Chapel Hill-Carrboro CIty School district sees increased enrollment, hopes to build two new schools

Even as crews work on Elementary School 11, Chapel Hill-Carrboro City School district leaders are already looking toward the next wave of district schools.

As the district experiences an increase in student enrollment, officials hope to alleviate classroom crowding by constructing two additional schools in the next five years.

Though planning isn’t yet underway, it’s on the radar, said Board of Education members last week as they reviewed annual enrollment projections.

Elementary School 11 is set to open in Fall 2013. But if the student enrollment trends the board reviewed continue, a new middle school and a new elementary school will be needed by 2017, said board member Mike Kelley.

“Right now, there are no concrete plans for constructing those schools, but they are on the radar,” he said.

Officials attributed the growth — which has increased in the past few years — to various causes.

“Whenever a housing development is finished it generates higher numbers of students,” Kelley said.

Kevin F. Morgenstein Fuerst, coordinator of student enrollment, said higher numbers in Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools can also be attributed to a recent boost in the economy and the clustering of students in specialized programs.

“Specialty programs do contribute to overcrowding. The gifted program does on a minimal basis as well as the dual language programs. It’s just the way they are structured,” Fuerst said.

“For instance, Glenwood has the Chinese program, which has caused significant overcrowding because you’re bringing students from outside the attendance zone.”

Fuerst said making Frank Porter Graham Elementary a magnet school — a proposal that has been met with considerable criticism from parents — would pull students from more crowded schools.

Frank Porter Graham is at 90 percent capacity, while six of the other 10 elementary schools have exceeded capacity.

“Enrollment projection is less of a science and is an educated guess,” Fuerst said. “This year we got a lot more students than expected. We know some of the reasons why and we don’t know the others.”

As a whole, elementary schools are at a 104 percent capacity level.

Assistant Superintendent of Support Services Todd LoFrese said Middle School Five will be built near Morris Grove Elementary, hopefully by 2017. There are also two potential sites for the elementary school that will be needed that year.

One potential site is located near Rogers Road and the second is near Carolina North.

Development of these schools is a multi-year process engaging the towns of both Carrboro and Chapel Hill, LoFrese said.

In the meantime, district schools are relying on temporary solutions to deal with the large enrollment in schools.

Many schools are using trailers — which are not included in official school capacity data — as alternative classrooms, Kelley said.

“We don’t have the choice of packing more kids into a classroom,” Kelley said. “That is not an option.”

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