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CHARLOTTE -- Moving forward, Charlotte-Mecklenburg students are now guaranteed a seat in a school that's close to home. Tuesday night, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School Board passed a set of guiding principles to help create home schools while still maintaining diversity.

"We've promised you that you'll go to one of those schools that are relatively close to home," said board member Joe White.

Creating home schools is a priority stemming from parental feedback in recent months.
But some board members fear that guarantee does not have universal benefits.

"Every home school does not give access to a good education," said board member Joyce Waddell.

Board members suggested one way to improve that access is to promote diversity.

"Not all of our communities are extremely diverse and diversity is a factor on the board's list," said CMS Superintendent Dr. Peter Gorman. "So how to we do that?"

The board ranked diversity as one of its top priorities in student assignment. But they say there can be a conflict between that and neighborhood schools.

"I think we should have some home schools so the home schools have some diversity," said board member Tom Tate. "When we used proximity as a way of defining that, it may have taken away that possibility."

Board members acknowledge that these guiding principles are not perfect. But after hours of discussion, they felt it's the best they could do. Now they hope in its application, some students are not left behind.

This is the first big step in the districts comprehensive review. With this information, the staff can better determine what schools will be to closed and how to reassign students.

A final vote on those measures won't be made until November.