New Middle School Helps Manage Growth

By Amanda Wilson

Staff Writer

A new middle school that opened its doors this week has helped ease the burden of overcrowding in Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools.

The district, whose student population topped 10,000 this year, has long been grappling with problems caused by overcrowding in its schools.

In response to the demands of continuing growth, Steve Scroggs, assistant superintendent of the school system, said school officials have added trailers, implemented minor redistricting and opened Smith Middle School this year.

Smith Middle, which holds 515 students, has relieved overcrowding at McDougle Middle School, said Pamela Haines, president of the PTA and a UNC professor.

Officials also have added trailers that serve as temporary classrooms to McDougle Elementary School. The trailers are referred to as cottages by the students and teachers that work in them.

Scroggs said the measures were necessary because about 500 more students enrolled in the district this year. Scroggs said the increase is fairly typical for recent years. "The growth curve in preceding years has been almost straight up," he said.

Scroggs cited Ephesus Road Elementary, as well as Seawell Elementary, Guy B. Phillips Middle and McDougle Elementary schools, as the fastest growing in the system.

McDougle Elementary School has been over its capacity of 640 students since the first year it opened, said PTA co-president Pat Lewis.

Lewis said all schools have full-time music and art teachers, but that means a different thing for a school with 400 students versus a school with almost 700, like McDougle. "That's one person trying to serve 300 more students," Lewis said.

Lewis said the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Board of Education has agreed to give the school two more part-time art and music teachers to help alleviate strain.

Scroggs said even though Smith Middle has provided temporary relief, classrooms will likely continue to crowd until growth in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro area levels off.

Ten percent of the area that composes the school district remains undeveloped.

Scroggs said realtors continue to use the school system as a selling card and that young families are attracted to the opportunities the system can offer their children.

Kathleen Austin, whose daughter is now a fifth grader at Ephesus Road Elementary, said neighborhoods surrounding her, such as Springcrest off Erwin Road, have grown in recent years.

"It's very affordable," she said. "Retirees are moving out, and families are moving in."

Despite the problems overcrowding is causing, Scroggs said district officials are doing all they can to handle the growth.

"Clearly we are struggling, but would I want to deny someone the ability to go to school here? No."

The City Editor can be reached at citydesk@email.unc.