Thousands of Wake students could change schools under new plan. Is your child affected?

Thousands of Wake County students may have to change schools next year at the same time the school district may reverse its stance on not opening new schools on a year-round calendar.

Wake County student assignment staff released the first draft of the 2019-20 student enrollment plan Tuesday, setting the stage for three months of lobbying by parents before the school board potentially adopts the plan during Thanksgiving week.

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 first draft also recommends opening Alston Ridge Middle and Parkside Elementary on a year-round calendar instead of on a traditional calendar.

“We were able to help draft a plan that we think helps the district, but also uses feedback from the public to help meet what the public wants and what the district needs in order to be successful as a school district,” said Glenn Carrozza, senior director of student assignment.

Student assignment staff will get public feedback on the proposal before presenting a second draft Sept. 18. Parents can provide public comment online at wcpss.net/enrollmentproposal.

Overall, the plan affects the attendance areas of 41 schools: 21 elementary schools, eight middle schools and 12 high schools.

The plan will likely face complaints from parents who are unhappy with their children being moved. But at Tuesday’s school board meeting, families from the Kitts Creek community in Morrisville said they were happy the first draft calls for sending them to closer schools.

“Thank you for listening to us and providing Kitts Creek with more proximate schools,” said Jo-Ann Mural, whose two grandsons are affected by the plan.

Deepa Ramakrishnan, another Kitts Creek resident, said attending closer schools will allow students to have more time to do things they enjoy instead of riding the school bus.

Wake had expanded sharply the number of multi-track year-round schools, which can hold more students than traditional-calendar schools, in the mid- to late-2000s. But when growth slowed and parents complained, many schools were converted back to a traditional calendar.

In recent years, Wake has opted to only open new elementary and middle schools on a traditional calendar. But due to the continued rapid growth in western Wake, there’s been lobbying from some parents to open more year-round schools.

Last year, parents unsuccessfully lobbied the district to open Buckhorn Creek Elementary in Holly Springs on a year-round calendar. Many of the students came from year-round schools.

Opening Parkside on a year-round calendar would allow it to hold nearly 200 more students in an overcrowded part of the county. Carrozza said Parkside would be severely overcrowded if it opened on a traditional calendar.

“This school is desperately needed in this area,” Carrozza said.

Alston Ridge Middle would be able to hold 312 more students on a multi-track calendar.

Ramakrishnan, the Kitts Creek parent, urged the school board to resist the “overwhelming pressure” they’ll face from some parents to open Alston Ridge Middle on a traditional calendar.

“You will definitely hear an outcry about making it year-round,” she said. “However, you’ll be serving a lot more families by keeping it year-round.”

The recommendation to open Alston Ridge Middle on a year-round calendar means staff isn’t recommending a calendar change for nearby Alston Ridge Elementary, which is one of Wake’s most populous year-round schools.

But at the same time staff want to add some new year-round schools, they’re also proposing changing East Cary Middle School to a traditional calendar. Carrozza cited the difficulty filling the under-enrolled school. In this case he said they’re looking at bringing in students from crowded traditional-calendar schools like Reedy Creek Middle.

Carrozza said his staff also looked at whether to convert Adams Elementary in Cary but opted to recommend leaving it on a year-round calendar. Under the proposed plan, students from Adams would go to Lufkin Road Middle School in Apex instead of East Cary Middle.

The proposal also provided some relief for high school students who feared being moved next year. Staff are only recommending opening Green Level High with freshmen and sophomores after having talked about potentially starting next year with juniors too, in order to relieve crowding at area schools.

“This is a long-awaited high school,” said school board member Christine Kushner.

Some moves are recommended to help ease crowding at overpopulated schools or to fill under-enrolled schools. For instance, staff want to reduce crowding at Davis Drive and Laurel Park elementary schools by moving some students to help fill Salem Elementary.

Some students are being moved at elementary schools due to state lawmakers lowering K-3 class sizes in 2019.

Wake historically allows students in certain grade levels to “grandfather” at their existing school if their neighborhood is reassigned. There won’t be changes in who is eligible in the new plan, but the application window would be moved up to a November/December time frame.

This story was originally published August 21, 2018 at 5:39 PM.