Apex Parents Have Different View of Year-Round School Debate

Apex, N.C. — Dozens of Wake County parents have voiced their displeasure over their children going from a traditional school calendar to a year-round school calendar, but several parents at one Apex school are seeing their schedules turned upside down in a different way.

The parents of rising sixth-graders want their children to make the short walk from West Lake Elementary School to West Lake Middle School, but since it would not be the students' base school, there is a chance their kids will be placed on a traditional calendar as part of the new reassignment plan.

Many parents said they have fallen in love with the year-round lifestyle.

"So now to say that we've got to go traditional -- after hearing all these traditional parents, saying we want to stay traditional -- that's just hard," said parent Shery Buser.

West Lake Middle School Principal Dr. Gregory Decker also knows the district has to make room for 8,000 new students next year.

"I'm very sympathetic to what is going on here," he said. "Parents are comfortable with what they have. You're going to have the year-round people that want to stay year-round and the traditional that want to stay traditional because change is tough."

According to Wake County schools, families will be notified of the results from their magnet and calendar applications and their track assignment (if year-round) on March 15.

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As a student from the year-round school system 10-15 years ago, I really enjoyed the schedule. I liked that we had breaks scheduled throughout the year so we wouldn't get burned out. Also, I think there is more opportunity to take different kinds of vacations during the non-summer months because the rates are cheaper if you take a vacation in non-peak months like November or Febrauary rather than July. And all tracks have a vacation period during the warm months plus the 4th of July week off. I don't understand why people are stuck in the traditional calendar - this is for the kids!

rachel_elizabeth
March 7, 2007 10:34 a.m.

El Doggo, you're not kidding. Most of the time, I'm more interested in the commentary that follows the stories than the reports themselves. Since I don't have kids in school in this area, this whole thing is more than I can wrap my head around. Things are certainly much, much different from my own school days!

Warden
February 27, 2007 5:21 p.m.

Ok, Warden. I missread your message anyway. I thought you were referring to all of the grousing being done here. From these messages you can get a better pulse of the situation than from the news stories - sometimes

El Doggo
February 27, 2007 4:59 p.m.

Public school teachers would like to see choice, thank you very much, especially since most teachers are parents themselves. The only thing that teachers don't want is to be constantly given students who have no involved parents at home and students who someone else just passed along without making sure they mastered the required skills they were supposed to.

I agree, there are some deadbeat teachers. However, there are deadbeats in EVERY profession. Most of the problems start at home. When my students can't spend $2.00 on a binder but can carry around a cell phone at age 14, there's something wrong. When a student is held back in 7th grade, makes "D's" all year in 7th grade again and then is magically skipped to 9th, why aren't the parents questioning the school? Why aren't parents asking themselves what skills or knowledge base should my child have mastered by now? I agree that the school system is messed up, but it is a reflection of what we have to deal with every day.

oceanchild71
February 27, 2007 4:42 p.m.

I actually did say "funded" but my bad I didn't clarify. I meant "funded" from the same trough as public schools. My thought process meant "mandated".