Changes to the Wake County Student Reassignment Proposal

From scores of public comments in meetings and many more emails, Wake County School leaders made several changes to the student reassignment proposal. The multi-year proposal will fill new schools over the next three years.
Many of the changes have been made in Wake County School Board work sessions. More changes could be on the way as more work session time is planned. A public hearing on the changes has been scheduled for Wednesday, January 28th at 6pm. The public hearing will be for families who have been affected by the changes in the proposal. There is another work session planned directly after the hearing.
The following are the changes made to the reassignment proposal as listed by school system staff as of this posting:

NOTE: Nodes are groupings of households in a geographic area. You can find your assigned node by visiting the Wake County Pubic School System website.

Grandfathering Policy Changes:
As the work session on the multi-year student assignment proposal began, Assistant Superintendent Chuck Dulaney recommended two changes to the Dec. 16 staff proposal presented to the Board of Education. Dulaney recommended:
• Staff recommends that a transfer request for a student be automatically approved if that particular student will be impacted by district assignment decisions twice within a three year period. For example, if a student was in School A as either a base or a calendar applicant and board action changes that student's assignment to School B and then subsequent board action would change the student's assignment to School C after less than three years in School B, a transfer request for the student to remain in School B would be automatically approved.
• Staff recommends that when the "grandfathering" process leads to approval of a transfer for a student and the family applies for a transfer for a younger sibling who has also already begun attending the same school as the older sibling (for example, a rising 1st grade sibling of a rising 4th grade student or a rising 10th grade student assigned to a new high school that has a rising 11th or 12th grade sibling) that the transfer request for the younger sibling automatically be approved.

Changes made prior to public release on December 20:
• Nodes 277.2 and 735.0 should have been recommended for assignment to Heritage High rather than H6 High. This was a coding error when keying information prior to the December 16 board meeting.
• The year was changed for some high school moves associated with the opening of Heritage and H6 to 2010 if they were inadvertently keyed as 2009 or 2011. (This included nodes 206.0, 207.0, 218.0, 219.0, 326.0, 312.5, 322.1, 235.3, 658.0)

Changes proposed by staff after hearing public input at hearings:
• The year-round calendar application school for nine traditional calendar base nodes assigned to Lincoln Heights and Holly Ridge should be changed from Holly Grove Elementary to the new Herbert Akins Elementary. Herbert Akins will provide more capacity for applicants and this should help prevent overcrowding at Holly Grove. Holly Grove currently serves 91 year-round calendar applicants.
• Change the year for moves from lacy Elementary to Root Elementary from 2010 to 2009. This will prevent the loss of staff in 2009 who will be needed if the reassignment is implemented.
• Change the year for moves from Panther Creek to Cary High School originally designated for 2010 to 2009. (The December 16 recommendations spread the reassignment from Panther Creek to Cary over two years.) This will provide more immediate utilization of available capacity at Cary High and has been requested by some of the potentially impacted families but will lead to the loss of some additional staff from Panther Creek when the enrollment is reduced.
• Change the year for the reassignment of node 658.0 from Green Hope High to Cary High from 2001 to 2009. There is no need to delay the reassignment until 2011. This move should align with other moves into Cary High.
• Change the year for the reassignment of nodes 441.1, 441.2, 441.3, 441.4, 442.1, 442.2, 442.3 and 446.0 from Carnage to Dillard Middle from 2010 to 2009. this should help prevent a one year decrease in staffing at Dillard Middle.
• Leave nodes 580.0, 579.0 and 7.0 at Athens Drive rather than reassign them to Cary High School. This impacts less than ten students and not all Reedy Creek Middle nodes can be accommodated at Cary High.
• Leave nodes 161.0 and 231.0 at Forestville Elementary rather than reassigning them to Lockhart Elementary. There appears to be sufficient capacity at Forestville and Lockhart does not need additional students because of anticipated growth. Leave the YR designation for these nodes at Jones Dairy rather then switching it to Lockhart.
• Leave Forestville as the designated Traditional Calendar application school for Barwell Road’s base area rather than changing the traditional calendar application designation to Creech Road.
• Leave 322.1 and 338.1 at Jeffreys Grove Elementary rather than reassigning those nodes to Baileywick Elementary. This impacts only fourteen students, would have minimal impact on either school and the bus would still need to egress onto Creedmoor Road.
• Leave nodes 497.2 and 497.3 at Smith Elementary rather than reassigning those nodes to Middle Creek Elementary. Leave the YR application designation for those nodes at Timber Drive. This will allow more room to accommodate potentially rapid growth in the Middle Creek area but does reduce the percentage of students from low-income families at Middle Creek. Smith can retain these nodes as it develops its magnet program.
• Leave node 448.1 at Middle Creek Elementary rather than assigning it to the new Banks Road Elementary. Maintain the traditional calendar option for this node at Swift Creek. More than 60% of the elementary students in this node come from low-income families and 14% are LEP. This will help the comparability of Middle Creek and neighboring schools. Keep the middle school assignment for 448.1 at West Lake Middle rather than changing it to Holly Grove Middle. (Holly Grove Middle is the recommended middle school assignment for most of the Banks Road Elementary nodes).
• Change the traditional calendar application school for nodes assigned to Vance Elementary and West Lake Elementary to Vandora Springs Elementary (from Smith Elementary) in 2011. This is a change from the December 16th recommendation of Aversboro and provides better balance and availability of traditional calendar seats in the Garner area.
• Leave node 743.0 at Garner High School than reassigning it to Middle Creek High. Change the middle school assignment from North Garner Middle to East Garner Middle rather than reassigning it to West Lake Middle. These changes for this node will eliminate a split of a neighborhood and will impact fewer than ten students.

