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A month before school opened, Eastover Elementary had 676 kids on its roster, a 20 percent increase over last year.
Now, as Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools officials scramble to relieve crowding at the close-in school, enrollment is just under 600. Two teachers who were added based on summer numbers were reassigned this week.
The economy is throwing kinks into CMS's quest to deal with crowding - and parents' attempts to sort out what's going on.
Eastover Principal Vanessa Ashford says the summer surge was driven partly by families who worried they couldn't afford private-school tuition. Some enrolled at Eastover but actually went to private schools, she said this week.
The school still has about 30 more students than last year, and about 200 more than five years ago. The biggest surge is in kindergarten and first grade; instead of the traditional three classes per grade, Ashford now has six at each of those levels. Two are set up in the auditorium.
"Every little nook and cranny has been used," she said.
Options outlined this week include moving about 110 Eastover students to First Ward Elementary and swapping buildings with the larger Myers Park Traditional magnet school nearby, moves that have already proven controversial with Eastover parents.
Eastover Elementary serves the Eastover, Myers Park, Dilworth, Elizabeth and Midtown neighborhoods, and many of those residents are meeting to figure out how proposed changes would affect their kids and schools.
So are parents from East Mecklenburg and Myers Park high schools. One point of debate: Is Myers Park High too crowded with 3,000 students, a number likely to land as the state's largest school?
East Meck parents say yes, citing reports of 40-student classes, scheduling snarls and overworked counselors at Myers Park.
But Joel Ritchie, the assistant superintendent in charge of schools in that area, says those problems are caused by another economic side effect: budget cuts.
Myers Park lost 24 teachers in the layoffs that began in May. The school is still hiring for jobs that were restored in August, after the state passed a budget.
Ritchie said the faculty cuts have led to larger classes and scheduling challenges at all high schools. Having 3,000 students is not creating academic or disciplinary problems at Myers Park, he said.
But Eastover Elementary, he said, does need relief in 2010-11: "It's just going to continue to grow."
