South Charlotte Middle School Info (Matthews, Pineville: apartment complexes, house, neighborhoods)

[profesora]

I need current info on the school above (good/bad/otherwise) if possible, thanks. Have already checked out greatschools website and the school's as well, but would like more info about it, especially from current/recent parents. Thanks for your response!

[momtothree]

What information are you looking for? It's a very academically driven school. It's also a smaller school than usual. Parent involvement is high at this school as well. *as high they can be for middle school is what I mean.

[kirkley820]

Former student here, now a HS Junior.
South Charlotte is a quite safe school compared to others. It's located in a residential area, and has had only 2 drug/weapon instances in since my oldest brother went there(10 years ago). It has about 1000 students, down from about 1600 in pre-2003 before JM Robinson and then-later Community House were built. I know it was built around 1991, right after nearby Providence High(1989) and was originally a junior high until they switched up the grades to make it a middle school. That being said, even though it was 3 years ago since I went, the school is old. The buildings, rooms, gym, locker rooms were not physically updated as much as some of the surrounding schools. Nor were they dilapidated. In the classrooms, although, I believe from my sixth (08-09) to 8th (10-11) almost all of them were equipped with SmartBoards. Most of the teachers were pretty good and generally nice if the student is respectful, shows effort, and does okay in school. The academics, at least compared to many other schools, are and were difficult. This is not a fun school. The work is somewhat hard, but not impossible. It does prepare you for high school pretty well. The makeup of the school is about 2/3 white, 1/6 black and the rest being Asian or Hispanic. It is zoned for mainly highway 51(Pineville-Matthews) and it's neighborhoods, some which are very affluent (Piper Glen, especially, Hembstead, down Hugh Forest Road) but also some friendly middle class neighborhoods on Matthews, down Alexander Road, and Beverly Crest and some diverse nearby apartment complexes. Not to mention the school is basically located in Raintree. There is a "rich" crowd, but its not as bad as some of the other schools. Also, I'm not sure why, but there were about 15-20 students that ended up going to Rocky River HS and a couple to Independence, although those schools are quite far from SCMS. I'd say about 65-70% goes to Providence HS and 25% go to South Meck. The rest go to private school or another HS for any random reason.

To sum it up, its in a nice area, has hard academics(for middle school), and is a good school.

[profesora]

Thanks for the responses. Am waiting now to hear back later this week from the interview last Thursday. Hoping it works out for relocating - anyone with any apartment info in that area, I'd appreciate knowing, thanks.

[momtothree]

That area are full of apartment communities. Check out the piper glen apartments but make sure it's zoned for South Charlotte and not Jay M Robinson. And another called The Retreat. (pretty sure it's South Charlotte) JMR is another school that is there and also is excellent. (better than SC in my opinion)

[profesora]

Have been in touch with the Retreat already. Will check out Piper Glen, thanks.