RALEIGH -- While Wake County school board members continue to debate the long-term student assignment plan, parents are focusing on where their children will attend classes next fall.
Starting tonight and running through next Monday, school administrators will hold four meetings to hear from the public about where they want their children assigned for the 2011-12 school year. If things move on schedule, a final plan for next year could be approved in February.
There are two parallel processes going on.
In the long term, board members are grappling with what to do when the three-year assignment plan adopted by the old board in 2009 expires after the end of the 2011-12 school year. The board, which is attempting to move toward community schools, had been working on a plan to divide the county into 16 assignment zones before it was shelved last month.
The board will discuss Tuesday a proposal from board member Kevin Hill to follow a consensus-building approach to developing a new plan.
In the short term, board members are also weighing how much to change the assignments that were adopted by the old board for the next school term. At least some changes are expected to be recommended by school administrators.
"These are not, as of today, set in stone," Laura Evans, senior director for growth and planning, told school board members last week about the reassignment plan approved by the old board.
Most of the moves slated for next year revolve around sending students to the Walnut Creek Elementary School that is opening in Southeast Raleigh.
Evans said she'll recommend changing some of the moves to address crowding expected at 14 schools next year and because enrollment projections have changed since 2009.
Also, Evans said she'll recommend changing some moves to reflect the policy adopted by the board in May that eliminates socioeconomic diversity as a factor in assigning students. The new assignment policy lists as priorities family choice, stability and proximity of the school to a student's home.
To help gather feedback, administrators are holding four workshops that will allow people to meet in small groups and make suggestions for next year's plan.
Anne Stockdell-Giesler plans to attend the meeting Thursday at Cary High School. The Morrisville mother said she'll ask about moving her subdivision's students out of East Cary Middle School to a closer school.
"If they're going to have neighborhood schools, then I don't want to be the small group that's assigned all the way to East Cary," said Stockdell-Giesler, who has a child who will enter middle school next year.
North Raleigh mother Lori Campoli plans to voice support for keeping her subdivision at Leesville Road Middle School at tonight's workshop at Millbrook High School. Her neighborhood isn't scheduled to be moved, but Leesville Road is one of the crowded schools that administrators say they want to address.
"This is the way they say they want to get input, so I'll be there," Campoli said.
Evans will present a revised plan to the school board Dec. 7. For people who want their suggestions included then, Evans said she'd need to hear them before the Thanksgiving break.
Earlier this month, school board chairman Ron Margiotta had talked about aggressively proposing additional moves for next year's plan to reflect the elimination of diversity from the assignment policy. But with the board bogged down over the long-term plan, Margiotta said Friday that he expects relatively few moves being added.
Margiotta was looking ahead to October, when five of the nine board seats, including his own, are on the ballot.
"It's going to be minimal adjustments," Margiotta said. "Last month's vote is certainly going to slow down the pace until we have another election."
