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I-SS officials combat overcrowding

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

Kaitlyn McCollum has been enrolled in two of Iredell-Statesville Schools’ most overcrowded facilities — Lake Norman Elementary School and Brawley Middle School.

Her father, Mark McCollum, said Kaitlyn is used to maneuvering through such an environment, but he’s not thrilled with some of the side effects such as using mobile units to house students.

“(Brawley Middle School) is definitely overcrowded,” he said.

That’s not news to anyone familiar with I-SS. According to Kenny Miller, director of facility operations for I-SS, Mt. Mourne Elementary was operating with roughly 250 more students than its capacity level 15 years ago. By 1998, Shepherd Elementary was well on its way to full and Lake Norman Elementary was overflowing.

And that’s just the start of the problem. The schools the district is building are opening dangerously close to their maximum capacity. According to Miller, when Lake Norman High School opened in 2002, it was already 96 percent full; Woodland Heights opened in 2005 at 98 percent capacity.

Data Miller provided shows seven I-SS schools are operating above capacity levels, including six in the southern end of Iredell:
+ Shepherd Elementary (at 124.8 percent capacity);
+ Woodland Heights (119 percent);
+ Mt. Mourne (111.2 percent);
+ Cool Spring Elementary (106 percent);
+ Brawley Middle (104.9 percent);
+ Lake Norman High (101.6 percent); and
+ Lake Norman Elementary (101.2 percent).

Fifteen of the 35 district schools are between 80 percent and 100 percent capacity.

The district has had to devise plans for accommodating the overflow, which include new construction, an increased bus fleet, mobile units and even alternative schooling methods such as online courses.

For many, overcrowding doesn’t come as a surprise.

“We were always overcrowded,” said Board of Education member Ken Wilson, who has been working with local schools in some capacity for nearly 50 years. “There was never enough teachers, so some of the schools always felt like we never had enough.”

Wilson said the system should have been making arrangements to handle growth sooner.

“We should have started much earlier,” he said. “You could see the children were coming, but we weren’t ready for them.”
The side effects
Mt. Mourne Principal Brian Foster said growth impacts his school tremendously. The school has gained as many as 15 students in one week, which is almost one full class.

On average, one to two new students enroll in Mt. Mourne every week.

“It’s hard when you have growth and students moving into the area you don’t know about,” he said.

To meet the burgeoning student population, administrators have added a bus and hired two teachers at Mt. Mourne. Students operate on a five-day rotation, which means they attend a class other than regular education classes — like music class — once a week.

Also, the lunch schedule was increased by an additional 25 minutes. It now takes two hours to feed 640 students.

At Brawley Middle, Kaitlyn McCollum has at least two classes in the mobile units on the school’s campus, which her dad says is a “sign of the times” that he doesn’t much care for. “It definitely has an effect on the learning environment, but it doesn’t have a negative impact on her,” he said.

Having large numbers of students also impacts transportation. The traffic on Brawley School Road is unbearable for many parents taking students to and from school, and the school system is ordering nine more buses for next year at a price of $78,000 each.

Adding classes has a systematic impact, like buying more food for meals, ensuring there is enough space to accommodate the children and having enough money to purchase additional instructional materials.

McCollum said families who move into the area should expect all the negatives that can come with it.
“(Growth) didn’t sneak in overnight,” he said.
Buses, mobile units
I-SS Chief Operations Officer Brady Johnson said when the district orders school buses, administrators order based on anticipated growth.

This year, based on a 5 to 6 percent growth rate, I-SS plans to order nine school buses, which does not include activity buses, he said.

Johnson said most of the buses are going to southern-end schools, where most of the overcrowded schools are.

“Transportation is a vital part of the school system,” he said. “Sixty percent of families depend on the bus to get children to and from school.”

Once they get to school, students need a place to go. And when enrollment exceeds the capacity of the main building, students are housed in mobile units.

“Growth is something you always have to be on top of,” said Woodland Heights Principal Ethan Todd.

The district’s answer to overcrowding has come in the form mega-units, which have seven classrooms. I-SS has nine schools with mega-units and four schools with quads, which have four classrooms.

In a community such as Mooresville, where families move in and out because of jobs, it is the school’s job to evolve, Todd said. “When you’re a transient community, you have to grow and evolve with what the community is presenting you,” he said.

Adding classes
Todd said Woodland Heights expanded grade levels in the middle of last school year by adding one third-grade class and one fourth-grade class. By doing so, the school was able to accommodate 50 more students.

Although that required hiring two more teachers and two more classrooms were brought on, the school got by without having to expand the bus fleet.

The same could not be done for this year, in which three buses were added to the school’s fleet, for a total of 15 buses.

Cool Spring Elementary Principal Judy Hix said if enrollment increases, class sizes may go up a little bit, but teachers will deal with it. “Educators are so flexible — they welcome children into their classrooms,” she said.

Over the past three years, cafeteria time at Cool Spring has extended 20 minutes.

The school has four mobile units, one of which is used as an Exceptional Children’s classroom. Last year, the school added two classrooms to handle the overflow. Classes may be full, but they are not overcrowded, Hix said.

The school is in Phase III of construction. If Iredell County commissioners agree to fund the project, the old building will be knocked down and a bigger building will be constructed.

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