Wake school plan goes on firing line

Hearings open today at Apex High School on Wake County's student reassignment proposal

Expect the rhetorical fireworks to flare again tonight as parents, students and local politicians opposed to the Wake County school system's complex and much-criticized student reassignment plan attend the first of five public hearings.

A student protest is planned as an overture to the 6:30 p.m. forum at Apex High School, where residents of four neighborhoods along the border between Apex and Cary are expected to voice opposition to the plan reassigning their children to Athens Drive High School, inside the Beltline.

They'll be joined by Cary Mayor Harold Weinbrecht and two Town Council members.

Although their focus is narrow, it represents the anger and frustration a vocal cadre of parents scattered across Wake County feel toward a three-year plan that envisions reassigning more than 25,000 students. That's the equivalent of roughly 18 percent of enrollment.

Parents' chief complaint: Too many kids get bused too many miles from home.

As a result, they say, the support network of parents for schools in their neighborhoods is getting badly frayed by a reassignment plan designed to fill new schools, fulfill the district's diversity policy and meet several other goals. The diversity policy aims to bolster overall academic performance by making sure no school has an overwhelming number of low-income and special-needs students or those with limited English.

Officials of the state's largest school district and their supporters say the plan strikes a reasonable balance between meeting the demands of growth and making sure Wake schools remain academically healthy.

The school board is tentatively scheduled to vote on the plan Feb. 3.