Nearly half of families at South Academy of International Languages say they would leave the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools magnet program if a proposed one-hour schedule shift takes effect next year.

SAIL, a K-8 language-immersion school with 1,259 students, currently runs from 8:15 a.m. to 3:15 p.m. CMS has recommended pushing both times back one hour, WBTV first reported on Sunday, Oct. 11. The district-wide magnet draws families from across Charlotte, including the Ballantyne area.

The district has not publicly explained the rationale for the change. WBTV reported that CMS did not respond to a request for comment.

A parent group surveyed 400 people connected to the school and found that close to half said they would not return under the new hours, according to parents who shared the results with WBTV. The survey's methodology has not been disclosed.

The stakes are higher at SAIL than at a typical school. The immersion program requires students to enter in kindergarten. Students cannot transfer in at a later grade. If families pull out, those seats cannot be backfilled, and parents say sustained losses could threaten the school's viability.

SAIL parent Marguerite Carson told WBTV that the unique structure of a language-immersion program was not factored into the recommendation before it was made.

"It's really going to be hard to leave a school for a time change that no one considered for our families," parent Karly Wood told WBTV.

Linda Schaffluetzel, president of the SAIL Parent Teacher Student Organization, said the school's parking lot already cannot hold all car riders at the current 3:15 p.m. dismissal. Pushing pickup to 4:15 p.m. would compound traffic backups that are already a daily problem, she told WBTV.

Parents said they first learned about the proposed change during a Sept. 22 school board meeting at which the board fired Superintendent Crystal Hill in a 5-4 vote. Emails to board members after that meeting have yielded little information about how the recommendation was developed, parents told WBTV. CMS announced Oct. 8 that Acting Superintendent Melissa Balknight will remain in the role until a permanent replacement is hired, WFAE reported.

Schaffluetzel said the parent group's core request is straightforward: more data. A delegation of 20 to 30 parents planned to meet with the head of CMS transportation on Monday, Oct. 12, to press for details on how the schedule recommendation was made.

The schedule change is also expected to come up at the CMS school board meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 13. Whether the item is on the formal agenda or will be raised during public comment is unclear.