Changes are coming to some Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools. As a part of Phase One of the district’s comprehensive review plan the Board of Education voted on several projects some of which will change school assignments for students in the upcoming school year. “We must make decisions that are thoughtful and reflect the needs of the individual school communities and the entire school system,” CMS Superintendent Crystal Hill said. The Board of Education passed the first project unanimously to convert University Park Creative Arts to a county-wide Elementary Arts Magnet Program for students in grades kindergarten to fifth. The first project will also make First Ward Creative Arts a county-wide arts middle school serving students in grades third to eighth. Sixth and seventh graders currently enrolled at Northwest School of the Arts will attend First Ward for the 2025-2026 school year. Northwest School of the Arts will become a county-wide high school arts magnet program for students in grades ninth to twelfth. University Park Creative Arts and First Ward Creative Arts newly assigned neighborhood attendance boundary will be adjusted to Bruns Avenue Elementary School. The second project was originally presented in August and received a lot of community feedback with a goal of expanding Montessori programs. The superintendent presented a plan that would move the existing secondary Montessori program at JT Williams to the existing Marie G. Davis Elementary facility on Griffith Avenue. Students in grades kindergarten to eighth would be reassigned to Dilworth Elementary and Sedgefield Middle School. After community feedback about overcrowding concerns at Dilworth, the district changed course. “Based on current enrollment facility limitations and the planned opening of a relief school located on Park Road. I’m amending my recommendation,” Superintendent Hill said. “I am not making a recommendation regarding the reassignment of students who are currently assigned to Marie G. Davis.” The board voted to wait to reassign students from Marie G. Davis when the new school on Park Road is finished scheduled for the 2026-2027 school year. Although, Dilworth Elementary and Marie G. Davis are less than 3 miles apart, there’s a clear difference in the neighborhoods which came up in public comments. “Our public schools belong to everybody and there’s no need to welcome others into a school, because that’s not your individual school,” CMS Board Vice Chair Dee Rankin said. “The schools don’t belong to a community, the school belongs to the entire public.” The board plans to use the $2.5 billion dollar bond voters approved earlier this year to fund the new school and other projects planned for the future. The board voted unanimously to close Dorothy J. Vaughn Academy of Technology and relocate students from Dorothy J. Vaughn to Parkside Elementary expanding STEM education. “Dorothy J. Vaughn is almost like a little secret and shining star within the district,” CMS Board Chair Stephanie Sneed said. “So, I’m looking forward to the other students in the neighborhood of Parkside having the ability to engage in that in a STEM program as well.” The board approved a plan to change Davidson K-8 to a K-5 school for the 2025-2026 school year. Students who would be assigned to Davidson in grades 6 to 8 will be assigned to Bailey Middle School. “I know that this is an option to take one overcrowded school and put it to another that has overcrowding problems but at the end of the day this is about space,” CMS Board Member Melissa Easley said. Board members voted against a plan that would convert several middle college schools to early college schools by adding ninth and tenth graders.