Raleigh, N.C. — The North Carolina Court of Appeals has denied a request by the Wake County Public School System to be able to place new students in year-round schools without parental consent, if necessary.

Board of Education members were notified Wednesday of the court's ruling that requires the school system to adhere to Superior Court Judge Howard Manning's March directive for parental consent for non-traditional calendars.

Wake County school system spokesman Michael Evans said the decision will have a significant impact on the district, because it will cause overcrowding, making it harder to utilize school facilities and more difficult to retain good teachers.

Schools across the county will have more students than others, causing schools not to be evenly populated, he said.

The school system went through a complicated reassignment process after about 2,600 students out of approximately 30,000 said they did not want to stay in year-round schools if they were already in them or did not want to be assigned to them, as the district had planned.

The school district is converting 22 number of elementary and middle schools from traditional to year-round calendars this year as a way to handle increasing numbers of students. Schools on year-round calendars can enroll more students because a quarter of the student body is always on break.