Wake opens door to reverse year-round schools

RALEIGH -- Citing the slowdown in growth, the Wake County school board asked staff today to come up with a scenario for rescinding some of the calendar conversions that put 22 schools on a year-round calendar in 2007.

School leaders had justified the conversion of the 22 schools, which prompted angry debate and an ongoing lawsuit, as a necessary step to keep up with record growth.

But with enrollment figures for this year potentially 2,000 students lower than expected for a second year in a row, school board members said it might be time to put some of those schools back on a traditional calendar.

"We can't look as year-round schools as a failure because the numbers came in under projection," said school board member Horace Tart. "What we're trying to do is realign our plan and adjust now that we realize what the numbers are."

While school board members said they could see reversing a few of the conversions, they didn't indicate they'd be in support of dropping all of them.

The school board is reconsidering the conversions because they're discussing what should be included as part of a bond issue for school construction that could be on the ballot in 2009.

Chuck Dulaney, assistant superintendent for growth and planning, said it could take 16 to 62 new schools to open by 2015 to keep up with growth depending on how many year-round schools are used. Year-round schools can hold more students than traditional-calendar schools by putting the building in constant use, thereby reducing construction costs.

The board asked Dulaney to look at the impact of different scenarios, including:

* Reversing some of the conversions, along with recommendations on which schools could be put back on a traditional calendar.

* Maintaining the same ratio of year-round and traditional-calendar schools by opening some new schools on both calendars.

Dulaney will come back with more information next month. The board wants to come up with an answer soon because it will influence the recommendations in the multi-year assignment plan that will be released later this year.

Wake's ability to assign students to year-round schools has been limited by a lawsuit that requires the school district to get parental consent.

More than 2,000 students didn't give consent this year.

With enrollment also having slowed, many year-round schools are significantly under capacity and have fewer students now than when they were on a traditional calendar.

School board member Lori Millberg said they might have underestimated the impact of converting several schools in an area. The conversions heavily impacted Knightdale and Apex, where 75 percent of elementary schools are on a year-round calendar.

"The schools are empty," said Millberg, whose district includes Knightdale. "On paper we may have needed the capacity."

Board members also said that the conversions have made it hard for middle schools to offer electives.