Pride or prejudice?

"It's about to get ugly," school board member Joe White said as open-mike time approached at last night's forum on school closings and other changes.

Maybe so. From what I've seen, most board members, parents and educators have worked hard to keep a civil, respectful tone during months of talks about student assignment. But now that it's down to specifics about closing and merging schools, tensions are high.

Every school district in America will tell you that making kids switch schools is the toughest issue they tackle. Inevitably, one school is seen as better than another. And let's face it: The less-desirable school is generally the one with lower-income families and more students of color.

Soon after I started this beat, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools drew new boundaries for south suburban schools, all of which were high-performing and well regarded by most standards. But I kid you not, I heard parents complaining that neighborhoods of $200,000 and $300,000 homes were being treated like slums by folks whose homes were worth twice that.

Last night, the tension surfaced between Davidson IB and Alexander middle schools. Today, parents are miffed at each other, at me and at board member Rhonda Lennon, who represents that part of the county and weighed in on what she saw as disdain from Davidson IB families toward the poor and black students at Alexander.

The DIB crowd turned out in force, and most of their comments focused on how wonderful their school is. It's hard to argue that point. Who wouldn't want their kids to attend a small school that's nationally recognized for academic excellence, where kids who expect to work hard apply for admission and where a charming town embraces the school?

But CMS officials say they can't afford it. They've proposed closing DIB, saving the cost of renovating the aging building and putting a bigger International Baccalaureate magnet into Alexander, which has seats to spare. A cash-strapped district saves money and more kids get the chance to take part in the challenging academic program, they say.

Inevitably, some DIB families highlighted the reasons they believe a move to Alexander would be disastrous:  It's too big. It's not as safe. The kids don't work as hard.

"I don't want to disrespect Alexander, but a lot of them don't want to learn like we do," a DIB seventh-grader said. An adult referred to Alexander as "a factory school."

It's hard to blame the Alexander crowd for taking umbrage. "What it really comes down to is fear of change, if you listen to them," one man said.


So how do race and class play in? That part is hard to nail down.

DIB is majority white, but hardly homogeneous. This year's tally includes 143 white students, 65 blacks and 15 each of Hispanics and Asians. Last year about 1 in 5 DIB students qualified for low-income lunch aid (this year's tally isn't in), compared with just under half at Alexander. Alexander is 49 percent black, 31 percent white and 12 percent Hispanic, making it one of CMS's more diverse schools.

The DIB student who talked about how Alexander's kids "don't want to learn like we do" is white. But the next DIB speaker was a black student who had moved from Alexander to the magnet "because of the way kids treat you if you're smart." One of the parents worrying aloud that kids wouldn't be safe at Alexander was African American.

Perhaps the best insight I heard came from DIB seventh-grader Sophie Swallow, who compared merging the schools to "trying to force two families into the same house."

Her point was how difficult that is, and no doubt she's right. But divorce, remarriage and -- especially these days -- economic hardship force plenty of families to merge. A lot of CMS "families" are likely to find themselves sharing quarters next year. The challenge is how to make it work.