Thousands of Wake students will change schools next year. Is your child affected?

Wake County school board members tried to reassure parents Tuesday that their concerns were heard even as they approved a plan that could cause 5,600 students to change schools next year over the objections of some families.

The board voted 7-1 for a plan that school officials say is largely focused on filling four new schools, relieving crowding at existing schools, filling under-enrolled schools and to a lesser degree balancing school test scores. The vote came came after three months of lobbying from parents to get their children removed from the 2019-20 assignment plan.

“It’s Thanksgiving week, so while it’s hard to be grateful when we’re impacting families directly, it’s important that people know that we are always truly lamenting over the decisions and the impact that it has to families,” school board chairwoman Monika Johnson-Hostler said Tuesday. “And none of us take this lightly, including staff.”

Families can go to www.wcpss.net/enrollmentproposal to see if their address is being moved.

Reassignment is an annual struggle for the growing school district because while some families look forward to changing schools, others aren’t happy about the disruption the move will cause.

While school officials said 5,600 students are affected by the plan, that’s only 3.5 percent of the district’s enrollment. Additionally, some of those students will be able to “grandfather” at their current school if they file paperwork within the next month and provide their own transportation next school year.

Much of the plan involves filling four new schools: Green Level High and Alston Ridge Middle in Cary, Parkside Elementary in Morrisville and Southeast Raleigh Elementary. The plan also opens Alston Ridge Middle and Parkside Elementary on a year-round calendar and converts East Cary Middle to a traditional calendar.

Some parents have been successful over the past few months getting changes, such as dropping the reassignment of students from Davis Drive Middle to East Cary Middle and from Green Hope High to Apex High.

Parents speak out

Dozens of parents and students had spoken out against the plan at past board meetings. On Tuesday, a handful of parents and their children from the Cameron Pond community in Cary made an unsuccessful last-minute plea to not change schools next year.

“We’re fighting for our children and that means the world to us, and if we didn’t have passion and we didn’t take this opportunity to express how important their education is to us that’s what you’re here for,” said Brenda Nichols, a Cameron Pond parent.

“You need to hear this feedback. We’re here for our kids and we’re trying to do right by them.”

School officials say they need to move Cameron Pond as part of an effort to relieve crowding at Mills Park Elementary and Mills Park Middle.

In a separate move Tuesday, the board added to the plan the reassignment of some undeveloped parcels of land out of Mills Park Middle and Oakview Elementary. When families eventually move into those growing areas they’ll be sent to schools that are further away but have more space.

One of the challenges for families this year is that many of the students affected live in District 7, which hasn’t had a board member since Kathy Hartenstine died on Sept. 23. Other board members have met with families from there.

“All of us carry a sense of responsibility for the entire county, whether Ms. Hartenstine is at this table or not,” said board member Bill Fletcher. “We all very much appreciated her commitment to her constituents.”

Board member Don Agee, who is leaving this month after not running for re-election, cast the lone dissenting vote against the plan. He said student assignment is a case of playing let’s make a deal with families.

“There’s no clear feeling of stability,” he said.

This story was originally published November 20, 2018 at 8:05 PM.