Some Wake students could be reassigned to new schools. Are your children affected?
Hundreds of Wake County students are recommended to be moved to different schools next year to help fill three new schools and ease overcrowding at several existing schools.
Wake County school administrators released Tuesday afternoon the first draft of a plan for filling schools for the 2022-23 school year. Debate over the student assignment plan will likely generate two months of lobbying from families who don’t want their children to change schools.
The public can view the plan at www.wcpss.net/2022enrollmentproposal. People can search if their address is affected at https://wwwgis2.wcpss.net/addressLookup/proposalFirstDraft.
People can provide feedback at an online forum (wcpss.granicusideas.com). School officials say they’ll use the feedback to help make changes for a second draft that will be released Nov. 16.
A final vote on the plan by the school board is tentatively scheduled for Dec. 7.
Diversity in student assignment
Student reassignment has historically been a contentious topic in North Carolina’s largest school system. Families got a reprieve this year because only one new school opened: Willow Spring High School.
School administrators said they balanced four factors (operational efficiency, proximity, stability and student achievement) in developing the new plan. Student achievement is part of Wake’s longstanding efforts to try to balance school populations.
But Wake has found it harder to maintain diversity in school enrollments. The district buses fewer students for diversity reasons than it did a decade ago as more neighborhoods have been reassigned to closer schools to reduce the number of buses needed.
Glenn Carrozza, senior director in the Office of Student Assignment, repeatedly told school board members on Tuesday that some moves would result in students being sent to a closer school. This includes having some Southeast Raleigh students being moved to closer schools than the North Raleigh schools they’re now attending.
Filling three new schools
Much of the new student assignment plan involves filling Apex Friendship Elementary in Apex, Barton Pond Elementary in Raleigh and Herbert Akins Road Middle in Fuquay-Varina. Apex Friendship and Barton Pond are slated to be traditional-calendar schools, while Herbert Akins would open as a multi-track year-round school.
Apex Friendship Elementary is slated to draw students from Olive Chapel and Scotts Ridge elementary schools.
Barton Pond Elementary will draw students from Hilburn Drive Academy and Baileywick, Jeffreys Grove, Lead Mine, Leesville Road, Lynn Road, Sycamore Creek, Underwood and York elementary schools.
Herbert Akins Middle will draw students from Fuquay-Varina and Holly Grove middle schools. Families who prefer a traditional calendar can apply to Holly Ridge Middle.
But a number of other moves in the proposal don’t affect the three new schools because administrators say they needed to ease crowding at some campuses and to help fill some under-enrolled schools.
Overall, the plan affects 34 elementary schools, 15 middle school and 11 high schools.
Easing crowding at schools
Some other moves in the plan include:
▪ Some Fuquay-Varina High students could move to Holly Springs High.
▪ Some Hortons Creek Elementary students could move to Green Hope Elementary.
▪ Some Mills Park Middle students could move to Davis Drive Middle.
▪ Some Panther Creek High students could move to Green Hope High.
▪ Some Abbotts Creek Elementary students could move to Durant Road Elementary.
▪ Some East Millbrook Middle students could move to Durant Road Middle.
▪ Some Leesville Road High students could move to Millbrook High.
▪ Some Oberlin Middle students could move to Leesville Road Middle.
▪ Some Broughton High students could move to Leesville Road High.
▪ Some Pleasant Grove Elementary students could move to Leesville Road Elementary.
▪ Some Northwoods Elementary students could move to Pleasant Grove Elementary.
▪ Some Sanford Creek Elementary students could move to Jones Dairy Elementary.
▪ Some Wake Forest Middle students could move to Rolesville Middle.
▪ Some Rand Road Elementary students could move to Timber Drive Elementary.
▪ Some Wake Forest Middle students could move to Wakefield Middle.
▪ Some Leesville Road High students could move to Sanderson High.
▪ Some Wildwood Forest Elementary students could move to Wilburn Elementary.
▪ Some Abbotts Creek Elementary students could be moved to Brassfield Elementary.
Don’t call it ‘grandfathering’ anymore
Virtual public meetings will be held in October, with a public hearing before the school board on Nov. 30.
Once the plan is approved, Wake will open a “stability transfer period.”
Between Dec. 13 and Jan. 2, some families whose neighborhoods are being reassigned will be able to request to stay at their current school. The “stability transfer” requests will be automatically approved but will result in the students losing district bus service next school year.
For instance, a rising 5th-grade student or a rising 8th-grade student scheduled to be moved to one of the three new schools would be allowed to stay at their current school .
The application period used to be called “grandfathering” by the district. But the period was renamed due to the “racist origins” of the word grandfathering, The News & Observer previously reported.
This story was originally published October 5, 2021 at 3:15 PM.
