Wake reassignment OK'd, largely intact

Wake school board hears pleas but makes no big shifts in plan to move 6,464 students

RALEIGH -- Despite last-minute appeals by parents, the Wake County school board didn't make major changes Tuesday to a controversial reassignment plan that will move 6,464 elementary students to different schools this fall.

The school board approved the plan with no additional students being dropped. The only change made Tuesday will allow rising fourth-graders reassigned to new schools to be able to stay at their current school if they provide transportation.

School board members stressed the two full days they spent reviewing the plan last month after hearing parents at three public hearings and reading thousands of online comments. The board had dropped 360 students last week.

"We went over the plan at the work sessions," said school board member Patti Head. "If we had any concerns about the plan, we should have resolved them before tonight."

Despite the apparent finality of Tuesday's vote, the reassignment plan might not be done yet. A pending appeal of a court ruling on Wake's use of year-round schools could reopen the reassignment process.

The annual process of reassigning thousands of students to fill new schools, ease crowding at existing schools and promote diversity is usually contentious. But it has reached a higher level this year because of a new policy that says schools in the same areas should have similar percentages of low-income students.

At least 20 percent of the moves in the plan are primarily aimed at changing the percentages of low-income students at schools. This figure doesn't include reassignment where diversity is considered a secondary reason.

Students are also being moved to fill three new schools and ease crowding at existing schools.

In most cases, the plan calls for sending lower-income students to schools in more affluent neighborhoods; in a few instances, students from higher-income families will be moved to schools to help lower their poverty rate.

School leaders have pointed to research that shows that academic performance drops at a school when it has too many low-income students. But critics have complained that the school district hasn't done a study proving that Wake students who are reassigned for diversity actually perform better academically.

"If the policy was so successful you would be shouting the results from the rooftops," said Lisa Phillips, who has been helping other Davis Drive Elementary parents to fight the reassignment plan. "Why are you reassigning students without the proof that it's successful?"

Parents made a final plea to the school board, arguing that balancing the percentages of low-income students at schools doesn't justifying moving children to different schools.

"Instead of focusing time and money to make schools comparable, why not focus on building relationships between families and schools?" said Jody Barish, whose neighborhood is being reassigned from Davis Drive Elementary School in Cary.

Parents whose children are being reassigned out of magnet schools also made a final plea on Tuesday.

The plan moves students out of five magnet elementary schools -- Brooks, Combs, Douglas, Farmington Woods and Powell. The goal is to free more spots for students to apply for those schools through this month's magnet application lottery.

Two types of students attend magnet schools: those who apply through the lottery and those who live in a school's attendance area. The schools targeted have low percentages of magnet application students.

"Please allow our children to complete this wonderful program," said John Nunnally, whose child could be reassigned from Farmington Woods.

Parents asked that children currently at the magnet schools be allowed to stay until they graduate. But the board rejected a motion by Ron Margiotta to grant this request. The board also rejected a request by Margiotta to open Laurel Park and Mills Park elementary schools on a traditional calendar.

This year's reassignment plan doesn't affect middle and high school students. School officials say they limited the plan to elementary students. Later this year, they will begin developing multi-year assignment plans.

The vote on the plan was 7-1, with Margiotta dissenting.