Angry over a CMS plan to lump 64 of the district's poorest schools into two "central" zones, the local NAACP is asking concerned residents to pack Tuesday night’s school board meeting.

In a press release Monday, the group called the plan “blatant racism, unconstitutional and immoral.”

Faced with potentially severe budget cuts, CMS leaders say the new plan will reduce bureaucracy while grouping schools that share challenges. All schools in the newly created central zone have poverty levels of 75 percent or higher, which means they qualify for millions of dollars in federal Title I aid, according to the Charlotte Observer.

The district’s other 107 schools will report to three offices based on geography. Affluent neighborhoods such as Myers Park and Eastover, for instance, will be part of the new southwest zone.

Critics say the plan would effectively create two school districts, one that is largely black and Latino and another that is white and generally affluent.

In its press statement Monday, the NAACP invited residents to “make a stand to stop their attempt to take us back over 50 years, before Brown vs. the Board of Education.”

In an unrelated interview Friday, CMS chief Peter Gorman denied that the move would create separate districts.

“We’re going to provide more service, and it’s not going to be that way,” he told Qcitymetro.com. “To some extent, people felt that way when we created the Achievement Zone, and it turned out to not be true.”

NAACP President the Rev. Kojo Nantambu could not be immediately reached for comment.

The school board meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. in the Government Center, 600 East Fourth St.
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Editor’s Note: Read Qcitymetro’s full Q&A with Gorman on Tuesday.

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