Residents watching to see if Gorman can fulfill his pledge to improve schools.

Byline: Ann Doss Helms and Peter Smolowitz

Aug. 26--Stakes are high when the buses roll and school bells ring on Monday.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Superintendent Peter Gorman, brought in a year ago to regain the confidence of a wary and divided community, has laid out his vision.

Now it falls to thousands of lower-profile people -- principals and teachers, bus drivers and school secretaries, staffers working phones in offices across the county -- to make it work.

They'll either welcome children and families to orderly schools with strong academics -- or fuel fears that CMS is a big, intimidating place where families are overlooked and children don't learn.

"Every single day in every household there's a referendum on CMS," Gorman said. "Every day parents are having that referendum: Do they support public schools?"

In November, the referendum becomes formal. Two years after a school bond defeat that was widely seen as a no-confidence vote, voters face a November referendum on $516 million to build and renovate schools.

At the same time, they'll elect three at-large school board members, a vote that will affirm or reject current leadership.

Gorman is charged with slowing public-school flight while strengthening schools that serve the neediest children. His plans…