INSIDE LOOK: Principal shows impact of overcrowding at Montclaire Elementary

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Charlotte-Mecklenburg School officials are asking voters for a nearly $1 billion bond for schools and one of the major issues affecting schools in need is overcrowding.

Now, 78 percent of the schools in the district are at or over capacity.

The district granted Eyewitness News anchor Brittney Johnson access to Montclaire Elementary school to see the problem up close.

Principal Leora Itzhaki showed the TV crew how she gets creative packing students into the school. She pointed out rooms where they're doubling and sometimes tripling the number of resource teachers who share space. Despite those efforts, classes are still spilling out 14 trailers. Second and third-grade students are in trailers along with ESL teachers and the science lab.

"It's a challenge," Itzhaki said.

One mobile classroom has 26 students even though Itzhaki would prefer it only hold a maximum of 20.

"That's a lot of people to be outside," she said.

She said her son went to overcrowded schools, so she knows through his experience that learning in tight spaces can be a major distraction for students.

"It made it that much more percent harder for him to focus on what the teacher was saying," she said.

Itzhaki said her team maximizes the space but students would benefit from a newer, larger school.

"We will make lemonade with whatever we have. We would like to have a better space sooner rather than later," Itzhaki said.

The area around Montclaire is growing. Itzhaki said she's hearing from families pushing for a stronger neighborhood school.

"It's hard when you're looking and saying, ‘If I lived out in the burbs, I would have a much newer school.’ Everybody is deserving," Itzhaki said.

She's hoping voters will agree and support the bond referendum which would allot $29 million for a new school for Montclaire.

"We are raising some future citizens here; they deserve the best," she said.

The school was built in 1958 and it doesn't have enough outlets to support technology needs. It's one of 78 CMS schools built in the 1950s.

Cox Media Group