Vote on Wake schools plan is coming

Six months after a team of Wake County school administrators began working behind closed doors to develop a new student assignment plan, many questions remain about how it will work.

Nonetheless, Wake's school board is poised to take a vote on the proposal Oct. 18, Wake Superintendent Tony Tata said Thursday.

The hotly debated proposal, if approved, would radically change how the county determines which students attend which schools.

Critics of the proposal argue that the vote would be too soon because the proposal is incomplete.

But leaders of the state's largest public school system say it's important to get a vote on the proposal because they need to give staff enough time to have it ready for the 2012-13 school year.

"It's not going to be rushed, but neither does it need to be delayed," board Chairman Ron Margiotta said. "Staff needs time. It's a major change."

Tata chose the date after meeting with Margiotta and Vice Chairman John Tedesco.

The vote on the proposal would come a week after the Oct. 11 election, when five school board seats are up for grabs. If the board is changed radically, then much of what's approved could come undone.

"Just because there's an election doesn't mean we stop doing the board's business," Tedesco said.

Indeed, many questions still exist about the plan, including whether some neighborhoods would lose current school assignment patterns, and whether the plan can avoid creating low-achieving schools.

Tata said many of the questions will be answered Tuesday when he presents the final version of the plan to the board. He also has shared details of the proposal's evolution with the public since May, making adjustments after getting feedback from the school board, parents and other members of the public.

The board will host a public hearing about the proposal at 5 p.m. Oct. 13 at Broughton High School in Raleigh.

"We feel the plan is pretty close to being done," Tedesco said. "The superintendent feels we're pretty close to being done. The board feels it would be advisable to allow a little more time to hear from the public."

Critics of the Republican board majority say they want a new plan but not at the expense of passing one that's not complete.

"What I have asked is for them to slow down on a plan that hasn't been totally vetted and fixed," said Yevonne Brannon, chairwoman of the nonprofit Great Schools in Wake Coalition. "None of it's been voted on. Nothing is set in stone. We have a plan that seems to be changing daily."

Tedesco and Margiotta said parents and others with an interest in the plan have had plenty of opportunities to have their say. Tata's student assignment task force held 19 public meetings about the proposal.

Changes for families

The new plan would sharply change how families are used to attending Wake schools.

Families would no longer be assigned to a specific school based on home addresses. Instead, families would get a list of schools to choose from, with most being schools closest to where they live.

Administrators have said they expect to give at least 85 percent of the families their top choices in the selection lottery.

Families would begin applying this winter for magnet schools or other schools they'd want to attend next year.

Only families with children entering kindergarten, who are new to the district next year or who want to change their current schools would have to participate in the lottery. Families who want to stay at their current schools next year would be "grandfathered in" and would keep their bus transportation.

The new priorities

The new plan Tata developed reflects Wake's revised student assignment policy. Last year, the board majority eliminated the use of socioeconomic diversity as a factor in student assignment.

Wake schools have used either race or family economic background to balance school populations since busing for integration began in the early 1970s, but the system has been controversial for years.

Tata says the new plan is driven by the priorities of proximity, stability and student achievement.

Critics have said too many elements remain in doubt, including how well the plan will work, especially after a few years pass of grandfathering students in their current schools.

"We have a great opportunity to have a good student assignment plan if we take the time to make sure it works and is cost-effective," Brannon said. "We have to tell the public what it costs."

Under the plan, every elementary school would feed into a specific middle school and a specific high school. But some middle school and high school feeders are different from the ones now in place for some neighborhoods, particularly in North Raleigh.

Tedesco said he expects that staff will resolve many of the concerns about feeder patterns when the plan is presented Tuesday.

Susan Evans, who is running against Margiotta for the District 8 school board seat, said she's worried that the new plan will not do enough to avoid filling schools with low-performing students.

The old student assignment policy addressed this by busing students to prevent schools from having too many low-income students. Poor students are, on average, more likely to have lower test scores than more affluent peers.

Tata would provide every family with the opportunity to apply to a high-performing school, as defined by test scores and teachers' credentials. But those students seeking to attend these schools would rank fifth and sixth on the lottery priority selection list behind people who live closest to the campus.

"I have reservations about whether we should be approving the plan next month," Evans said.