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The reaction from other parents was mixed.

"I think they'll have a lot of push-back," said Sharon Greeson, who has children at Apex Elementary and Apex High schools. "There will be a lot of issues for people around scheduling. Vacations will become a nightmare."

Still, Greeson said she sees benefits from a year-round calendar and tried previously to get her oldest child into a school following that schedule. She liked the idea of a shorter summer, more consistent education throughout the year and off-season vacations.

Her children would be on the same calendar -- one in middle and one in high school.

"As long as middle and high schools are on the same schedule, it wouldn't affect me," Greeson said. "I realize the school board has to do something, and financially, this makes the most sense."

The district could avoid converting schools, Dulaney said, by putting $150 million more into the plan to build as many as seven more multitrack, year-round schools. He added that, for at least a few years, year-round conversion would reduce the need to reassign students between existing elementary schools.

That's why Linda Davison, who has a first- and third-grader at Brassfield Elementary in North Raleigh, said she supports the shift. "I'm all for year-round if it means my child can stay at Brassfield," Davison said.

Even having her children on two different schedules once her oldest reaches middle school, she said, would be worth the inconvenience in exchange for stability.

The school district has been under pressure to cut costs since a poll released last month by the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce showed weak voter support for a bond issue. None of three proposed options, which would spend between $1.3 billion and $1.9 billion, got majority support in the poll.

Commissioners Joe Bryan and Herb Council, the swing votes on the board, said they're pleased that administrators cut the plan to less than $1 billion. They said they'd be willing to support putting that amount on the ballot.

To keep costs down, school leaders deferred major renovations at nine schools and the construction of six schools that would have significantly reduced the need for mobile classrooms,

"The proposal manages growth, but it doesn't make things better," Dulaney said.

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

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