Groups plan protest at next Wake schools meeting

Two groups have filed notice with the Raleigh Police Department that they plan to protest at the next meeting of the Wake County Board of Education. The school board is due to meet Tuesday at 3 p.m. at 3600 Wake Forest Road in Raleigh.

The two groups -- Americans for Prosperity and Bigger Picture 4 Wake -- are on opposite sides of the heated issue about how Wake County students are assigned to schools.

Four new members of the board took office Dec. 1, changing the balance of power. Debra Goldman, Chris Malone, Deborah Prickett and John Tedesco campaigned on a willingness to move away from the district’s policy of busing students to create socio-economic diversity within individual schools. The new board members join Ron Margiotta in support of neighborhood schools.

Four board members remain who supported the diversity measures. In their first act in office, the new members moved to remove Kevin Hill as chairman of the board and elected Margiotta to replace him.

Americans for Prosperity issued a "call to action" on its Web site saying, "members will be taking part in a 'Support change, support the new board rally' before the next school board meeting. We will then attend the meeting as a show of support for the new school board majority."

Bigger Picture 4 Wake lists support for "socio-economic balance in Wake County schools" on its Web site.

On the application for a protest permit, each group indicated it expected a turnout of about 50 people.

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Regardless of the policies implemented, the students who succeed are the ones who get help and support from their parents. Those that don't get such will most likely not succeed regardless of which school they attend.

Parental love and involvement is the key to it all.

br549znc
December 15, 2009 9:56 a.m.

"this is what they were elected to do..the people have spoken"

Exactly...the 99.9% of sane people in Wake county that were opposed to the idiotic policies of the previous board voted for people that support common sense.

4Strikes
December 11, 2009 7:34 p.m.

Forcing your kid to ride a bus 30+ min. each way to school is not going to do a thing for diversity.

Put a stop to these foolish bus programs, it hurts the students instead of helping them.

Same for ESL and free lunches, they move the kids around to cook the books so the numbers look good.

james27613
December 11, 2009 6:45 p.m.

"However no amount of shuffling anyone around will do anything unless more parents get involved with their kids. Its not enough to get involved with the school, you need to be involved as a parent, as a friend, and as a teacher yourself"... xandevalinour

That's the best statement on this topic.

The NAACP has it wrong again. This is bussing for "resources" not socio-economic diversity. Like "liberal," some of you have made "diversity" a bad word. You should know that "those" community schools receive less funding and resources. And to tell the truth, "community schools" sounds good, but it's a back door way to resegregate the schools. Our communities don't reflect the makeup that the schools do now, and some of you know that. However, parental involvement is the true key to academic excellence, not necessarily who your child sits next to.