Schools' magnet status in peril

Wake school board says they have to meet revised criteria in order to keep programs

CARY -- Wake Forest Elementary School and - to a lesser extent - Wendell and Zebulon elementary schools are in danger of losing their longtime magnet programs.

The Wake County school board agreed Monday that the only way those three schools will keep their magnet status is if they begin accepting applications from families outside their attendance areas. But first, the board agreed, they'll have to show under newly revised magnet objectives that they deserve to keep their designations.

"Wake Forest is the one most in jeopardy," warned school board member Lori Millberg, whose district includes all three schools.

Patti Head, chairwoman of the school board, stressed that no decision has been made whether to remove magnet status from any schools. She added that any changes wouldn't begin until the 2008-09 school year and that any eliminations would be phased in over several years.

Those three schools are the last of what used to be a network of "equity magnet schools" located across the county.

When the program was started in 1982, most magnet schools were inside the Raleigh Beltline to lure suburban students. The goal was to fill and integrate those largely empty schools. Students, especially in magnet elementary schools, get classes such as advanced performing arts and foreign languages that aren't offered elsewhere.

To ease grumbling, the school district also made some schools in the other towns equity magnets to give those students the same access to unique classes. Unlike other magnet schools, students don't apply to equity magnets. Students attend by virtue of living in the schools' attendance area.

Over the past 25 years, the school district has taken away the magnet status of most equity magnets, leaving just Wake Forest, Wendell and Zebulon.

Board members said equity magnets are no longer needed because all magnet schools should be evaluated under the same rules.

"They were a political tool," said board member Beverley Clark. "It's like the Mardi Gras party, throwing out the beads."

To keep their magnet status, all schools will be evaluated under three objectives adopted Monday:

•Do they reduce high concentrations of poverty and support diverse populations?

•Do they maximize use of school facilities?

•Do they provide expanded educational opportunities?

Wake Forest is most at risk because its percentage of low-income students is 14 percent, less than half the district average for elementary schools. In anonymous notes written during Monday's work session, several board members said the school doesn't need magnet status anymore.

Wake Forest Elementary Principal Denise Tillery said losing the magnet program would be a major blow. "It would be such a great loss to the school and community," she said.

Millberg said she'll lobby for all three schools to keep their magnet status. She's more optimistic that Wendell and Zebulon elementary schools will keep their programs because their percentages of low-income students are higher than the district average.