The Charlotte Observer from Charlotte, North Carolina • 8

8 A THE CHARLOTTE OBSERVER Sunday September 1 7 1 995 SUBURBAN FRONTIER: A TROUBLING EQUATION The space question: Schools 1 jL9 What lessons do kids A tew solutions ieam crowding? Continued from page 1A late nights and difficult decisions" Meanwhile administrators say the number of assistant principals guidance counselors and secretaries in a school doesn increase at the same rate as enrollment rises But the paperwork and the disci-1 pline problems do At South Charlotte Middle assistant principals worked until midnight every night preparing schedules the week before school started A school secretary came in before sunrise several days to handle the rush of last-minute enrollments stress on the building is said Frances Davis the principal at Wesley Chapel Elementary School in Union County the stress on the people is what really worries Principals say morale is their gravest responsibility But no one on campus can ensure the principal lose heart hiring one teacher to ease overcrowding in 60 to 70 said Maureen Cockerline principal at South Charlotte Middle I hire a math teacher? Do I hire a science teacher? It seems like a minor decision but there really is no right answer Whatever I do it solve the problem" Pondering long-term effects The middle school students waiting for the bus outside a Concord subdivision know anything about facilities planning or bond issues too busy dealing with normal kid stuff homework parents dating to even notice their overcrowded school there are more kids this year 1 really tell" said Tim Lamm an eighth-grader at JN Fries Middle School a school that was built in 1990 for 900 students but now houses more than 1 230 know that it really affects me But Lamm also says never attended a school that need mobile units None of his friends have either And what really concerns educators that a generation of Charlotte-area students will go through the public schools 13 years of learning under the stress of overcrowding frightening truth about overcrowding is that not really going to know what effect overcrowding has on our students now not in five years and maybe not in 10 said Cabarrus County Supt Harold Winkler not really going to know until out in the work force working in the jobs that build our community By then it might be too behave no matter what we do" Poole said problem now is the little things the pushing and shoving that you fear could turn into something more serious" Nationally dropout rates have been steadily declining over the past 20 years according to the US Education Department But dropout rates in more crowded school systems like Charlotte-Mecklenburg and Wake County have risen in recent years Dropout rates in Charlotte-Mecklenburg increased 20 last year the fourth-largest jump in the state They also increased in the Iredell-Statesville Catawba and Cabarrus schools State officials attributed the jumps to job availability But educators say more students slip through the cracks because they get less individual attention "The larger a school is with more kids and more mobile classrooms the more students are pushed away from the mainstream" said Gil Roberts a guidance counselor and dropout prevention coordinator in Cabarrus County key to keeping kids in school is individual attention showing them there is someone even if just one teacher or counselor who cares But we do that for every child when we have this many A flood of students The bell blares and students at Central Cabarrus High School pour into the narrow beige halls Two teachers stand opposite each other trying to converse about a student having personal trouble But the swarm of walking talking pushing teenagers disrupts them One teacher disappears in the wave of awkward young bodies Caught in the current she emerges 20 feet away just one teacher caught in traffic But reflective of how crowding affects some Piedmont educators disorganized stressed burned out They say the relentless wave of students leaves them little time to plan lessons or work individually with students Time is a most critical need said Bill Burke an education professor at UNC-Chapel Hill time to grade papers or consult with colleagues Tom Hawk a teacher at South Charlotte Middle School estimates he loses five minutes off every class period the equivalent of 18 50-minute class periods a year because of crowded halls And those Burke said are the five minutes a teacher often needs for one-on-one moments with students the moments that make teaching rewarding and can seal a success many teachers that moment when you see a kid get it when you lead a student to a new way of thinking that is really special" Burke said they get that chance to make a difference if just fighting to get 25 or 30 kids to get in the room and sit down instead of helping a kid who understand their leadership ability suffers they get that they suffer And in turn the students Cramped schools also make it harder to recruit and keep talented teachers especially minorities and math and science instructors Because there are fewer minority and math and science teachers they can be more selective when looking at school systems said Sally Durant Cabarrus personnel director In a 1992 study National Education Association researchers found that is one of 35 factors that directly affect the quality of a school In an NEA poll of more than 3000 teachers adequate space was one of about 25 factors that teachers said directly affected whether they were satisfied with their jobs folks who go into teaching are especially dedicated and especially selfless" said Rose Marie Lowry-Townsend president of the state association that mean immune to Making the hard decisions While students and teachers battle the crowds school administrators and elected officials struggle to find short-term and permanent solutions learning that is the key said Ted Melton chairman of the Rock Hill school board have to be flexible and we have to be well-versed in the alternatives that are out there The alternatives include new buildings and new schedules But one answer satisfy everyone said Cabarrus County commissioner Arne Fennel think anybody out there who believes crowded schools are good for students" said Fennel a fiscal conservative who has urged county educators to look for alternatives to traditional buildings such as year-round schools got to find solutions that satisfy the school people and the rest of the taxpayers That involves a lot of from 2 to 8 pm Split schedules are being used in California and in several suburban school systems outside Washington DC a generally unpopular option think of anyone who adversely affected under split said Jeff Schiller the assistant superintendent in Charlotte-Mecklenburg A year-round multitrack schedule can fit a third more students in most school buildings This system puts four groups of students on overlapping schedules of 45 school days followed by 15 vacation days The concept has been tried in California and Florida and another solution being considered for Mooresville Charlotte-Mecklenburg and Cabarrus and Union counties year-round schedule works really well when you have a strong community said Ken Stevenson an education professor at the University of South