MEBANE, N.C. — Growth is a good thing, right?
Well, sometimes challenges follow where growth takes place.
Take Alamance County for example.
As more people move to the area, more children are enrolling in schools.
Just these last few months alone, nearly 1000 students have entered the district causing overcrowding in some classrooms, and a handful of schools over capacity.
Woodlawn Middle School has the largest percentage over capacity right now in the district sitting at 115% full.
The school board suggested rezoning some students and sending them to another middle school.
The district said 11 schools in the district are at capacity and eight are getting close.
Woodlawn Middle was built to hold 650 students. Right now, they have 750.
One option to help with overcapacity, rezoning some students which would send them to Graham Middle School. The reason for this, many issues follow an overcrowded school.
A spokesperson for ABSS, Les Atkins said, "Obviously in a school like this, we have multiple lunch schedules and we have to have teachers obviously to teach all of those students, so that presents some challenges and you know the state now put caps on how many students we can put it to any particular classroom.”
An ideal situation would be to just build more schools right? Well, that takes time and money, and this issue needs to be taken care of now.
ABSS Superintendent Dr. Dain Butler mentioned the growth in the county while at the Governor's press conference Wednesday.
Dr. Butler said, "As you guys know there’s rapid growth in the Piedmont Triad area, and there’s lots of recent major companies that are going to come join us soon, and that’s going to make Alamance County even better, and that's exciting. But with this opportunity comes many challenges. We've added over 1000 students in the school year. As we continue growing, we must remain focused on our mission to meet the needs of all students as they come to us."
The school district talked about this proposal at its meeting on Tuesday.
Some of the members worry about athletes moving to different schools and the stipulations surrounding that.
Typically, if a student-athlete moves schools, they have to wait a year before playing.
The board talked about changing this policy — for Woodlawn students that could possibly be rezoned.
Some members argue that if a student is having to move due to a rezoning, they shouldn't have to wait a year to play sports.
The school board will meet again on the 26th, where they will vote on the proposed rezoning.
If the board approves the proposal, parents will be notified and the move will take place before next school year.