Cary parents unhappy about WCPSS reassignment plan that could move students across town

Shelley Shalhoub has several more years before becoming an empty nester. Until then, she wants to create a sense of familiarity and community for her children, and that means keeping them as close to home as possible for school.

“We’re in such close proximity to Davis Drive Middle. Our established neighborhoods have gone here for years and our son is looking forward to riding his bike to school like all the other kids in our neighborhood,” she said.

Shalhoub joined several dozen other Cary parents who were fired up Wednesday night about the Wake County Public School System’s proposed 2019-2020 enrollment plan. At one point, the meeting got so heated that school board member Bill Fletcher threatened to end it.

The parents were upset that the current proposed reassignment plan could take some students from Davis Drive Middle School to East Cary Middle School.

The district has presented the first of at least three drafts and Fletcher said the district simply must address overcrowding in an ever-growing district.

“We have middle schools that may have been designed for a thousand students that have 1,400 in them, middle schools that are designed for 1,200 that have had as many as 1,700 in them,” Fletcher said.

Parents at Wednesday’s information session came with a list of reasons why the potential move should not happen, citing efficiency, student achievement and proximity, among other reasons.

“It’s going to be a long commute, six miles away. With all the traffic, he could be on the bus until 5 o’clock at night and that’s too late,” Shalhoub said

Fletcher challenged the parents to submit their concerns and alternative plans to the board.

Several more meetings regarding the reassignment plan are scheduled before the board makes a final decision in November.