Wake school enrollment up less than expected

RALEIGH -- Enrollment in the Wake County school system grew rapidly this year, but the number of new students fell 2,000 below projections, according to statistics released today.

The school system has 134,002 students -- 5,930 more than last year -- making it the state's largest.

But school leaders had projected enrollment would grow by 8,014 students when they pushed forward with the conversion of 22 schools to a year-round calendar this summer.

School and county planners who jointly develop the projections will review the data to see what they can learn and revise projections for the future, school officials said in a news release.

The figures are based on the number of students enrolled on the 20th day of classes, in late September. That is the number reported to the state. Since then, however, 600 more students have enrolled.

Wake County moved up to two spots, past Charlotte-Mecklenburg and Prince George's County in Maryland, to become the 19th largest school district in the nation.

Enrollment in the Wake schools has grown by more than 30,000 students in the past five years. But the fact that it fell short of projections could invite criticism from people who were upset by the year-round conversions.

The conversions led to a lawsuit in which a judge ruled that Wake had to get parental consent to assign students to year-round schools. As a result, some year-round schools are under-enrolled while some traditional-calendar schools remain crowded this fall.

Wake wasn't the only school system where growth fell short of projections. Similar shortfalls took place in school districts across the state and nation. For instance, Charlotte-Mecklenburg picked up 3,270 students this year, or 1,961 fewer than expected.

The shortfall in Charlotte-Mecklenburg led one Mecklenburg County commissioner to try, unsuccessfully, to get the school district to give back $11 million in funding.

Tony Gurley, chairman of the Wake County Board of Commissioners, said the board can't legally force the schools to return more than $4 million in funding that exceeded the county allocation of $2,172 per student.

But Gurley said commissioners might ask the schools to give back the money voluntarily.

In prior years, commissioners have given the school system extra money when enrollment turned out to be much higher than expected.

Since then, school and county staffers have jointly developed the enrollment projections. Previously, only the county came up with the numbers.