KANNAPOLIS — The Kannapolis City Board of Education has approved new elementary attendance zones for the 2017-2018 school year. The updates are needed because KCS will add a new elementary school in August 2017 and will launch three new magnet programs.

Beginning in August, Kannapolis Intermediate School will be converted into G.W. Carver Elementary and will become Kannapolis City Schools’ sixth elementary school. It also will become a magnet school and will host the A+ Arts magnet program.

Fred L. Wilson Elementary also will become a magnet school and will feature programs in global studies and Spanish language immersion.

The map shows the new elementary attendance zones. Students living within the outlined area will attend G.W. Carver Elementary beginning in August 2017. A full size copy of the map is available inside each elementary school office where families can view the new attendance lines in detail. In addition, professionally printed copies of the maps will be created now that the school board has approved the new attendance boundaries.

In August 2017, both G.W. Carver Elementary and Fred L. Wilson Elementary will become magnet schools. One feature of magnet schools is that they are open to students from across the district—regardless of the attendance zone where families live. That means that families that live within the G.W. Carver and Fred L. Wilson attendance zones will automatically attend those schools next year, but elementary students in other KCS attendance zones also will be able to apply to attend the magnet schools. The magnet school application window will open in January.

Board members have approved the new attendance zones, but it is still possible for the boundaries to change slightly prior to the start of the 2017-18 school year. That is because KCS will not know the exact number of students attending each elementary school until it has received and processed all magnet school applications.

Depending on where the students who are accepted into the magnet schools live, KCS might have to make minor adjustments to attendance lines to make sure each elementary school has the right number of students included in its attendance area. Those final tweaks — if any — cannot be made until closer to the start of the 2017-18 school year.