In bonds, bigger might be better

Some Wake school board members see a paradox in the results of the latest poll

RALEIGH -- Wake County parents may get the chance to vote on a bond issue in November that would not require sending their children to mandatory year-round elementary schools.

Citing a poll done last week for The News & Observer and WRAL-TV, some school board members say they might want to scrap today's vote on a $998 million construction plan that would convert most elementary schools to a year-round calendar.

Even though that poll also showed weak support for a more expensive plan that wouldn't require any year-round conversions, board members say a $1.3 billion option might be their best chance of getting a bond issue passed.

"It's really confounding," school board member Eleanor Goettee said. "The question is: Do we go with a higher bond and fewer year-round schools?"

Other board members, however, say increasing the amount would be a mistake because that would raise taxes even more. The N&O/WRAL poll showed that 52 percent of voters said they'd rather avoid raising taxes no matter how many schools are converted to a mandatory year-round calendar.

"There's a mind set in this county that we don't raise taxes," school board member Ron Margiotta said. "We have to deal with that."

Year-round schooling and taxes are the major issues related to a possible bond referendum in November to deal with a rapidly increasing student population.

A year-round school can hold more students than a traditional one by keeping the building in constant use. Students are divided into four "tracks," with three in school and one off. Students take more frequent breaks during the school year but do not get the long summer vacation that a traditional calendar offers.

Converting more than 50 elementary schools to a multitrack, year-round calendar in 2007 would eliminate the need for six new schools costing $150 million.

But some parents have threatened to vote against any bond issue that would require a widespread conversion of existing schools to a year-round calendar.

More than 100 people attended Monday's meeting of county commissioners and wore green in support of a higher spending plan. The commissioners eventually will consider the school board's proposal and decide whether to put a bond issue on the November ballot.

Hope Carmichael, a Raleigh lawyer speaking for Wake Families for School Choice, an advocacy group, challenged commissioners and the school board to put a $1.3 billion plan on the ballot.

Wake Families for School Choice will hold a protest march at 3 p.m. today at the school system's central administration building before today's vote.

'Go for it'?

"We've heard from a number of people who say, 'Go for it and let the public decide,' " said Patti Head, school board chairwoman. "I'm still wrestling with it."

The latest poll has shaken school and county leaders.

The $998 million plan, which county budget director Johnna Rogers said Monday would eventually cost taxpayers an extra $58.50 a year on a $150,000 home, got only 27 percent support in the poll.

Thirty-three percent supported a $1.15 billion option with no year-round conversions.

The only option that got widespread support, 64 percent, was a $625 million plan that would not increase property taxes but could lead to most elementary and middle schools going year-round, high schools on split sessions and renovations being cut or postponed.

During a meeting Monday with The N&O's editorial board, Superintendent Bill McNeal said he could never recommend a $625 million plan.

"I can't recommend it because it won't provide the level of support children need in this county," McNeal said. "Kids need to be in places where we have adequate facilities, HVAC [heating, ventilation, air conditioning] systems that work and roofs that don't leak. If we don't take care of existing schools, then it's a greater problem later."

School board member Lori Millberg said an option that avoids mandatory year-round schooling might mobilize enough parents for a bigger bond issue to win.

"I don't know if $1.3 billion will pass," Millberg said. "But if $998 million won't pass, why don't we go with what we really want? We clearly don't want to force anyone to go to year-round."

The N&O poll has caused school board members to scramble for alternatives.

Carol Parker, vice chairwoman of the board, is trying to get support for spending $6 million to purchase 75 additional classroom trailers that would be placed at middle schools. That would allow the district to leave some trailers at elementary schools, reducing the number of year-round conversions to 35 to 40 schools.

Margiotta has been pitching a variation of the $625 million plan to avoid a tax increase: that the district build three more elementary schools and come up with the rest of the needed seats by persuading schools to convert voluntarily to year-round.

McNeal said it might be too soon to back away from the $998 million plan. He pointed out that no official campaign in support of a bond issue has begun. He expressed confidence that voters would support a bond issue, notwithstanding the polls.

"I have such an abiding faith in this community," McNeal said.

(Staff writer Ryan Teague Beckwith contributed to this report.)