because the number of teachers required will be lower moving forward with the exemption. But the entire district is exempted from that legislation through at least the 2019-2020 school year due to its Project ADVANCE teacher-pay program.

The board will also discuss Tuesday night whether it would like to consider changing the name of Glenwood Elementary to reflect the change to the magnet program. Any recommendation would come at a future meeting.

Tuesday’s meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. at the Lincoln Center.

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