CARY - Parents frustrated about student reassignments are expected to urge the Town Council tonight to look into breaking away from the Wake County school system.

Town leaders are downplaying the secession talk, saying they want to try to work with the school system before pursuing a radical step that would require state legislative approval.

But town leaders face a burgeoning revolt from parents who hate reassignment and feel their children's needs would be better served by a separate Cary or western Wake school system.

"Wake County is too large, and I'd be in support of breaking it up," said Michelle Gaddy, a Cary parent who expects to attend tonight's meeting. "It's absolutely ridiculous that the towns have no control over the schools."

Gaddy's children are amo ng the 6,464 elementary students who are being reassigned this fall.

The crowd of parents is expected to be so large that town leaders moved up the public comment section of the meeting.

The meeting tonight is the latest example of how dissatisfaction with Wake's student assignment policies is spreading around the county.

Some Cary parents resent how low-income students are bused from Raleigh to diversify the schools. Others resent worrying each year that their children will be moved to a different school -- for diversity, to fill new schools or to help ease overcrowding caused by growth.

Parental anger escalated this year because of a new school board policy that calls for schools in the same area to have similar numbers of poor students.

Cary parents point to how elected officials in Apex and Garner have been vocal about criticizing the school board's assignment policies.

"I want them to stand up and do something," said Paula King, a Cary parent whose children are being reassigned this year. "By saying nothing, they're implying that they agree with the school board's decisions."

But the meeting is also taking place on the same day that the Wake Education Partnership is expected to release a report backing Wake's diversity policy.

"This school district belongs to everybody," said Ann Denlinger, president of the Wake Education Partnership, a nonprofit advocacy group.

Critics such as Cary Town Council member Don Frantz support breaking up the school system, which is the product of a 1976 merger of the old Wake County and Raleigh City schools. But Frantz acknowledged that it would be hard to get the General Assembly to do this.

He's more hopeful of getting legislators to change the structure of Wake's school board so that some members are elected at large instead of by district. Voters currently may cast ballots only on the board seat for the district in which they live.

For now, Frantz is pushing the council to agree tonight to hold a session for Wake County municipal leaders to discuss assignment policies.

"If they choose not to listen to us, we can pursue more drastic measures," Frantz said.

For decades, the state has urged school districts to merge in the name of efficiency. There are 115 school districts for the state's 100 counties. In the Triangle, only the Chapel Hill-Carrboro school system is not part of a county district.

Cary Mayor Harold Weinbrecht argues against breaking up the school district, saying it would be too expensive for town taxpayers to build new schools or buy those now owned by Wake.

Rosa Gill, chairwoman of the Wake school board, said she'll listen to parents but isn't too worried that a breakup would be approved by the state.

"They may be dreaming, but we'll certainly listen to them," Gill said.

(Staff writer Kinea White Epps contributed to this report.)