A rising seven-year trend of drugs, weapons and assaults continues to plague Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, even as the system makes progress in lowering its dropout rate, a new state report shows.

The report, released Thursday, showed 1,545 criminal or violent acts in CMS for 2009-10. That's up 19 percent from the previous year. Included in the overall number are 107 acts of violence, a 73 percent jump.

All N.C. schools must report 17 types of criminal or violent acts, ranging from drug and alcohol possession to serious assaults and rapes. Statewide, the number of reportable acts rose 4.4 percent last school year.

CMS logged 19 reportable acts for every 1,000 students, compared with about 16 statewide.

"The vast majority of those incidents start off the school grounds," school board chairman Eric Davis said. "Unfortunately, it highlights the societal problems we have to deal with."

He added that they also underscore the importance of campus-based security officers and Charlotte-Mecklenburg police school resource officers, both under the microscope as CMS and the city consider budget cuts.

Among the notable statistics for CMS:

215 assaults on teachers and other staff. That's up 27 percent from the previous year. CMS officials noted that the state's definition of staff was expanded to include volunteers, police officers and sports referees.

517 drug-possession incidents, up 8 percent.

543 weapons possession incidents, up 12 percent. (This does not include guns.)

Myers Park High, the district's largest school, had the largest number of reportable acts, with 75. Fifty-one of those were drug possession. Ranson Middle followed with 60, including 17 weapons and 16 assaults on school staff.

The Morgan School, for emotionally and behaviorally disabled children, logged the highest rate of crime or violence, with 275 acts per 1,000 students. The Metro School for severely disabled students followed with 123. The highest regular school was Ranson, with 52 incidents per 1,000 students.

The number of incidents involving firearms has been falling in recent years, from 28 in 2006-07 to seven last school year.

School board member Kaye McGarry said the report shows the need for tougher action against troublesome students. "Until we take charge of our schools, especially middle and high schools, the criminals are going to be in charge."

As violence and crime numbers have risen in recent years, leaders in CMS have attributed at least part of the increase to better reporting by schools. A 2005 Observer investigation showed CMS had failed to report some violent and criminal acts, and district leaders vowed to correct the problem.

In better news for CMS, the report showed its dropout rate declined to 4.15 percent, from about 5 percent the previous year. Statewide, dropout rates fell to their lowest level ever, 3.75 percent.

The report cited CMS, Gaston, Cabarrus, Forsyth and Randolph as logging the largest three-year declines in numbers of dropouts. CMS reported 1,637 dropouts for last school year.

"We are pleased to see our dropout rate decline," Superintendent Peter Gorman said in a prepared statement. He credited a catch-up program for lagging ninth-graders and other efforts to boost graduation rates.

"We think these programs are helping us lower the number of students who drop out. But we'd like to see the number decline even more, and we'll keep working with our struggling students to improve their performance in school."

Dropout rates in Iredell-Statesville and Union County ranked among the state's lowest. Hickory City schools' rate ranked among the highest, according to the report.

To see the full report, visit www.ncpublicschools.org/ research/discipline/reports . Click on the 2009-10 Consolidated Data Report.