A new public high school along Bailey Road in Cornelius is scheduled to open in the fall of 2010.

CMS officials have drawn up 3 options for discussion of the Bailey High boundaries. Click picture to download the detailed maps and descriptions. (PDF)

Construction is well underway on Bailey Road in Cornelius for a new public high school  scheduled to open in fall 2010.  Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools will hold a workshop on proposed boundaries for the new school on Thursday, March 19, from 6:30-8:30 p.m. at North Mecklenburg High in Huntersville.  See below for how the different options will impact the size and demographics of not only the proposed Bailey Road high school, but also North Mecklenburg High and Hopewell High.

CMS officials say the project remains on schedule, despite the economic downturn.

“My understanding is that this will open on time,” said Scott McCully, the CMS executive director for planning and student placement.  “To halt construction today – there would be an expense to that as well.”

Bailey Road is one of two CMS high schools scheduled to open in 2010. The other is Mint Hill High, southeast of Charlotte.  Mr. McCully said the new high schools will follow CMS tradition in being limited to grades 9-11 for the first year.  A senior class will be added for 2011-12.

The March 19 meeting will be facilitated by Mr. McCully.  He said the workshop will include time for small group discussion and feedback.  Participants will be able to view detailed boundary maps.  Also on the workshop agenda will be the new Stumptown Road elementary school, to be located south of Sam Furr Road and west of I-77 in Huntersville.

A second feedback meeting will be held Tuesday, March 31, at Hopewell High (11530 Beatties Ford Road). CMS staff will then present recommendations to the Charlotte Mecklenburg Board of Education on Tuesday, May 12. A public hearing and vote on the boundary recommendations is scheduled for the June 9 board meeting.

In April 2008, CMS officials introduced plans for the proposed Bailey Road high school at a town meeting in Davidson, saying that the school was being planned to serve Davidson and Cornelius, and to relieve overcrowding at North Mecklenburg High.  The $57.6 million construction project will result in a 100-classroom building designed to serve about 2,000 students, located next door to Bailey Middle School, which opened two years ago. (Find updates and photos of the construction project on the CMS website.)

IB PROGRAM, DEMOGRAPHICS

All three options now under review place the entire towns of Davidson and Cornelius inside the boundaries of the proposed Bailey Road high school.  All three proposals also keep the International Baccalaureate program at North Mecklenburg High.

The difference in the three is how boundaries run through Huntersville.  Currently, the entire northern section of Mecklenburg County is divided between North Mecklenburg High to the east and Hopewell High to the west, with I-77 as the boundary between the two.  The three Bailey options carve out differing portions of the two current high school districts, which may significantly impact the size for all three schools and the demographics for Hopewell and North Meck.

Here’s what the projected enrollment numbers and boundary line proposals currently reveal:

• Option 1 would make Bailey the smallest high school in the northern part of the county, with a potential enrollment of 1,447.  Option 3 would make Bailey the largest, with a potential enrollment of 1,823.
• Option 2 would make North Meck the largest high school, with an enrollment of 2,029, and give it a plurality African-American population of a projected 48 percent.  The school currently is 63 percent White and 25 percent African-American. (Click here for a link to CMS school profiles, which give current enrollment and demographic numbers.)
• All three options would change the demographics at Hopewell High from a school that is currently about 55 percent Caucasian, to one that ranges from 30 to 34 percent Caucasian.
• In all three options, the demographics of Bailey stay at about 78 percent White,  12 percent African-American and six percent Latino.
• The boundary changes may also impact West Charlotte High, which Mr. McCully said is an overcrowded school and which borders both North Meck and Hopewell High districts.  Options 2 and3 would move a portion of West Charlotte’s current district into North Meck.  The three options would not offer much of a change to West Charlotte demographics, which currently list the school as 1 percent White and 89 percent African-American.