Some Wake students could move to other schools in 2024. Are your children affected?
Hundreds of Wake County students could be moved to different schools next year, with some students also being required to change to a year-round calendar.
Wake County school administrators presented Tuesday the first draft of a student assignment plan to fill schools for the 2024-25 school year. Among the recommendations is to open the new Woods Creek Elementary School in Holly Springs on a multi-track year-round calendar and populate it with students from Apex, Holly Springs and Oak Grove elementary schools.
Some students, particularly from downtown Raleigh and Southeast Raleigh, are in line for shorter commutes under the new plan. Those historically lower-income neighborhoods had been bused for decades to more distant schools for diversity reasons.
“I really feel you have honored the request that we had around making sure that we were mindful of residents of Southeast Raleigh who had a commute that was very long,” Southeast Raleigh school board member Tara Waters told student assignment staff on Tuesday.
View the assignment plan
In total, the plan calls for moving students out of 21 different schools. The exact total on the number of students who could be reassigned usually isn’t provided until later versions of the assignment plan.
The public can view the plan at wcpss.net/2024enrollmentproposal. People can search if their address is affected at osageo.wcpss.net/enrollment-proposal-2425-draft1.
People can provide feedback at an online forum (wcpss.net/draft1feedback). School officials regularly say they use the feedback to help make changes for a second draft, which will be released Oct. 17.
Under the proposed timeline, the school board will hold a public hearing Nov. 8, with a final vote scheduled for Nov. 21.
Growth picking back up
Student reassignment has historically been a contentious topic in North Carolina’s largest school system. Last year, some families fought a plan that moved 1,769 students for the 2023-24 school year.
Wake appears to have recovered from enrollment losses suffered during the pandemic. Some initial Wake enrollment numbers have the district at 161,946 students — more than 3,500 children over last year and above the pre-pandemic high of 161,907 students.
Over the years, one of the ways Wake has dealt with growth is to put some schools on a multi-track year-round calendar, which can increase its capacity by more than 20%.
Students are split into four groups, or tracks, operating on their own schedules of nine weeks of classes followed by three-week breaks.
Some families don’t like the alternative calendar. But Susan Pullium, senior director for student assignment, said a focus group with western Wake parents said they preferred the year-round calendar as a solution for crowding.
By opening Woods Creek on a year-round calendar, it will be able to handle more than 900 students.
Woods Creek is currently being used to temporarily house students from Baucom Elementary while their campus in Apex is renovated.
Impact of bus driver shortage
Student assignment is based on a combination of four factors: operational efficiency, proximity, student achievement and stability. Student achievement is part of Wake’s longstanding efforts to try to balance school populations.
But an ongoing shortage of bus drivers has led Wake in recent years to reassign more students to schools closer to where they live. That’s continuing this year, as well as leading to the proposed elimination of transportation as an option for families at 22 schools who want to go to a school on a different calendar.
“We’d be remiss if we did not say some of the recommendations are in place to support our need for transportation efficiency,” Pullium told the school board.
School board member Lynn Edmonds said they need to be mindful of the impact on schools of sending those Southeast Raleigh students to schools closer to home. Pullium said they’ve had that talk with principals.
Some of the proposed moves include:
▪ Move some students from Carpenter Elementary in Cary to Combs and Olds elementary schools in Raleigh.
▪ Move some students from Alston Ridge Middle in Cary to Centennial and Martin middle schools in Raleigh.
▪ Move some students from Leesville Road and Southeast Raleigh elementary schools to Hunter, Joyner, Powell and Underwood elementary schools in Raleigh.
▪ Move some students from Centennial and Leesville Road middle schools in Raleigh to Ligon and Martin middle schools in Raleigh.
▪ Move some students from Durant Road Elementary in Raleigh to Partnership Elementary in Raleigh.
▪ Move some students from Durant Road Middle in Raleigh to Moore Square Middle in Raleigh.
Pleasant Grove changes
In what Pullium calls a bold move, they’re recommending moving a large portion of the neighborhoods assigned to Pleasant Grove Elementary in Morrisville. They’d fill the open seats at Brier Creek and Leesville Road elementary schools in northwest Raleigh.
This in turn would let them relieve overcrowding at Alston Ridge Elementary in Cary and Parkside Elementary in Morrisville by moving whole neighborhoods to Pleasant Grove.
School board vice chair Chris Heagarty said making Pleasant Grove’s assignment area more compact could ease the transportation problems affecting the school.
Stability transfers
Once the plan is approved, Wake will open a “stability transfer period,” or what used to be called “grandfathering.” This is an option that allows some students who are being moved to stay at their current school in exchange for losing bus service.
The proposed stability rules will vary depending on what school a student is trying to avoid attending next year.
▪ Rising fourth- and fifth-grade students being reassigned to Woods Creek Elementary can stay at their current elementary school if they provide their own transportation. In addition, their younger siblings will be able to stay with them at their current school.
▪ The proposed Woods Creek transfer rules would also apply to students who are being reassigned into or out of Pleasant Grove Elementary.
▪ Excluding Woods Creek and Pleasant Grove, all other students who are being reassigned can stay at their current school if they provide their own transportation. Rising kindergarten, sixth-grade and ninth-grade students can also request to stay with their sibling to avoid being reassigned.
This story was originally published September 19, 2023 at 5:55 AM.
