These Ballantyne student ‘pioneers’ built new CMS high school’s culture from zero

One memory sticks out to Olivia Smith about her earliest days at Ballantyne Ridge High School: her orientation, where her homeroom teacher Jeffrey Buseick greeted her with a big smile.

“Even then when we were juniors, knowing we had two years, he was there, cheering us on,” she said.

On Saturday, the roars and applause of Ballantyne Ridge staff, friends and family members filled Bojangles Coliseum as 279 students walked the stage as part of the high school’s first graduating class, adding to the 22 graduates who finished mid-year.

In 2024, its inaugural year, Ballantyne Ridge had no seniors. Instead, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools gave rising juniors the opportunity to choose between remaining at their old school or switching to Ballantyne Ridge. Saturday’s ceremony recognized not only the students moving into college, the workforce or whatever their next step may be, but it also celebrated the community and culture these students built from the ground up.

In his graduation speech, Principal Michael Miliote referenced a Rudyard Kipling quote that has become a guiding motto: “The strength of the pack is in the wolf, and the strength of the wolf is in the pack” — a perfect fit for the Ballantyne Ridge Wolves.

The road here

Construction on Ballantyne Ridge started in 2022 to relieve overcrowding in Ardrey Kell High School and South Mecklenburg High School.

Charlotte is one of the country’s fastest growing cities, and the Ballantyne neighborhood specifically, has experienced enormous growth over the past few decades. As of 2022, Ardrey Kell and South Meck were both over capacity by hundreds of students. Corporate and commercial expansions like The Bowl at Ballantyne have further transformed the south Charlotte neighborhood.

Redrawing attendance boundaries for Ballantyne Ridge sparked controversy as parents worried about sending their students to a school with underdeveloped resources and infrastructure.

When Ballantyne Ridge welcomed its first students on Aug. 26, 2024, the school was a blank slate. Students didn’t have clubs, athletics or Ballantyne Ridge traditions, which stood out to Miliote as a priority from the beginning. He spent the year before the school’s opening assessing the needs of the community by talking to kids and parents about their needs.

He added that Ballantyne Ridge staff has a unique opportunity to work on a “supply and demand model” based on students’ needs. From the beginning, this looked like holding football and basketball games for students to rally around and coaching students involved in student government to be leaders of younger grades.

In the school’s first year, it launched almost 90 clubs, Miliote said. Today, the school boasts 31 varsity sports teams.

Having no senior class in 2024 gave the now-graduates more opportunities to fill in leadership roles, said Ethan Moore, who previously attended South Meck. Joining the baseball team offered him just that — he’s the only graduating senior on varsity that’s been rostered for both years.

“I had to step up, take initiative and start to guide these guys because we had a really young team,” he said.

From leading practices to setting a standard for work ethic, Moore had a hand in almost every step. He helped players from different schools gel at practice and off the field.

The smaller school size inspired Nicoly Lima, who previously attended South Meck, to run for prom queen — and win. And Ballantyne Ridge parent Cynthia Mercedes said the opportunity for her son to get involved in track completely changed his lifestyle.

Nick Defuria said clubs were more accessible at Ballantyne Ridge, pushing students to expand their horizons. He was involved in National Science Honor Society, chess club, yearbook and student government club.

“We had the opportunity to build up our school that’s not even a year old at the time,” he said. “We knew what an established school was like so that’s basically what we tried to accomplish through prom, homecoming, that kind of thing.”

Academic opportunities

Ballantyne Ridge offered Smith more options academically, and a smaller grade size made those options less competitive. Smith said she met periodically with the career development coordinator throughout her time. At South Meck, she never got a meeting due to the number of students vying for one.

Aaryan Gupta, Ballantyne Ridge’s first valedictorian, said the school’s grade size was “a blessing in a way.” It helped him shift away from the competitive mindset he fell into at Ardrey Kell.

“It actually felt enjoyable going to school and just learning and not having to compete,” he said.

But there were negatives. Ballantyne Ridge did not have as many Advanced Placement classes, which help make students’ college applications more attractive. Gupta had to self-study curricula for classes the high school did not offer and take the exams independently. Toi Reynolds, a parent to a graduating senior, said her daughter also missed out on some academic opportunities due to a lack of classes offered.

Although it wasn’t in place for graduating seniors, Ballantyne Ridge is now one of just five high schools in Charlotte authorized to offer the International Baccalaureate program.

Creating a culture

Defuria said student body president Reagan Fox, who also attended South Meck, brought a lot of their old school’s culture to Ballantyne Ridge. It made a new environment feel familiar.

Reynolds described the school as “very community based,” and Jahn-Marie Hopkins, a parent to another graduating senior, said it’s been a “positive experience” for her son.

“We want to ensure that (the students) were leaving a place that they were comfortable with and coming into a place that would, at least at a bare minimum, provide a comparable experience, if not an enhanced experience,” Miliote said.

Gupta said he’s enjoyed establishing traditions like senior sunrise and sunset, where students gather early in the morning at the beginning of the school year and in the evening at the end of the school year to watch the sky change colors together — a metaphor for the start and end of the first seniors’ first year.

Miliote said there are many factors that go into making a high school; Saturday’s graduation marked “the summit.”

“We didn’t have an established legacy to hand down to you. We didn’t have older students to show you the ropes. We had to build the ropes,” he told the seniors in his graduation speech. “You are our pioneers, our foundational layer, our alpha class.”