Which eight Wake County schools could change calendars in 2018?

Thousands of students at eight Wake County schools in Garner and eastern Wake are again facing a calendar change in 2018 that could change when they start and end the school year.

The Wake County school board gave initial approval Tuesday to a proposal that East Wake and North Garner middle schools and Carver, Lockhart, Rand Road and Vance elementary schools switch to a traditional calendar next school year. Student assignment staff also want Lake Myra and Timber Drive elementary schools to become multi-track year-round schools in 2018.

If the board gives official approval Oct. 3, the schools switching to the traditional calendar would open the school year a month later, in late August instead of in late July. Administrators say the calendar change will attract more students to attend those schools, as well as deal with the problem of students missing instructional time.

The six year-round schools that could switch to a traditional calendar now begin in late July. But Deputy Superintendent Cathy Moore said many students don’t show up until late August when traditional-calendar schools open, or even later.

“They have many families that just don’t come to school until traditional starts,” Moore told the school board. “Each year we’re faced with looking at how we resource the schools properly.”

The calendar conversion is being fought by some parents who have largely opposed the change since it was first proposed in February.

“Listen to the voices of these parents and the teachers and all of the volunteers who are in these schools,” Beth Setzer, Rand Road co-PTA president, told board members. “Please listen to them before you make a decision on this and take a vote.”

East Wake, North Garner, Lockhart, Rand Road and Vance use the track 4 year-round calendar, where the school year runs from late July to June 30. Students have three-week breaks after every nine weeks of classes.

Carver uses the modified calendar, which runs from late July to late May. Students get periodic two-week breaks.

Lake Myra and Timber Drive could switch from only offering track 4 to become multi-track schools, meaning they’d hold more students who’d be split into four groups with three in class at all times.

The school board had put the changes on hold in May, saying the district first needed to figure out how it would deal with smaller state-mandated class sizes in kindergarten through third grade. Staff say the eight schools can still change calendars even as the district adjusts to the new K-3 class sizes in 2018.

“Let them stay on this year-round schedule where they thrive while they learn to become good students,” Colleen Roby, co-PTA president at Rand Road, said at Tuesday’s board meeting.

This story was originally published September 19, 2017 at 7:35 PM with the headline "Which eight Wake County schools could change calendars in 2018?."