Wake County Schools

Four new schools mean more reassignments for Wake County students

The Wake County school board on Tuesday discussed capping enrollment at some schools and changing the calendars at others as they reviewed the first draft of the student assignment plan for the 2018-2019 school year.

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CARY, N.C. — The Wake County school board on Tuesday discussed capping enrollment at some schools and changing the calendars at others as they reviewed the first draft of the student assignment plan for the 2018-2019 school year.

Students must be assigned to four new schools scheduled to open in 2018, which could affect existing base assignments at 30 other schools.

Most of the changes are planned for the southern part of Wake County, where the new schools are located.

This year, though, the changes will get more complex as state legislation calling for smaller class sizes in kindergarten through third grade will mean student enrollment caps at additional schools.

School board chairwoman Monika Johnson-Hostler admits that change will not be easy.

“I think change unfortunately is both inevitable and also really disheartening for families, and so I think that’s going to be the difficulty throughout all of the decisions that we’ll be making over the next couple of months,” she said. "I think Wake County families are unfortunately used to change."

Nobody knows about change more than Laura Evans, senior director of student assignment for the Wake County Public School System. She has been a part of the reassignment process for the past 15 years.

Evans said she was drawn to the job, but the presentation of next year's proposed assignments is her last, as she plans to retire.

"Being a part of all that has been challenging and rewarding," she said.

Evans said she remembers past years when families were facing back to back reassignments, a problem she said the district has worked to fix.

"I think we have become more transparent. I think we made a serious effort to be more family-friendly, if we could," she said.

The school district is now {{a href=”external_link-1”}}accepting feedback about the first draft of the plan online{{/a}} and plans to hold community meetings about the reassignment plans.

A vote on a final plan is expected to be held in November.

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