Panther Creek overcrowding a topic of school board closed session

Raleigh, N.C. — Three modular units that were to open this week at Panther Creek High School in Cary remain closed because of an impasse between the town and the Wake County school system.

The matter was expected to be a topic at a Thursday night closed session of the Wake County Board of Education.

At issue is whether the school system or the town should pay $1.4 million for a required expansion of N.C. Highway 55 near the school to handle increased traffic brought about by having more students.

In November, the school system asked the Cary Town Council to waive the road-improvement requirement or to pick up the tab.

School board members say it is not the school system's responsibility to pay for the improvements and that it does not have the funding to do so.

Cary, which has given $63 million to schools since 2000, has a tight budget, also, council members say.

The council, however, voted to give the school system four years to make the improvements.

Panther Creek is more than 500 students over the school's 1,663-student capacity. The modular units would provide 22 extra classrooms to ease crowding.

Since the fall, students have been attending classes in the school library and cafeteria and other alternatives to classrooms.

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Latest Comments

Green Hope is the type of school contributing to this problem. They cover the Preston area of Cary and have to bus in kids from Raleigh for demographic reasons. At PC we don't bus in kids outside of our zone area, PC is a great school but we can take pride in being a school that is a great school with the kids that are assigned to us. We don't have to look outside the box to be prestigous unlike Green Hope.

leaderofthepack
January 23, 2009 10:52 a.m.

Why is this still happening? I went to HS in Wake county 20 years ago and nothing has changed.

smitty
January 22, 2009 8:24 p.m.

Tobis: How familier are you with Panther Creek? Apparently, not very. Your ignorance shows by the statement you just made. The beauty of Panther Creek is that ALL students, regardless of socioeconomic status, are valued at PCHS.

Tawny
January 22, 2009 8:20 p.m.

If WCPSS had not made the original school district boundaries so huge to fill up this school, it would not be this overcrowded after 3 years. This is basically a brand new school that cannot hold the student population. Spending 1.4 million to fix the roads because of poor planning on WCPSS part is outrageous!

mackorders
January 22, 2009 8:03 p.m.

here's a thought. people move to an area for a reason, and in most cases it's the schools. if people want their kids to go there, expand the school and stopping busing the poor kids in, no one want them there anyway.

tobis19341
January 22, 2009 7:30 p.m.