STEELE CREEK NEWS
New School
Boundaries Offer Relief to Lake Wylie; Less to Steele Creek
(September
3, 2005) On Thursday, September 1, Lake Wylie Elementary School had
1480 enrolled students, which places the school at about 200% of
capacity. Relief will come next August with the opening of the new
elementary school adjacent to Winget Park on Winget Road.
Based on scenarios
presented by Susan Agruso and Scott McCully of Charlotte-Mecklenburg
Schools at a community meeting Thursday night, Lake Wylie students
who live west of Steele Creek Road and in residential areas along
Hamilton Road will be reassigned to the new school next year. (See
MAP.)
The new Winget Park
school will be at or below its capacity of 710 when it opens.
However, much new residential construction is going on within its
proposed attendance boundary, and it too will be overcrowded within a few
years.
Two additional
elementary schools are planned for the southwest corner of the
county, one at The Palisades off of Highway 49 near Red Fez Club
Road and the other at the corner of Hamilton Road and Smith Road.
The first of these should open in 2011, assuming construction
funding is available.
Steele Creek
Elementary School had 1142 students on September 1, or about 185%
capacity. It will not receive major relief until another new school
on Dixie River Road is expected to open in 2009.
That new school will
be located on the north side of the new Berewick development,
adjacent to the future Berewick District Park. New houses are now
going up in Berewick, which eventually will contain over 2,8000
residences, Beginning in 2006 and until the new elementary school
opens in 2009, elementary school students living in Berewick will be
assigned to Berryhill Elementary School.
To relieve
overcrowding at Steele Creek Elementary School, school planners are
proposing to assign some students temporarily to the Lake Wylie or new
Winget Park Elementary Schools beginning in 2006. When the new Dixie
River Road School opens in 2009, students within the temporary boundaries
will go either to Steele Creek or the new school.
Both scenarios
presented by school planning staff would place the area west of
Steele Creek Road and north of Westinghouse Boulevard in the new
Winget Park boundary until 2009. This area includes Stowe Creek,
Wildwood, and Steele Creek subdivisions.
The second scenario
moves students living in the apartments east of S. Tryon Street
across from Whitehall as well as those in the new Ayrsley
development to Lake Wylie
until 2009.
But even with
removing these two areas outside the Steele Creek boundary, the
school will likely be over 160% capacity when it opens next year.
In order to relieve
crowding at Steele Creek even further, school planners will look at
moving even more students temporarily to the new Winget Park school.
They will avoid splitting neighborhoods. The neighborhoods closest
to the proposed boundary, which make them likely candidates for
addition into the new Winget Park school boundary, are Braddock
Green-Steele Oaks and Cedarbrook.
Some parents
suggested placing students at other schools, such as Nations Ford or
Berryhill, but those schools are over capacity as well.
Regardless of what
boundaries are adopted, rising 5th graders at Lake Wylie and Steele Creek schools
likely will have the option of remaining at those schools in 2006.
Dr. Agruso and her
staff plan to present their recommendations to the School Board at
its meeting on September 27. Based on comments from parents at the
community
meeting, the recommendations are likely to resemble Scenario 2
below.
Back to TOP.
Maps showing two
proposed scenarios for attendance boundaries for the new Winget Park
Elementary School have been posted on the Charlotte-Mecklenburg
Schools web site.
Also posted are
tables showing projected enrollment and demographic breakdowns for
the three schools for each of the two scenarios. However, these use
2004 enrollments and the numbers are lower than what they likely will be
in 2006.
View information on
these and other student assignment issues on the
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools web site at
www.cms.k12.nc.us. Click on the "Comprehensive
Review of Student Assignment" link, or view the maps directly here:
Proposed Winget Park Elementary Boundary - Scenario 1
Proposed Winget Park Elementary Boundary - Scenario 2
Also posted are
proposed boundary scenarios for 2009 when the new Dixie River Road
Elementary School is expected to open. However, the second scenario
places neighborhoods south of Brown-Grier Road across from Steele
Creek Elementary School in the new Dixie River Road boundary, which
is not realistic. New boundaries for 2009 will be presented for
review and consideration before the new school opens based on
conditions existing at that time.
Note that the new
Dixie River Road Elementary School currently is not funded. If the
school bond referendum on the November ballot does not pass, the
school likely will not be built by 2009.
"New Winget Park
Elementary School" and "New Dixie River Road Elementary School"
are the working names for the new schools and are
being used for planning purposes only. The Charlotte-Mecklenburg
School Board will adopt a permanent name for the new Winget Park
school this spring based on
recommendations from the community. The new Dixie River Road School
will be named similarly soon before its opening.
Summary of issues:
Where should the
permanent attendance boundary between Lake Wylie and new Winget Park
Elementary Schools go?
The likely
recommendation will be for the boundary to follow Steele Creek Road
between Westinghouse Boulevard and York Road (Highway 49). South of
York Road the boundary will go east, following property lines that
will place residential neighborhoods along Choate Circle and Smith
Road in the Lake Wylie zone and residential neighborhoods along
Hamilton Road in the new Winget Park zone.
Should
students within the current Steele Creek Elementary School boundary
be assigned to either Lake Wylie or the new Winget Park school
beginning in 2006, knowing that they likely will be moved again in
2009 when the new Dixie River Road school is expected to open?
Due to crowding at
Steele Creek, relief next year is needed. The boundary proposed on
the Scenario 2 map will do this. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools staff
will review this scenario further and may recommend transferring
even more students from Steele Creek to new Winget Park when they
make their presentation to the School Board on September 27.
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