- [Bea] Cars, traffic, people, and growth.

It's all part of the fast development that the southeastern United States is currently experiencing, including the growth of families, neighborhoods, and schools.

And if you take a closer look, you'll see Cabarrus County is in the bullseye of all that growth.

- I think with the growth, for us, it's a challenge and it's going to continue to be challenging.

- [Bea] And as superintendent of the Cabarrus County Schools, Dr. John Kopicki sees the numbers crunch up close, and it's very clear, his county is one of the hot growth spots for the state.

- The county's done a very good job with the school system and building schools over the last 10 or 15 years to continue to address that surge, but it's not going away.

The numbers indicate that it's going to continue to grow for the next 10 years.

Right now we're at a little over 35,000 students.

We anticipate being over 40,000 students very soon.

- [Bea] Cabarrus County serves five municipalities, Concord, Kannapolis, Midland, Mount Pleasant, and Harrisburg, covering more than 360 miles in ex-urban, suburban, and rural areas.

The county's school population grew 21% between 2010 and 2020, and has almost doubled in the last two decades.

- Currently, we do serve a little bit over 1,000 children.

- [Bea] Krina Patel is the principal of Hickory Ridge Elementary in Harrisburg, one of the newest schools with less than five years under its belt, yet it was already behind when it started.

- But we are the reality of it, we are at full capacity and, obviously, even over that full capacity mark.

- [Bea] That growth has meant all hands on deck, with everyone in the building involved in student learning and education.

It also means finding space for teaching to take place.

- And you'll see small groups pulled out into hallways and smaller tables.

Our building and our design lends very well for that, but ultimately we are using every office, every space, so that we can serve our staff and students.

Because of the magnitude of our student population and the number, the pure number, we find ourself having to be very creative about group assignments, locations, the utilization of our building.

- I've watched Hickory Ridge open, and then immediately have mobile units outside because we didn't have enough classrooms.

- [Bea] Shane Smith has been teaching for more than two decades and is designated a lead teacher.

Those are educators who float to different classrooms to assist teachers where they're needed.

While the state places a cap on the number of students in each K through 3rd grade classroom in order to control the size, that's not so for the fourth and fifth graders.

- So I spend a lot of my time in fourth and fifth grade now because of that.

Those teachers are working their hearts out, as we all do, we wanna do what's best for children, but we know what's best for children is the right number of personnel for that many children.

- So, as a parent, this school is overcrowded and it makes the resources for every child limited.

I'm from Charlotte, so I've seen the growth over the years and it's just gonna keep coming.

- [Bea] Over the past decade, Cabarrus County has built 10 new schools, including Hickory Ridge Elementary, in order to meet that need.

As PTO President, Robin Thomas, is a constant presence at the school, constantly trying to get parents to volunteer.

But the growth in the metro region of Charlotte translates into spillover growth into Cabarrus, leading the system to realign student assignments.

- [Robin] The school system, in general, can educate parents and help them understand why they're doing the realignment.

It's not just because they wanna move kids around, but it's preparing for the future.

- [Bea] The superintendent points out, they look at the numbers from the birth rates to new home construction rates.

The county is only about 20 minutes northeast of Charlotte and is included in the metro statistics for this region.

And studies already show that net migration in North Carolina will be concentrated in those major metro areas.

- And you start understanding the economics of all the people moving here for the businesses that are coming to the county and the Charlotte region, you know, it starts to resonate with you that, you know, you better have a plan as you move forward, or, you know, there's gonna be some serious issues for the education of our kids in the public school system here in Cabarrus County.

- [Bea] It's an issue that doesn't go away.

Yet, for the children in the classrooms, each day is a new day to learn, while the adults figure out the logistics of growth in the classroom and in the county.

For "Carolina Impact," I'm Beatrice Thompson.