Been very amusing to watch CMS offer up essentially the same boundary plans over and over again for the new Mint Hill high school — and have Mint Hill town leaders flip out again and again. To recap and oversimplify, town officials and some residents thought that the new Mint Hill high would be a Mint Hill high — roughly comport to the town’s footprint in its attendance zone.

But CMS being CMS had other plans. Namely opening a new high school outside of 485 with student population projected to be 60 percent African American, 19 percent white, and 16 percent Hispanic, with 52 percent of students on free or reduced lunch. Or in other words almost exactly the current breakdown for Independence High.

Independence, in fact, would be the de facto Mint Hill school and see its FRL drop to 44 percent from 52 percent while its projected white enrollment more than doubles, from 17 percent to 44 percent. With that change Indy would transition to one of the “middle ring” schools that CMS planners and supporters view as key to keeping the system “balanced” and middle-class suburbanites engaged.

Ah, but what about the lingering bait-and-switch feeling that residents of the Southeast end of the county now feel? The one occasioned by the belief that they were voting for a wholly suburban, “Mint Hill High” when they supported CMS’ last bond referendum? Doesn’t matter. The county cannot afford to issue any more debt for some time and enrollment growth pressures have eased if not reversed themselves. CMS won’t come looking for more bond votes next year, or probably the year after that.

If voters get fooled again, they’ll only have themselves to blame.