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Crowds cramp Brawley Middle

Chyna Broadnax | .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) | March 2, 2008

Brawley Middle School is bursting at the seams.

With a capacity of 1,000 students, the school is overflowing with 1,118 students, 599 of whom are being taught in two mega-units on campus.

Iredell-Statesville Schools officials are under the gun to figure out how to alleviate severe overcrowding - and they have to do it quickly.

“If we don’t do something, we project Brawley will be well over 1,300 (students) in two years,” Superintendent Terry Holliday said.

Already, overcrowding has caused logistical problems, including rushing to serve lunch in a two-hour window and buses having too many children.

Brawley Principal Jimmie Dancy said the buses are crowded but not yet to the point of over-capacity.

Two buses were added during this school year, and a minimum of three may be added next year, which would bring the school’s fleet to about 24.

Two seven-room mega-units were added two years ago to give the school more classroom space. The mega-units house eighth-graders and a few other classes. Nearly 600 students are using mega-unit space.

“There’s been so much growth in the area. You gain 200 to 250 kids in three years,” Dancy explained. “Schools aren’t built for that onslaught, and that’s why we have mega-units.”

Students moving up to ninth grade won’t offer any relief either. Dancy said 379 students are graduating, but 418 are expected to enter next year.

Nearly 400 of those incoming students will be in the sixth grade - the school has 374 sixth-graders now - coming from Woodland Heights, Lake Norman Elementary and Mt. Mourne Elementary.

The remainder of incoming students are transfers from other districts.

Bethany Searfoss says her daughter will not be one of the students packed into Brawley.

Searfoss has a fifth-grader attending Mt. Mourne. She would rather her child stay in a smaller school setting.

“I’m worried about the overcrowding at Brawley,” she said. “I didn’t want her to go to Brawley in the first place.”

Trying to find a solution
Expanding Brawley Middle is not feasible because the school site is landlocked due to watershed restrictions. Surrounding land is too expensive, school officials said.

I-SS does have space to build a new middle school at Woodland Heights and Coddle Creek, but the district won’t have a definite plan on those sites until the Phase III facilities task force meets this summer.

Coddle Creek is an elementary school proposed to open in August 2009 on Presbyterian Road in Mooresville. The elementary school is projected to have a 900-student capacity.

Utilizing Mt. Mourne Elementary is another option, but putting students there “would only be temporary until we get a new middle school built,” Holliday said.

The district has been working on ways to ease the transfer of students to the new Coddle Creek schools.

Holliday recently visited Mt. Mourne to propose two recommendations to accommodate the students. About 100 parents showed up for the informational session in the school’s cafeteria.

Holliday’s recommendations included using Mt. Mourne as a school for sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders and eventually transitioning students to a middle school at Coddle Creek.

Other parent recommendations include making Mt. Mourne a sixth-grade academy and using the site to house the International Baccalaureate program.

“There’s been no decision made other than we’re not doing recommendation one,” Holliday said. “We’re trying to find an even better solution.”

The superintendent said it’s important that everyone has input before a decision is made because that decision will have a ripple effect across the district.

“We’ll give ourselves another year,” he said.

Working with what they have
Mt. Mourne parent Susan Helms hopes I-SS decides to make Coddle Creek a middle school and keep Mt. Mourne an elementary school.

“It really doesn’t have enough to offer as an middle school,” she said. “This just doesn’t have the feel of a middle school.”

If Mt. Mourne were to become a middle school, it would serve up to 120 students from Brawley Middle, Dancy said.

“It’s tough, and I feel for parents to have to worry about where their kids are going to school,” he said. “In the end, it’ll work out for everybody.”

Having a middle school - like Coddle Creek - to alleviate pressure would mean smaller class sizes, more participation in athletics and other activities.

Holliday said I-SS may not even need a middle school if the housing market slows down and because of the expansion of the charter school, Pine Lake Preparatory.

Pine Lake currently has 250 students, half of which come from I-SS in kindergarten through second grade. The school will add third through 11th grades in the fall and expand to upward of 1,300 students for the 2008-09 school year. More than 500 students entering Pine Lake will be coming from I-SS.

“We’re trying to figure out a way to work with what we’ve got and make the best of taxpayers’ money,” Holliday said. “There’s no easy solution here.”

The following are the two recommendations Dr. Holliday proposed to about 100 parents at Mt. Mourne for student transitioning:
+ In 2008-09, sixth-graders zoned for Mt. Mourne will remain at the school and be housed in a modular unit;

+ In 2009-10, sixth- and seventh-graders assigned to Coddle Creek School will remain at Mt. Mourne and be housed in a combination of existing classrooms and modular wing;

+ In 2010-11 sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders assigned to Coddle Creek will remain at Mt. Mourne and be housed in a combination of existing classrooms and a modular wing;

+ In 2011-12, students will attend Coddle Creek.

The parents said they were in favor of the second proposal, which is:
+ In 2008-09, Mt. Mourne will continue to operate as a K-5 and rising sixth-graders assigned to Mt. Mourne will attend Brawley Middle School;

+ In 2009-10 and 2010-11, sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders assigned to Coddle Creek will attend Mt. Mourne (as a middle school);

+ In 2011-12, students assigned to Coddle Creek will attend the new middle school at Coddle Creek, which will have a capacity of 900 students

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