RALEIGH - The fight over year-round conversion may be over -- as far as the Wake County school board is concerned -- but the struggle over student reassignment has only begun.

Having already voted to convert 19 elementary schools to a year-round calendar next year, the board decided Tuesday to change East Wake, North Garner and Salem middle schools as well. The board dropped Leesville Road and Wakefield middle schools from consideration.

Now, school officials will work on where to assign Wake County students next year. Thousands will be moved to new schools -- not counting the more than 18,000 students whose schools are switching to a year-round calendar.

"Parents aren't going to like being reassigned any more than having to go year-round," said school board member Lori Millberg.

Each year, Wake reassigns thousands of students to fill new schools, ease crowding at existing schools and promote diversity. Next year, the district has to fill five newly opened year-round schools.

Converting schools to a year-round calendar further complicates the reassignment issue.

Many current year-round students will be required to return to their converted base schools. Other students will then be reassigned to existing year-round schools to replace the departing children.

The board will allow rising fourth-, fifth-, seventh- and eighth-graders at existing year-round schools to stay where they are if their base schools are converted.

Chuck Dulaney, Wake's assistant superintendent for growth and planning, said the reassignment plan for the next year should not be larger than the record one involving 9,307 students this fall.

Administrators want the school board to approve the reassignment plan a month earlier than normal, on Feb. 6. This would allow parents to use a new application form in February to request either a traditional or year-round school. They'll use a separate form to apply to magnet schools.

Ramey Beavers, Wake's senior director for growth management, won't be around to work on the new reassignment plan. He is retiring at the end of the month.

"When people tell me I wouldn't have your job on the Board of Education for anything, I say I wouldn't have Ramey's job for anything" school board Chairwoman Patti Head told Beavers.

Dulaney said a decision on replacing Beavers has not been made. He might still do some consulting for the district.

It remains to be seen how many requests the district will get from parents who want their children to stay at traditional schools.

Year-round conversion has been opposed by many vocal parents who are worried about having their children on different schedules, especially if they have older children at traditional-calendar high schools. Other parents have said they want to keep the long summer breaks on the traditional calendar.

Despite the board's decisions, opponents say they haven't given up. They're threatening to vote against this fall's $970 million school construction bond issue if the district goes ahead with converting schools to year-round. They are also vowing to support only county commission candidates who oppose mandatory year-round schools.

"We're trying to educate the public and the politicians to get it pulled off," said Dave Duncan, co-founder of Stop Mandatory Year-Round, an advocacy group that will lead a protest at the next school board meeting Oct. 3.

School leaders insist that year-round conversions are necessary to keep up with growth; Wake expects 42,000 more students by 2010. Year-round schools can handle 20 percent to 33 percent more students than traditional schools by splitting students into four groups and keeping the building into constant use.

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