Carolina and a former facilities planner for the Florida State Department of Education if the community behind you not going to Although too small to have a direct effect on crowding alternative schools do make life easier on teachers and administrators The alternative schools in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Kannapolis Union County and Cabarrus County take students with discipline problems out of traditional classrooms and put them in smaller classes where they receive more one-on-one instruction Taking the students most likely to create problems out of the halls means fewer distractions for other students and teachers a teacher spends more time dealing with one student than she does the other 25 kids in said Lynn Ford the principal of Cabarrus JN Fries Middle School alternative school gets that one kid the individual attention they need and lets everyone else get back to work" Two tools for speeding desegregation magnet schools and rezoning have been used to ease crowding in Florida and California A magnet school for art or math and science can draw students away from a school most crowded schools Rezoning can move students from crowded schools to less populated parts of a county But both require schools that crowded and intense public relations campaigns to convince parents that change is needed "Rezoning is something I absolutely said Ted Melton chairman of the Rock Hill school board traumatic for everyone Since new subdivisions and housing complexes are causing much of the crowding in suburbs some planners believe impact fees are one quick way to help the schools Fees on new houses or mobile homes could be used to develop public services like schools and water and sewer lines in fastgrowing areas Fees have been discussed in almost every Piedmont county and already been implemented in Hilton Head SC for road construction By ANNA GRIFFIN Staff Writer Strapped for space and cash Charlotte-area educators are searching for ways to ease crowding without spending millions of dollars on new buildings Some of the ideas like breaking the school day into morning and afternoon shifts are controversial Others seem workable None of them are ideal when compared to new schools said UNC Charlotte education professor Bob Audette an ideal world you have new Audette said there are other ways to deal with crowding if you afford The most popular option so far has been mobile units There are more than 750 mobile classrooms being used in and around Charlotte enough to hold about 18000 students The buildings do have their advantages cheap $25000 for a smaller unit and easy to move from school to school Teachers say they provide a quieter atmosphere than traditional classrooms and with a little hard work planting flowers out front or putting up curtains inside trailers can look as inviting as the regular building But mobile units a permanent solution Many school campuses are landlocked meaning they expand to hold more mobile units And while the buildings do take care of classroom needs they alleviate crowding in the core parts of a building the bathrooms cafeteria media center and hallways Here are some of the other alternatives being discussed: For the past seven years educators in Orlando Fla have been building modular schools buildings made almost entirely of mobile units The 18 schools built in Orlando consist of permanent main buildings for offices the cafeteria and bathrooms but all the classrooms are portables an idea that several systems including Charlotte-Mecklenburg have considered So far local administrators haven't found a form of the modular school design they believe would work here The schools can be constructed in about eight months half the time it takes to open a traditional school But local educators who have seen the Orlando schools say the buildings would cost about the same as a permanent school ince it costs more to heat and cool mobile units and to wire trailers for computers Cabarrus County administrators are considering incorporating parts of the modular school design leaving space for a wing of mobile classrooms that could be added later in new traditional school designs Administrators in Mooresville Cabarrus County and Charlotte-Mecklenburg have warned that schools may have to move to a split shift schedule if new schools built Under split shifts students are divided into two tracks one that attends class in the morning and early afternoon say from 7 am to 1 pm and another that goes in the afternoon and early evening On one side of the classroom a converted home economics room 25 students sit cross-legged on the floor watching the art teacher create with clay and mimicking her movements on their own soft gray lumps On the other side another class waits supposed to watch so know what to do when their turn with the teacher arrives But waiting is frustrating They squirm and frown fidget and giggle doing very a teaching assistant tells them learning patience and patience is very Educators warn that children feel the effects of crammed schools Crowded hallways lead to pushing and shoving and pushing and shoving can lead to punching kicking and biting Longer lines for the bathroom and cafeteria and longer walks in from mobile units steal class time Lunchtime traditionally offers a chance for students to discuss the day and provides a subtle lesson in learning to behave But because of crowding students in many schools allowed to talk in the cafeteria The policy makes life easier for the adults but it robs the children of a chance to practice social skills of the biggest responsibilities we have is teaching social skills teaching students how to get along with each other how to behave under stress how to behave when not at said Ken Stevenson a University of South Carolina education professor who specializes in school crowding may look like just shooting the breeze But an educational In many Piedmont elementary schools cafeterias begin serving lunch as early as 10:30 am By 1 pm at least 90 minutes before most kids get home students who eat early are hungry again many complaining of stomachaches and fighting to stay awake got kids who are leaving home at 6:30 in the morning eating breakfast at 8 then eating lunch again at 10:30 because the building is said Bonnie Parker Union nutrition director not exactly the formula for academic success" Crowding can also be dangerous Mount Mourne Elementary School principal Karl Clendenin could put all his students in the gym for school assemblies but be risking a fire-code violation North Mecklenburg High School principal Jimmy Poole says the number of discipline problems he sees has risen dramatically as the school has grown there are more places for students to hide and more chances for fights The number of violent incidents in the Piedmont schools has dropped in recent years Administrators cite programs designed to specifically reduce the risk of violence like the off-campus discipline programs for unruly students in Charlotte-Mecklenburg and alternative programs and tougher discipline policies in other systems a system cracked down on the more serious problems weapons in school and drugs and students who just pflu0 pro fa ar LAST WEEK! 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