‘Consider these sweet children.’ Wake families object to school reassignment plan.
Parents pleaded Tuesday for Wake County school leaders to give their families stability by not reassigning their children to different schools, which will move them away from their friends and classmates.
The Wake County school board will vote Dec. 3 on a student assignment plan. School system staff say the changes are needed over the next two years to fill new and under-enrolled schools and to reduce crowding at existing schools.
But at Tuesday’s public hearing, more than 30 parents urged school leaders to consider the human impact of the reassignment changes.
“I just ask that you consider these sweet children when you’re doing this and not just the maps and the numbers, because it affects our families,” said Mindy Varkevisser, a Cary parent whose children would be reassigned from Highcroft Elementary to Turner Creek Elementary.
Parents can find out more about the plan and see whether their address is included at wcpss.net/2020enrollmentproposal. Parents can post comments on the district’s online forum at bit.ly/2mJQre6.
School officials say the majority of the moves are associated with filling South Lakes Elementary, which opens in Fuquay-Varina in 2020, and Willow Spring High, opening in 2021.
The plan has drawn complaints from some parents about their children being moved to schools that are further away, on a different calendar and potentially also have lower test scores. School officials told parents not to judge schools based on a single letter grade or test scores.
Some changes to the plan already have been made, when staff proposed revisions earlier this month. But for the parents speaking at Tuesday’s meeting, the changes fell far short.
“Many of us in my part of Wake County — the Mills Park, the Highcroft and White Oak bases — have found ourselves caught in the never-ending process of reassignment, a process that should be rare and produce long-term solutions,” said Nathan Green, an Apex parent. “But it seems to be a continual exercise of shuffling things around and hoping they stick.”
Assignment stability
One of the largest groups of speakers Tuesday included families fighting the reassignment of children from Highcroft and White Oak elementary schools and Mills Park Middle School. The reassignment is meant to reduce crowding at those Cary schools but would require families to switch to attending year-round schools.
Unlike traditional-calendar schools that have long summer vacations, year-round schools have shorter breaks scattered throughout the school year. Parents complain the calendar switch will force them to change their lifestyles.
“We chose traditional school for a reason, for my kid,” said Priya Lingam, an Apex parent. “It works well for her. I take her on summer vacation.”
The speakers also questioned the district’s data used to create the assignment plan. Instead of moving their children, they suggested moving students and communities that haven’t been around as long as their neighborhoods.
“Let’s try to stop the unending cycle of rezoning children and uprooting families’ lives,” said Tara McMahon, an Apex parent. “Let’s try and work together and give our children the stability they need and that they deserve.”
Another large group objected to the proposal to reduce crowding at Holly Springs High by moving students to Fuquay-Varina High. Speakers argued that the change to Fuquay-Varina High, a school that’s farther away, will put teen drivers at risk.
“We listen to the bands,” said Susan Morgan, a Holly Springs parent. “We listen to the games from our homes a short distance away. We ask you keep us at our most proximate school.”
Several speakers objected to a proposal to move their children from Fuquay-Varina Middle School to West Lake Middle School. Bonnie Duncan, a Willow Springs parent, said school leaders should consider the challenges that reassignment has on children in middle school.
“My son is not just a bean to be counted,” Duncan said. “I ask that you not ignore these giant ripple effects that extend into our households.”
This story was originally published November 19, 2019 at 9:25 PM.
