I’m going to retire from having an opinion on the topic.

Just the other day I was convinced that Harding High had been Sneaky Pete’s actual target for closing all the time — much older plant than Waddell, a magnet, etc. Then I read this in The Charlotte Post:

Scores of students and parents from Harding came out wearing school colors and waving handmade signs. Their message was simple “Leave our School Alone” and “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.” Some even suggested CMS now stands for “Can’t Make Sense,” because the district would thwart academic success by dismantling Harding’s program.

Harding student body President Reshard McElrath said, “I feel that we were unfairly targeted. I think they put Phillip O. Berry on the same street as us for a reason because they want to close us down and move all the students [there].”

McElrath is the grandson of CMS board member Richard McElrath. He said that because of the late of the recommendation, he didn’t have an opportunity to talk to his grandfather, but planned to do so.

I mean, seriously? Why would anyone associated with CMS think trying to close Harding would not be met with an absolute firestorm of opposition?

Nah, let’s get back to basics: money. The linchpin of the Harding vs. Waddell deal is coming up with a landing place for the Smith Language Academy. CMS wants to deep-six the Smith space off of Tyvola Road. A 27-acre space that just happens to be a couple hundred feet from a light rail stop.

Really?

Are we to believe that that all the six-figure planners and fixers at CMS and the city of Charlotte, together with Charlotte’s clubby — but hurting — development community have not broached the topic of how to take those 27 acres off of the CMS’ hands, perhaps lose the Yorktown Apartments next door in the bargain, otherwise completely remake a corner of the South-Tyvola intersection?

Seeing will be believing.

Update: More follow the money via Pundit House, which notes the same board which is closing schools to save $3m. found $1m. to pay out in contract extensions:

The list of top CMS brass to receive the lucrative contract extensions include: Chief Accountability Officer Robert Avossa ($160,000); Chief Operating Officer Hugh Hattabaugh ($169,000); Chief Financial Officer Sheila Shirley ($169,363); Chief Academic Officer Ann Clark ($169,638); Associate Superintendent Guy Chamberlain ($148,813); Assistant Superintendent Jane Rhyne ($141,293); and Area Superintendents Scott Muri ($134,859) and Tyler Ream ($134,859).