By Eric Frazier
efrazier@charlotteobserver.com

Hundreds of indignant parents and students turned out at a forum Monday night to berate Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools officials for what they called an ill-considered, last-minute consolidation plan that would spare Waddell High School and close Harding University High instead.

The meeting had been scheduled previously, but as word emerged Monday afternoon of new plans to close Harding, angry parents accused CMS of blindsiding them.

CMS, struggling to save money in a tight budget year, has proposed changes that could affect 70 schools. School officials had proposed shutting Waddell and moving students from Smith Academy, a language-immersion magnet, into the building.

But when CMS sent out a press release at 4 p.m. announcing plans to close Harding instead of Waddell, Harding parents and chanting, sign-waving students flooded the 6 p.m. meeting at South Mecklenburg High. So many people showed up that CMS security initially blocked the doors, saying the auditorium holding the meeting was over capacity.

Damien Sullivan, father of two Waddell High students, was among those locked out. He said he was happy Waddell was spared, but joined others from the affected schools in criticizing CMS for what many called an eleventh-hour blow to Harding. "It just seems like it's Russian roulette with the kids," Sullivan said. "No one knows who they're going to strike next. This is just a mess."

Inside the meeting, Ericka Ellis-Stewart, chair of Harding's school leadership team, told CMS officials the school's students are achieving at a high level and should be left alone.

"These decisions are splitting the community across racial and economic lines," she said, prompting cheers. "You are taking our community backwards with these decisions, and our children can't afford it."

Parents from Smith Academy said they, too, felt blindsided by the new plan, and urged the board to upgrade their present campus on Tyvola Road. They feared their school would lose students if the program is moved.

Talk of closing at least six schools has ratcheted up anxiety levels and spurred talk of racism, since many of the targeted campuses serve predominantly minority and low-income student bodies. School officials have said looming budget cuts mean they must slash the budget, and they'd rather sacrifice buildings than teachers. They have targeted academically struggling campuses, and have proposed turning some into K-8 schools as a way of boosting achievement.

Superintendent Peter Gorman said the cuts would save $3 million the first year and $6 million annually thereafter.

But some in the African-American community question the board's motives. Tensions boiled over during an Oct. 12 forum when the board cut off public comments while people still wanted to speak. The Rev. Kojo Nantambu, president of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg NAACP, was arrested and charged with disturbing the peace when he led the crowd in chanting "We want more time!"

Monday night's meeting ended with no disruptions, but plenty of emotion.

To accommodate the crowds, CMS officials moved the meeting to the basketball gym. School board chairman Eric Davis presided, and he and Gorman caught sharp criticism from Harding supporters. One student said she had to move from the International Baccalaureate program at Myers Park to Harding this year after CMS cut funding for magnet school transportation.

Now, she said, she'd have to move to Waddell, where CMS is proposing to send Harding's IB program. Her sister, who attends Harding but isn't in its partial IB magnet, would have to go to Berry Academy.

"Like, seriously?" she asked Davis. "I don't understand that... you are screwing up our family."

Mike Raible, the CMS official who has been leading staff in analyzing possible changes, said CMS staff keeps changing the plans because they are listening to the public.

"What's the point of having all these people coming to talk? You've got to be flexible," he said. "You end up looking like you're waffling, when in fact you're just listening."

School board member Joe White said the changes came after negotiations between school board members in which Joyce Waddell argued that, if it closes Waddell, the board would be going against its own stated goal of trying to preserve neighborhood schools. Waddell is a neighborhood school, while Harding hosts a magnet program.

She echoed concerns from Waddell High parents who asked why Waddell's attendance zone wasn't as large as schools like Myers Park High.

"It's the haves versus the have-nots," she said. "The board voted for one thing and now they're trying to do something different."

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