Wake school administrators say they're basing next year's assignment plan on the assumption that an appellate court will overturn a ruling that requires them to get parental permission to send students to year-round schools.

That's the reason, officials say, that existing year-round schools were still left with many empty seats under the draft reassignment plan released last week. Assuming they win the appeal, they'll fill the year-round schools with many of the students who left.

"We have the available capacity," said Chuck Dulaney, assistant superintendent for growth and planning. "The question is whether the school board will legally be allowed to use it."

The state Court of Appeals is scheduled to hear oral arguments in the case Jan. 9.

Dawn Graff, a co-founder of Wake CARES, the group that sued over year-round schools, questioned why Wake thinks it will win the appeal considering how unsuccessful it has been in court so far.

"It shows the complete arrogance of the school system," Graff said. "It shows their disregard for the judicial process."

Graff is also annoyed the draft reassignment plan doesn't recommend opening any of the new schools on a traditional calendar or reversing the conversions of any year-round schools.

"If they wanted to do something about capacity, they should have made more traditional-calendar seats," said Graff, whose group will hold a news conference today about the reassignment proposal.

Wake school leaders had pitched the conversion of 19 elementary schools and three middle schools to a year-round calendar for this year as a way to keep up with growth. Year-round schools can handle more students than traditional schools.

In May, Superior Court Judge Howard Manning Jr. ruled that the school district can't make students attend year-round schools.

The school district appealed the ruling but agreed to give a traditional-calendar seat to any family that didn't give consent to attend a year-round school.

More than 90 percent of year-round students stayed, but more than 2,500 students left. As a result, several year-round schools have empty seats while many traditional-calendar schools are overcrowded.

When it came time to develop the new reassignment plan, Dulaney said officials decided not to significantly boost enrollment at the existing year-round schools.

The draft reassignment plan calls for moving 6,432 elementary students to different schools next year. The public has through Jan. 1 to provide comments.

The possibility of having to return to a year-round school didn't sit well with Bracha Blanc of Morrisville, who sent her two youngest children to a traditional-calendar school. She wanted to keep her children all on the same schedule because her oldest child attends high school, which is on a traditional calendar.

"This would be really bad for me," Blanc said of being forced to send her children to a year-round school. "It's totally not an option for us."