The Mint Hill Times

The Town of Matthews released a statement today in support of CMS’s Tuesday vote to postpone the decision on the boundaries for the new Mint Hill high school.

“We have been hearing from people that the plans were never on the CMS Web site and there had not been an opportunity to fully discuss the impacts of the proposed pupil assignment plans on area high schools,” said Mayor Lee Myers. “We hope that the public will take advantage of this delay by CMS and visit www.cms.k12.nc.us  and click 2010-2011 School Boundary to become fully informed on what changes are proposed.”
CMS held two official public workshops, one at Independence High School and the other at Butler High School earlier this year. The three community maps, combined with the five maps generated by CMS staff,  have been on the CMS Web site for more than a month.

Mint Hill’s boundary map, designed by town staff as well as a hand-picked committee by Mayor Ted Biggers, was voted down at Tuesday’s meeting. The map was not posted on the CMS Web site, but has been available on several other Web sites including minthilltimes.com.

Matthews Mayor Pro-Tem Jim Taylor said Matthews wants two great schools, one in Matthews and one in Mint Hill, but the two towns differ on the approach.

“We’ve all got the same ultimate goal in mind, it’s just how we get there,”  Taylor  said. “Any plan that is to be considered by the CMS Board should be fully disclosed and allow for all families that will be impacted to weigh in before action is taken. That is the only way to be completely transparent and for the decision making process to be fair to all.”

Currently, most of Mint Hill CMS high school students attend Butler. Mayor Myers said after Tuesday’s meeting that Mint Hill’s boundary plan will have an adverse affect on Butler High School.

“It changes the demographics that we worked hard on improving,” Myers said.

Members of the Mint Hill community arrive at Tuesday's Board of Education meeting.

The CMS Board of Education voted tonight 4-3 to delay a final vote until August 11. An earlier vote for the Mint Hill-Reedy Creek school boundary map was voted down 4-2 by the board. At Larger member Trent Merchant proposed delaying the vote, but other board members did not know what will change in the next few weeks before a final decision.
More than 100 supporters of the Mint Hill-Reedy Creek map attended the meeting, most wearing white shirts and carrying signs which read “One High School for Mint Hill.” Read more about the meeting in Thursday’s Mint Hill Times.