Members of the Wake County school board majority have said they intend to create no high-poverty schools under a new student assignment plan.
On Tuesday, John Tedesco, architect of the developing plan, had a hard time answering questions about how the system would avoid concentrations of low-income students.
Tedesco said that poverty levels would be considered when zone lines are drawn but that they would not be used in assigning individual students. He also said the board will discard as a guideline the former practice of using a student's eligibility for free or reduced price meals.
If a high-poverty school is not attracting enough students, he said, the system would look at means to make that school more desirable.
Carolyn Morrison, a member of the board's minority, said she was unconvinced. "I'm going to keep at John," she said.
Massachusetts educational consultant Michael Alves, in town to discuss the "controlled choice" approach of student assignment, told the committee that zones should reflect Wake County as a whole.
Controlled choice attempts to offer choice while maintaining ethnic and racial integration. Controlled choice plans do away with neighborhood attendance districts in favor of allowing parents to choose schools within zones.
"What's most important is that the zones are diverse and that they have equal quality of education," Alves said.
