Crowded schools to sacrifice summer?: Bonds or no bonds, CMS may start year-round schedules to squeeze more out of buildings.

Byline: Peter Smolowitz

Jun. 26--Even if voters approve a school-construction bond package in November, skyrocketing growth could force some Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools to switch to year-round classes or double sessions in 2008.

The ideas for squeezing more students into crowded schools have surfaced previously, including after voters rejected the 2005 bond package. But CMS launched its most thorough review of the proposals after Superintendent Peter Gorman's 100-day plan called for slashing 15 percent of the district's nearly 1,300 mobile classrooms by 2010.

Recommendations would likely come in late summer or early fall -- as the campaign for a record bond request hits the homestretch.

CMS leaders say the controversial schedules would be a last resort, and that the timing of the study isn't a scare tactic to boost support for the bond. Officials say they're analyzing options now so parents deciding where to enroll their children in 2008 would have plenty of warning.…