Schools offer option, warning

Schools up the crowding ante A timetable is set for parents to opt out of year-rounds. But Wake is accused of using scare tactics to prevent switching

RALEIGH -- Wake County school leaders on Tuesday put out dire warnings to parents to keep their children at year-round schools or risk unpleasant consequences if too many insist on a traditional calendar.

A judge ruled last week that students can't be required to attend a year-round school unless parents provide "informed consent."

On Tuesday, the school board finalized a letter that will be sent Friday to parents of more than 30,000 students assigned to year-round and modified-calendar schools asking whether they want to stay.

The system badly wants families to remain because year-round schools help keep pace with growth by holding more students. School leaders warned that, if too many families opt for traditional-calendar schools, overcrowding could put several classes in the same room and some classes in gymnasiums. Schools might have to run two shifts in which some children would come to school early in the morning and others stay until the evening.

"I want to be very frank with the public about what we're sacrificing," school board member Susan Parry said.

Some parents accused the school board of resorting to scare tactics. They hurled words such as blackmail, bullying, disgusting and embarrassing.

"In my opinion you're using coercion and duress to get us to choose year-round," Apex parent Mari-Jane Shaffer said.

Tuesday's meeting was the latest fallout from last week's legal ruling invalidating the district's year-round plan.

Wake CARES, a parents group, had sued to block the system from converting 22 schools to a mandatory year-round calendar. Superior Court Judge Howard Manning Jr. ruled last week that the system can't mandate year-round schools. The school board is appealing the ruling even as it tries to comply.

The school system says it's making attendance at the year-rounds voluntary instead of mandatory. Families who give their consent will stay at the year-round schools. Families who want to leave will be guaranteed a seat in a traditional-calendar school.

The tradeoffs

The school district wants the consent forms back by May 18. But school administrators said they won't be able to tell families which traditional-calendar school children would attend until June. They said they can't tell parents their traditional-calendar options until they know how many have applied and what seats are available.

"The last thing we'd want to do is overcrowd a school," said Chuck Dulaney, assistant superintendent for growth and planning. He said that could harm the quality of teaching and learning.

If too many families want to leave for traditional-calendar schools, Dulaney said, he'd present the school board options for coping with crowding. Examples he cited included:

< Giving up art, music and computer rooms for regular classes.

< Dividing up gyms into four to six classrooms.

< Putting two classes in the same room. For instance, he said the district might have to put 42 kindergarten students in the same classroom, but run them as two separate classes with different teachers.

Several parents came to the board meeting to urge the system to delay the conversions and leave the schools on a traditional calendar until the appeals are completed. They said parents can't give informed consent unless they know all their options, including which school their children would attend if they choose a traditional calendar.

Amy Leinfelder accused the system of trying to scare parents into staying at year-rounds.

"I hope I brought up my children better than to blackmail people to get what they want," said Leinfelder, who has two children at Pleasant Union Elementary School in North Raleigh, which is supposed to be converted.

School board member Beverley Clark argued that parents would know what they are getting their kids into.

"You will be able to go to a year-round school," Clark said. "You will be able to go to a traditional calendar in one of the very best school systems in the country. There are no bad schools here. You have informed opportunities."

Wake CARES could ask Manning to intervene, arguing that the school district isn't legitimately following his court order.

School board member Lori Millberg warned that if the system's efforts to comply with the ruling are deemed illegal, they might have to do a new round of student reassignments.

"There's a possibility we might have a major reassignment plan this summer," Millberg said.

Targeting growth

Also Tuesday, Clark introduced a resolution to have commissioners and municipalities consider developing options such as passing a law like one in Franklin County that links building permits to available space in schools.

The resolution, which will be sent to a board committee, would ask the General Assembly to let Wake County hold referendums on such money-raising plans as raising the sales tax for schools.

"I'm not suggesting a moratorium on growth," Clark said. "But we need to moderate it. The numbers we're facing now are a tsunami."