Parents Start Reassignment Petition: 'We're Not Being Heard'

Wake — One group of parents is hoping to make a convincing sales pitch to the Wake County school board. It's a fight that plays out every year around this time.

The parents don’t want their kids to change schools due to a reassignment plan that moves thousands of kids to new schools because of growth or to balance poverty levels.

They've started a petition with hundreds of signatures, and they have one board member on their side.

“I think there’s a frustration that’s being vented on the petition that we’re not being heard,” said parent Katie Sommers.

The proposed reassignment plan would affect more than 6,000 elementary students in Wake County.

DeLana Anderson's daughter, Morgan, would move from Oak Grove to Adams Elementary. She and other parents started the petition against the reassignment.

“Every parent, when your children are being messed with, you feel angry, you feel frustrated,” Anderson said. “You want what’s best for your child, individually.”

School board member Ron Margiotta represents the parents whose students go to Oak Grove. He says the reason for the move is simply to keep the socioeconomic scales balanced.

“You know my opinion, it’s foolishness,” he said. “We’re disrupting schools. We’re disrupting children. We’re disrupting families. We’re disrupting communities to the benefit of no one.”

Margiotta also said the bus route to Adams Elementary will be longer. The parents say that is taxpayer dollars wasted.

“Millions of dollars of tax dollars to bus our children further away from their communities is not a solution,” Sommers said.

School board Chair Rosa Gill said the reassignment proposal is far from done, and she welcomes parents to present the school board with constructive alternatives.

Board members will hear a revised version of the reassignment plan on Tuesday. They're not expected to make a decision on it until February.