The Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board approved a set of guiding principles Tuesday that placed neighborhood schools high above racial or economic diversity.

The rankings, which were tentatively approved last week, passed 5-3, with board members Richard McElrath, Joyce Waddell and Tom Tate voting no.

After neighborhood schools, the board said the next priority would be stability and proximity, followed by balancing poverty levels, then making efficient use of buildings and buses.

The vote clears the way for CMS to close and consolidate schools and change boundaries next year.

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Waddell, one of two African Americans on the board, was critical of Tuesday’s vote.

“The fact is clear,” she said, “that segregation has returned.”

Supporters on the board said the plan changes little from the student assignment goals approved in 2005.

"It focuses us on performance, on results, on meeting the academic needs of children," said board Chair Eric Davis, who voted with the majority.

A similar fight that pits diversity against neighborhoods schools is playing out in Raleigh, where six people, including a 16-year-old student, were removed from a school board meeting Tuesday, the latest episode in a series of protests over a plan that opponents feel would resegregate the Wake County schools system. Several members of the state NAACP have been arrested there in recent weeks after disrupting school board meetings with peaceful protests.

CMS Superintendent Peter Gorman cautioned board members Tuesday that closing individual schools won’t solve the district’s budget woes.

The board is almost halfway through a five-month review of student assignment, spending and academics, driven partly by the prospect of losing up to $55 million in federal money in 2011. Part of that review includes the prospects of closing individual schools where attendance is low.

Gorman, along with chief planner Planner Mike Raible, said CMS would save about $465,000 a year by closing an elementary school, $610,000 for a middle school and $850,000 for a high school. That would come from utilities, maintenance, a principal's salary and some support staff. Teachers, whose salaries are the biggest cost, would be reassigned along with students.
"We don't want to give anyone the impression we hope to get near $55million," Raible said.

Gorman said closing schools should be about improving performance as much as saving money. Repeated failure, he said last week, may be a factor in deciding which schools will close.
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This article is based on the reporting work of Observer reporter Ann Doss Helms, who covers CMS.
 

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