Wake will recommend changing calendars at up to 8 year-round schools. See where
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Administrators will recommend calendar changes for seven schools with a potential eighth.
- Officials propose converting multiple schools to single-track or traditional calendars.
- The board will review recommendations in May and is tentatively scheduled to vote May 19.
Wake County school administrators on Tuesday will recommend changing the calendars at up to eight year-round schools, which could lead to schedule changes for thousands of students and school employees.
In March, administrators identified 11 year-round schools that they said could benefit from a calendar change. Documentation for Tuesday’s school board facilities committee meeting shows staff will recommend calendar changes for seven of the schools with a potential change for another school.
Administrators were just beginning their presentation to the committee when a power outage resulted in the meeting being postponed.
Here’s a look at the recommendations and the reasons for the potential change:
What’s a year-round school calendar?
Students at year-round schools take short periodic breaks instead of having a long summer vacation. A recurring theme from families and school employees in surveys is the year-round schedule reduces summer learning loss and leads to less burnout.
Wake operates multiple types of year-round schools. In a single-track year-round school, all the students follow the same schedule.
Wake also operates multi-track year-round schools that split the students into four rotating groups, called tracks, with three in session and one on break at all times. The multi-track calendar can increase a school’s capacity by 25% or more.
Wake expanded the use of multi-track schools to keep up with growth. But Wake’s growth is now slowing.
Wake says it can save money by switching schools to a traditional calendar. Some employees are paid less because they don’t work as many months and utility costs are lower when the building isn’t used all 12 months.
All 11 schools Wake identified last month for possible calendar change are multi-track schools.
Options for Heritage Middle, Elementary schools
Administrators want to change the calendar at Heritage Middle School in Wake Forest and potentially adjust the schedule at Heritage Elementary. It could create a situation where the adjoining schools have different calendars.
The options are:
- Option A: Leave Heritage Elementary on a multi-track calendar. The district says it would identify opportunities to relieve crowding at nearby schools by reassigning students to Heritage.
- Option B: Convert Heritage Elementary to a single-track calendar in the 2028-29 school year. The district says this option would make it easier for converting back to a multi-track calendar if more seats are needed in the future.
- Option C: Convert Heritage Elementary to a traditional calendar in the 2028-29 school year.
- All three options have Heritage Middle converting to a traditional calendar in the 2028-29 school year.
Administrators say converting both schools to a traditional calendar would provide K-12 calendar continuity since most students go on to traditional-calendar high schools.
Administrators also say that converting Heritage Middle to a traditional calendar would provide students with equitable access to programs and extracurricular offerings. Opportunities may vary between tracks at some year-round schools.
Changes for Holly Springs year-round schools
Administrators will recommend calendar changes at four Holly Springs schools in the 2027-28 school year:
- Convert Holly Grove Elementary and Holly Grove Middle to a traditional calendar.
- Convert Holly Springs Elementary and Rex Road Elementary to a single track calendar.
Administrators had previously talked about having calendar changes go into effect in the 2028-29 school year to give families and school staff more time to prepare. But officials say converting the schools the 2027-28 school year avoids impacting families and staff with multiple track changes over the next two years.
Changes to northwest Wake year-round schools
Administrators will recommend converting calendars at two of the five multi-track schools it previously identified in northwest Wake:
- Convert Pleasant Grove Elementary in Cary to a single-track calendar in the 2027-28 school year.
- Convert Sycamore Creek Elementary in Raleigh to a single-track calendar in the 2028-29 school year.
- Continue to operate Brier Creek Elementary in Raleigh on a multi-track calendar while looking at ways to reassign students out of the school. District says it may reconsider a calendar change for Brier Creek in the 2029-30 school year or later.
- Continue to operate Carpenter Elementary in Cary and Morrisville Elementary on a multi-track calendar. The district said it would identify opportunities to relieve crowding at nearby schools by reassigning students to Carpenter and Morrisville.
Proposed stability rules
Student assignment staff will recommend a set of what it calls “stability rules” that would impact families if the calendar changes are approved by the school board.
- Students who are assigned to schools changing calendars will remain assigned. But they’ll get priority if they apply for a seat at a year-round school during the transfer application period. The transfer would not come with bus service.
- Students who previously got into a year-round school through the calendar application process can stay without transportation after the calendar change. If they want to stay on a year-round calendar, they’ll get priority during the transfer application period for a seat that doesn’t have bus service.
The calendar application students who need transportation would likely have to go back to their assigned school.
What’s next
The district will get public comments on the recommendations, including an online comment forum, virtual public engagement sessions for families and information sessions with staff at the schools.
Any changes to the initial recommendations would be presented to the school board at a May 5 work session. The board is tentatively scheduled to vote on the calendar changes on May 19.
This story was originally published April 13, 2026 at 12:44 PM.
