Wake parents protest assignment; board considers budget fixes

Cary, N.C. — Parents protested about the Wake County school district's new student assignment plan outside a school board meeting Tuesday, but board members and other district leaders were focused on the budget.

The district has to shave more than $24 million from next year's budget, even though it has $34 million sitting in a rainy day fund.

Superintendent Tony Tata plans to ask the Wake County Board of Commissioners for $9 million to help close the budget gap, but that has not been finalized. In fact, some commissioners have expressed doubt that the county will be able to provide that kind of money in a tight budget year.

But board members remain optimistic.

"I will cross my fingers and toes that commissioners want a first-class system," board Chair Kevin Hill said.

About $1 million from the rainy day fund has already been allocated to help with next year's budget, but the district's Chief Business Officer David Neter said taking any more of those reserves to plug the funding hole would be unwise.

"It would be irresponsible not to maintain a fund balance," Neter said.

The board is expected to vote on the budget May 8.

Meanwhile, parents again filled the public comment portion of the meeting with complaints about student assignment. They say the new assignment policy is more of a lottery than a choice-based plan.

On Thursday, parents who participated in the second round of assignment selection will learn where their children are assigned for the 2012-13 school year.

37 Comments

WRAL.com welcomes your comments on this story. All comments are moderated prior to publication based on our posting guidelines. Please review them prior to posting and if your message is not approved.

VIEW ALL 37 COMMENTS

This story is closed for comments. Comments on WRAL.com news stories are accepted and moderated between the hours of 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Latest Comments

If you think it is bad this year. Just wait until next year. Didnt the board promise there would be no reassignements? New students will be bused and transported all over the county. Students in the southern part of the county may be bused to the northern part. They will have to take whatever they can get. There going to be a lot of very unhappy parents next year.

superman
May 3, 2012 12:50 p.m.

We decided some years ago that we didnt want to have to change our living and didnt want to be bothered by having children. You decided to have yours and now you must deal with all the ups and downs. Sorry if they have changed your life or you have to make changes but that was your choice. Please do not expect any sympathy. Just deal with it. And finally may I remind you that I pay more in taxes to support your childs education than you do. I am sure you dont complain that your child is getting my tax money.

superman
May 3, 2012 12:45 p.m.

We have had our schools changed three times over the years. Each time we accepted the change because we had time to prepare our kids.To make a change within this short a time is crazy. They have assigned our kids to two different schools. We tried to keep our kids on the same calendar for as long as possible and that seems to have been our downfall.Very frustrating to go through all this and tough on the kids!

ncjammin
April 27, 2012 9:27 a.m.

I'm with gopack. I have NEVER lived ANYWHERE that the Board bends over backward to cater to the freakin' whiners who live in this county. Seriously. You CANNOT make all the people happy all the time; it's a fact. The school board is voted in, they need to make the plans based on what is best for the WHOLE SYSTEM not kowtow to whoever whines the loudest. And then once something is adopted, there should be a resolution that it is not allowed to be changed again for a five-year span. NOTHING works properly the first year. It takes time for the transition to happen and for the first bugs to be worked out. But if you're changing it up every 2 freakin' years, you're never going to KNOW what actually works and what doesn't. You'll have what we have now. A mess.

gabi
April 25, 2012 4:37 p.m.

heres an idea..... if you send kids to the schools closest to them, saving all kinds of transportation costs, and then bring the lower performing, socio-economically disadvantaged schools up to par with the best school, while putting absolutely nothing to those better schools until the under achieving schools catch up with them, you wouldnt have tis problem any longer. You would, however, have every parent in cary and every parent in north raleigh screaming discrimination, which would be the funniest thing i ever heard. the way i figure it, the state, the county, and the school district should have seen this coming 25 years ago, and it their fault that it is now to this point. Now it is their responsibility to help the troubled schools, and the children in them, get the funding that they need. If the parents in the "nicer" parts of town want to do things for their school, then they can pay for it.by the way, i am in the so called nicer places to live, lets just be fair.

krankenstein111
April 25, 2012 2:11 p.m.