Wake pulling up the welcome mat at some schools because of new class-size rules

More than two-dozen Wake County elementary schools will stop accepting new transfer students and potentially make other changes to try to meet new state class-size limits that go into effect in 2018.

Wake County student assignment staff said Tuesday they plan to close 25 elementary schools to new transfer students as part of an effort to help them meet smaller state-mandated class sizes next year in kindergarten through third grades. Some schools will also need other strategies, including kicking out some current students and barring newly arriving families from enrolling even if they live right next to the campuses.

School leaders said Tuesday that they’re only taking these approaches because state lawmakers are requiring average K-3 class sizes to drop from 21 students last year to roughly 17 children starting next school year.

“We’re struggling because effectively the state legislature dropped the capacity of every one of our elementary schools by about 100 students,” said school board member Jim Martin.

Wake is in a bind because the lower state-mandated class sizes will require the district to create space for the equivalent of 9,500 seats, or 14 new elementary schools. Superintendent Jim Merrill sent a letter last week to Wake County members of the state legislature asking for help with the new K-3 class sizes.

Principals at the majority of Wake’s 113 elementary schools say they can meet the smaller class sizes by taking steps next year such as converting art and music spaces to regular classrooms and increasing class sizes for older children.

But principals at 27 elementary schools say even after using those options they will need more help. Some of the strategies that will be used are handled by staff. In addition to closing 25 of the schools to transfers, staff plans to:

▪ Reduce how many new magnet students are accepted into Combs, Douglas, Hunter, Joyner, Kingswood and Wendell elementary schools;

▪ Reduce how many new year-round students are accepted into Brier Creek, Carpenter, Oak Grove and Sycamore Creek elementary schools.

▪ Remove the 122 transfer students who attend Jeffreys Grove Elementary School.

Parents from Jeffreys Grove waved signs and urged school board members Tuesday to use a different option than removing a quarter of the school’s students.

“We want to work with you to find alternative solutions to this situation,” said Ann Mailly, Jeffrey Grove’s PTA president. “We are a motivated group of parents willing to take on the responsibility of solving the unfunded class-size reduction mandate.”

Some of the strategies will still need a school board vote, including putting enrollment caps and moving out some existing students from those 27 schools.

Staff want to put enrollment caps on eight schools: Baileywick, Carpenter, Combs, Harris Creek, Olive Chapel, Sycamore Creek, Vance and Willow Springs.

If a school that’s capped hits a certain number of students, families who move into the school’s attendance area after a specific date are sent to a school that’s farther away that has more space.

If approved Oct. 3, the new enrollment caps for those eight schools would go into effect this school year and likely would remain in place next school year.

The school board will also need to vote on recommendations included in the new student assignment plan to move hundreds of students who successfully applied to a year-round school or a traditional-calendar school. To help some of the 27 schools get class sizes down, Wake wants those students who go in through a calendar application to go to another school with more room.

School board member Kathy Hartenstine said all the time they’re spending on the issue is taking time away from the district’s focus on teaching and learning.

“We’re spending all of this time trying to figure out how we can seat so many students when we don’t have the seats and what we want to be talking about is teaching and learning,” she said..

This story was originally published September 19, 2017 at 6:47 PM with the headline "Wake pulling up the welcome mat at some schools because of new class-size rules."