Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools is preparing to redraw middle school boundary lines across Cornelius, with a presentation to the Board of Education on Tuesday laying out two options that would reroute roughly 1,000 students currently zoned for Bailey and Francis Bradley middle schools. The driving force is overcrowding: Bailey Middle School now enrolls 1,703 students in a building with a stated capacity of 1,050, putting it at 162.2 percent of capacity and making it, according to the presentation, the most over-capacity school in the district. Francis Bradley Middle School, on Beatties Ford Road in Huntersville, isn't far behind at 101.5 percent capacity, with 1,091 students enrolled against a capacity of 1,075.
Two Options, One New School
Both proposals being floated would assign every Cornelius home west of Interstate 77 to a new middle school currently under construction at 13832 Stumptown Road in Huntersville, according to Cornelius Today. The two options differ mainly in how they treat students near Sam Furr Road, affecting some families north of the road near the Northcross Shopping Center and others to the south. Under either scenario, the new school would open at about 77 percent of capacity, leaving room for additional growth in Huntersville while bringing enrollment at Bailey and Francis Bradley below their building capacities.
The new campus itself has been described by CMS as a baseline 54-classroom facility built specifically to relieve pressure on Bailey, Bradley and J.M. Alexander middle schools, according to the district's CMS Bond Construction project page. The district says a notice to proceed has already been issued to the contractor and that phase 1 erosion control work has begun at the Stumptown Road site, which remains slated to open in fall 2028. The project's own update meeting presentation was dated November 20, 2025, underscoring how long this boundary review has been in the works.
No Changes to High School Lines, District Says
District officials emphasized at Tuesday's presentation that no final decisions have been made on the middle school boundaries, and that the changes under consideration would not affect current high school boundary lines. The overcrowding at Bailey isn't new — the school absorbed 375 students previously zoned for Davidson K-8 this past fall, a shift that pushed its projected enrollment toward roughly 1,650 students, a jump of about 28 percent from the prior year, the same report noted. That earlier coverage indicated the school would add 22 classroom and staff positions, growing its staff from 94 to 115 jobs, and that CMS planned to keep expanding its use of temporary classrooms even as the new building took shape.
Other enrollment snapshots over the past year have varied somewhat depending on when they were taken. Queen City News reported Bailey was projected to reach 1,704 students in the 2025-26 school year against a stated capacity of 1,240, while a separate account from Lake Norman Publications put Bailey's enrollment at 1,290 students against a building capacity of 1,140 for the school year it covered. CMS's executive director of student placement has said mobile units are excluded when the district compares enrollment against building capacity, which helps explain why capacity figures can differ between reports.
Community Input Sessions Planned Through December
CMS says it is now gathering feedback from families, staff and community members to help inform its final recommendations to the Board of Education, with engagement running from Monday, November 16 through December 31. In-person feedback sessions are scheduled at Cornelius Elementary School on November 30, at J.V. Washam Elementary School on December 2, and at Bailey Middle School on December 3, with virtual sessions set for December 15 and 16.
The timeline then moves quickly into the new year: a draft proposed plan is set to go before the Board of Education on January 12, followed by a final proposed plan and a public hearing on January 26. A vote on the new boundaries is scheduled for February 9, giving families roughly three months to weigh in before the lines are finalized ahead of the Stumptown Road school's planned 2028 opening.