Changes Made by the Board of Education January 22:
• Recommends same grandfathering policy for Green Hope Elementary as Baucom/Turner Creek because of calendar change. Student would have had to attend Turner Creek or Morrisville. Both schools can move forward with this change in 2009-10.

Changes Made by the Board of Education January 23:
• Leave node 106.0 at Lacy Elementary; all reassignments from Lacy occur in 2009
• Change the traditional application school for Durant Elementary to Lead Mine in 2009.
• Change middle school assignment of two nodes (161.0 and 231.0) we had dropped from Lockhart Elementary and kept at Forestville Road Elementary; leave these nodes at Wendell Middle.
• Leave Brier Creek’s traditional option at Reedy Creek
• Leave node 94 at Conn Elementary instead of assigning it to Underwood
• Move node line to include the two children at Willow Springs who can walk to school and leave them at Willow Springs Elementary
• Pull Daniels Middle to East Cary Middle moves from the plan
• Nodes 381.4, 381.5, 381.6, 381.8 Davis Drive Middle to Salem Middle – move in 2011
• Leave 657.1 and 657.1 at West Cary Middle
• Leave 461.3 and 461.4 at West Lake Middle
• Move node 72 from Moore Square Middle to Martin, not to Carroll

Changes Made by the Board of Education January 26:
• Leave nodes 383.3 and 384.4 at Apex High, rather than assign them to Athens Drive High
• Move node 67.0 from Sanderson High to Enloe High, rather than to Athens Drive High; move node 67.0 to Wiley Elementary from Oak Grove Elementary; keep the middle school; leave the assignment for node 67.0 at Ligon Middle, rather than assign it to Dillard Middle
• Leave nodes 446.0 and 447.2 at Middle Creek High, rather than assign them to Athens Drive High School
• Leave nodes 141.1, 141.2, and 142.0 at Broughton High, instead of assigning them to Green Hope High School
• Leave nodes 206.0, 207.0, 218.0, and 219.0 at East Wake High, rather than assign them to Wake Forest-Rolesville High
• Move node 488.0 from Middle Creek High to Garner High, instead of moving it to Fuquay- Varina High; Move node 488.0 from East Garner Middle to North Garner Middle, rather than to Fuquay-Varina Middle
• Move node 369.3 from Cary High to Panther Creek High, instead of assigning it to Green Hope High
• Assign Oak Grove Elementary as the year-round application school for nodes 67.0 and 145.0
• Split node 237.2; assign the eastern portion of the node from Hodge Road Elementary to Partnership Elementary
• All moves to Root Elementary will occur in 2009
• Reassign year-round application for nodes 275.1, 287.0, 299.1, 299.3, 299.5, 299.6, 299.7, 299.8, 299.9, 300.0, 301.2, 301.3, 699.0, 713.0, and 757.0 from Heritage Middle to Durant Middle
• Reassign to year-round application for node 339.1, 339.2, and 339.3 from Durant Middle to Leesville Middle
• Reassign node 621.0 from Leesville Middle to Daniels Middle; Leesville Middle would be the year-round application school for this node