Year-round conversion funds held

Wake Commissioners split on party lines in refusal to fund year-round school shifts

Wake County will not pay for year-round school conversions, but the school board says it will press ahead anyway.

In a 4-3 vote along party lines, commissioners approved more money for renovations and mobile classrooms Monday, but they specifically withheld $4.7 million requested by the school district to convert some schools to year-round calendars.

By the same margin, they also decided to freeze leftover bond money recently found in the school budget.

The votes were the latest skirmish over year-round calendars, in which some students have shorter vacations throughout the year instead of a long summer break. Opponents say the calendar is disruptive to families.

In January, commissioners voted to pull the money for year-round conversions as well as renovations that wouldn't create more seats. After criticism from parents at the schools slated to be renovated, they decided to add that money back in.

But on Monday, the four Republican commissioners voted against adding the money for conversions back as well, saying they wanted to force the school board to come up with alternatives for parents who do not want their children on the calendar.

"All I want to do is make sure parents have those options," said Commissioner Tony Gurley.

The board's three Democrats said that the move was improperly interfering with the school board's responsibility under state law to set attendance policies for students.

"I think we've overstepped our bounds," said Commissioner Betty Lou Ward.

The money comes from a $970 million school bond approved in a November referendum.

The fight is by no means over.

Several school board members vowed to press ahead this summer with the conversions, which they say are necessary to ensure there are enough classroom seats for the increase in students this year.

The school district projects that about 32,000 more students will enter the system by 2010.

More delays feared

School board member Carol Parker said that dropping the conversions would mean rewriting the entire student reassignment plan on short notice. That would make it difficult to meet the state's May 15 deadline for the school district to tell parents where their children will go to school this fall.

"The problem I have with redoing the whole thing is that it means delaying the assignment process," she said.

It is not clear how the school board would pay for the conversions.

Traditionally, the school board asks commissioners for permission before spending money on construction or renovation. If it chose to spend the money anyway, commissioners might sue and have the contract declared invalid.

Alternately, the school board could sue the county, demanding it release the money.

A group of about 60 parents and school supporters took turns applauding as commissioners discussed the funding during their regular meeting Monday afternoon.

"The Wake County school board has asked you to fund a program that has been a proven failure around the country," said Lisa Ellison, a Cary parent of three who opposes year rounds.

But Tammy Howard Stupy, a first-grade teacher at Holly Springs Elementary, said that the commissioners' decision would cause continued overcrowding at her school, hurting students' education.

"It's unbelievable that we aren't going to have this money appropriated to us right now," she said.

In a separate 4-3 vote, commissioners decided to freeze $13 million that had been set aside for managing the construction and renovation projects.

After pressure from Commissioner Kenn Gardner, Don Haydon, the school district's vice president of facilities, admitted in a letter to the commissioners that the school district had set aside too much money for project management.

Gardner said he wanted to make sure the school board did not spend the money on something else without approval.

The board's Democrats said the vote was unnecessary because the school board could not spend the money without their permission anyway.

(Staff writer T. Keung Hui contributed to this report.)