SMITHFIELD -- The Johnston County school board on Tuesday decided who will attend two new high schools that will open next year.

When Corinth-Holders and Cleveland high schools open next year for ninth and 10th graders, they will ease overcrowded schools in western Johnston, which has seen steady population growth.

Even after four years, when all four grades are enrolled, the new schools will have room to spare. School leaders expect Corinth-Holders High, on Applewhite Road in rural northern Johnston, will be 70 percent full by the 2013-2014 school year. Cleveland High, on Polenta Road in western Johnston, will be about 81 percent full.

“We’ve got to have room for these schools to grow,” said Dr. Ed Croom, superintendent of Johnston County Schools.

The final attendance plan school leaders approved unanimously is slightly different than the original proposal parents sounded off about at a public forum in Clayton earlier this month.

Some North Johnston High School students who were originally slated to go to Corinth-Holders will stay put. Parents who live in rural areas near Kenly said at the Oct. 1 forum that they feel a strong sense of community at North Johnston.

Also, some students who live in the Smithfield-Selma High School area will go to that school instead of Corinth-Holders, as was originally planned.

The change means the Corinth-Holders school will be smaller than expected. The original plan called for an 80 percent capacity rate after four years.

School board members said they tried to listen to parents. But some families didn’t get their wish.

At the public forum earlier this month, parents in the Riverwood community near Clayton complained the proposal would take their children from Clayton High to the new Corinth-Holders school. Some said they feel a strong connection to the Clayton community and want their children to attend Clayton’s high school.

Under the final plan, though, those students will go to Corinth-Holders. Otherwise, Croom said, the new school would not have enough students.

“I’m a little disappointed, but I also understand,” said Michael Grannis, a Clayton Town Council member. Grannis told school leaders at the Oct. 1 forum that he worried Clayton High could become like an inner-city school if some students were shuffled elsewhere.

“Will that occur?” Grannis said after the school board meeting Tuesday. “We’ll have to stay tuned.”

On Tuesday, the school board also approved a plan that will allow current seventh-, eighth- and ninth-grade students who have a sibling in high school to be grandfathered into that school instead of going to one of the new schools.

Families must apply by Jan. 31 to be grandfathered into a school. If school leaders grant the request, families must provide their own transportation.

Board member Keith Branch said he understood the burden families would face if they had children attending two high schools.

“I know how hard it would be to support two different kids,” Branch said.

The changes affect all of Johnston’s six high schools except Princeton. While the attendance plan leaves room to grow at the new schools and West Johnston High School, other schools will be nearly full.

Four years from now, school leaders expect North Johnston to have reached full capacity. Smithfield-Selma will be nearly 97 percent full.

Croom has said those schools are in areas that are growing more slowly, so space is not as much a concern.