Wake County has revised the student reassignment plan. See what’s different
A handful of changes are recommended in a plan that would move hundreds of Wake County students to different schools next year.
Wake County school administrators released Tuesday the second draft of a plan for filling schools for the 2022-23 school year. Administrators said the plan included changes suggested by parents after the first draft was released in October.
“I really want to reiterate for families: This process is not done,” said Glenn Carrozza, assistant superintendent for school choice, planning and assignment. “We’re still collecting feedback. We still have a lot of feedback that we are reviewing and analyzing that has been sent to us.”
The public can view the assignment plan at www.wcpss.net/2022enrollmentproposal.People can search whether their address is affected at https://wwwgis2.wcpss.net/addressLookup/proposalSecondDraft.
People can provide feedback at an online forum (wcpss.granicusideas.com). A public hearing will be held by the school board on Nov. 30. Student reassignment historically brings intense reactions from families over changing schools.
The final draft will be presented to the school board on Dec. 7, with the vote scheduled for that day.
Changes in new assignment plan
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. But other moves involve easing crowding at existing schools.
Here are the changes from the first draft:
▪ Add Brier Creek Elementary as the year-round school option for Barton Pond Elementary families.
▪ Have all of the Hawthorne neighborhood go to Barton Pond Elementary instead of leaving part at Baileywick Elementary.
▪ Have all of the Bartons Creek Bluff neighborhood go to Barton Pond Elementary instead of leaving part at Sycamore Creek Elementary.
▪ Move an area that has no students from Pleasant Grove Elementary to Leesville Road Elementary.
▪ Move the Umstead Park area from Oberlin Middle and Broughton High to Leesville Road middle and high schools.
▪ Add Wakefield Elementary as a traditional-calendar application school for Durant Road Elementary families.
In addition, Carrozza said he’ll recommend in January potential calendar changes for some year-round schools.
Should neighborhoods be split?
Multiple parents have urged Wake to not split neighborhoods when reassigning students. Carrozza said they were able to achieve that in some cases, such as the Barton Pond changes, because those involved fewer students than the other neighborhoods.
But board member Roxie Cash said this could hurt Baileywick, which is losing students now to nearby charter schools.
“I was just kind of disappointed there’s more families going out of Baileywick that we need at Baileywick,” Cash said.
Cash said she didn’t want the opening of Barton Pond to hurt the schools it will draw students from. Cash said she wants to avoid a repeat of how the opening of new schools in the past have negatively affected other schools.
Board member Chris Heagarty defended the Barton Pond moves, saying it will bring relief to several crowded schools.
Wake was expecting far more students in Raleigh, including near where Barton Pond Elementary is located on Strickland Road, when the site was purchased. Carrozza said it will be more difficult trying to keep all the schools in that part of Raleigh filled.
“We need to continue to look at why are parents making certain choices that they are,” Carrozza said. “How do we analyze the choices that they have, because every choice that we give to parents gives them another option to not go to where we need them to go to in order to fill the schools “
This story was originally published November 17, 2021 at 10:40 AM.
