Blog: In new 5-3 alignment, Wake board stops zone assignment work

The vote had four members who had opposed the new assignment policy joining member Debra Goldman, who said she remained committed to community-based assignment but that "the zone process" for designing a community-based attendance system "is not working." She asked the board to approve a resolution saying that efforts to design attendance zones will stop.

She called for an "equity-based" system, and member Kevin Hill, who has opposed the district's dropping of the diversity policy, immediately seconded her resolution.

"Board level committees, WCPSS departments, and other administrative committees with relevant responsibilities ... are directed to provide recommendations for consideration and/or approval for each school [using] the following factors to the extent practicable: parental choice, proximity of students to schools, stability, school capacity, equity and equal opportunity for a sound, basic education for all students as provided in our Constitution."

"This is still working toward community-based schools," Goldman said, but she added that it needs to be done without "putting in lines and dividing communities." The board's Student Assignment Committee has tentatively proposed using a series of attendance zones based on current high school attendance areas.

Member John Tedesco, who chairs the committee, said that staying with a system that links families to base schools will inevitably lead to many transfers because of growth and unhappy families.

"There's no right way to do this, but we only get one chance," Goldman argued. The maps with zone lines were not it, she said.

 The issue, Goldman said, is children, not political agendas, and she called for "data-driven decisions."

The Student Assignment Committee is scheduled to meet next week. Chris Malone, one of three board members on it and an ally of Tedesco, seemed unfazed and said after the vote, "Well meet. We'll just do it differently."

In an amended motion, the board voted approval 7-1 with a provision to modify the outdoor stairwells.

Member Debra Goldman, who had questioned the use of outside stairs as a safety hazard when the board discussed the design during its earlier work session, raised the issue again. She said the town of Rolesville had raised concerns about the stairs, and then other members asked to see it. Member Keith Sutton read the letter, which said the mayor, board of commissioners and town staff had concerns and probably would not approve the design if the outside stairs are to be used for regular traffic, not just emergencies. The school system needs local building approvals when it erects facilities.

Hal Bowen from Cherry Huffman architects told the board that trying to use the outside stairs only for exit could raise problems with traffic on inside stairs and would depend on how the building was used for classes. The outside stairs meet building codes, he said, and have been used in schools before.

Enclosing the stairways would cost about $100,000 each, Bowen said. He told the board that designing exterior stairs saved money and allowed architects to devote interior space to common areas that people said they wanted in a new school.

Wake has exterior stairways elsewhere, but not on a four-story building, Desormeaux said.

Board members said they wanted to make sure that at some point, the board will decide which two of three proposed schools to build with money available from the district's last construction bond issue.

Member Debra Goldman urged that the district not simply repeat previous decisions to meet a deadline. "I'd like to see this bidded out. I think it would be worth the time," she said. The schools are to come on line in 2013.

Don Haydon, the district's facilities director, told the board that state law does not provide for bidding for professional services like those being sought, and that a request-for-proposal process would be used instead. The process for the new schools is to use plans that already have been used, making small changes to adapt the plans to each school site.

At the start of the meeting, Goldman asked Margiotta to put a discussion of the Student Assignment Committee on the agenda. He told her she could make a motion later in the meeting. Several other routine changes in the agenda had been made before Goldman spoke, and when Margiotta asked the board to approve its agenda "with those changes," he did not clarify whether he included an item for Goldman's concerns.

Adrienne Lumpkin of Raleigh echoed Siegel's comments, saying "the elephant in the room is cost." The new assignment process will leave "a mess" in the community, she charged.

"The board is recklessly advancing" an assignment policy without including the public and without examing whether the new system will enhance student achievement, Lynette Aytch of Raleigh said during her time. Aytch works for the North Carolina Partnership for Children.

"Should we not fight to protect the children?"Ilina Ewen of Raleigh said to the board. Saying her sons would not be harmed by the new assignment policy, she charged that there is a split between people who want to protect all children and those who want to protect only some.

"It is time to stop," Betsy Lovejoy told the board, adding, "You are going too fast down a road" with its new assignment policy.

Monserrat Alvarez, a Meredith College student who said she graduated from the Wake County system, argued that the former diversity policy had "helped me to be who I am today."

Barbara Garlock of Raleigh said she is a parent "who was very happy with the way things were going" until the current year. "Is the majority relinquishing its responsibility to the children of Wake County" by following pre-determined agendas, she asked. She questioned whether board members meet out of the public view to decide actions the majority will approve. As with all speakers at meetimgs, board members did not respond.

A student, Jocelyn Wilson, told the board that she freared her high school diploma might be worthless if the district loses accreditation from a group that is examining how the board decided to shift from an assignment policy that used socio-economic diversity to one that emphasizes sending students to schools close to their homes.

"Why have there been no community meetings held" before the planning process began for the new policy, Diana Bader of Cary asked the board. Chairman Ron Margiotta asked Bader to sit down, saying her time had expired. She said the clock on the speaker's podium showed she had time left. "You're in here every week," Margiotta said. "The board chair is picking on me!" Bader said. Margiotta then let her finish after saying the board has no way to reset the speaker's clock, unlike sporting events.

Patty Williams of Cary told the board that "it's time" to stop ignoring "evidence that says you are taking our schools in a disastrous direction" with the new assignment policy.

Mary Phillips of Fuquay-Varina criticized the board for how it is handling assignment and said people are wholly confused. She also critiicized the behavior of some board members during the board's earlier work session.

Pete Fahrquar of Raleigh told the board it should immediately make public comments people make on the district website about draft student assignment maps. The board has raised concerns that the comments, while public records, might expose information about specific students. It has asked attorney Ann Majestic for help figuring out what to do about the issue.

Member Deborah Prickett then asked to add a discussion of an effectiveness index that the district has been working toward in evaluating how well instruction addresses student needs.

Four audience members wore neon-green baseball caps labeled "National Lawyers Guild Legal Observer," and about a half-dozen Raleigh police officers were in and just outside the room. The board's previous meeting in September was the first in several sessions in which there were no arrests of protesters during the public comment portion.

The board has yet to see any qualifications that Heidrick & Struggles, the consultant, has drawn up based on a series of meetings with stakeholders, Chairman Ron Margiotta and member John Tedesco told Goldman.

"Now calm yourself down," Goldman told Tedesco, bringing a retort in which he addressed her as "prom queen."

Board member Debra Goldman has told Tedesco at other meetings that she is worried because she feels the rest of the board is not being sufficiently included in the planning work, and she indicated this week that she might vote against a plan if that continued. No plan is expected to come before the board before late this year or next year, though the board has indicated it might try to phase in some aspects of the new policy for next fall.

For a decade, the Wake system had used socio-economic diversity as a factor in assigning students to schools. The current board overturned that in a series of 5-4 votes that have brought demonstrations and other protests, sometimes leading to arrests at board meetings.

"I am concerned about the way this plan is being presented," member Debra Goldman said of the Student Assignment panel. "Each time you have a meeting, the temper in this county rises," Goldman told Tedesco. "It's not just about community-based schools," she said. The only board voices being heard at meetings, she said, are Tedesco and member Chris Malone. Tedesco, Malone and Carolyn Morrison are the three board members of the committee.

"I will ask one more time" about having all board members added to the committee, Goldman said to Chairman Ron Margiotta.

Tedesco told her he would try to answer her question about committee work, though he added, "It was more grandstanding for all the cameras looking at you."

The committee has restructured its meeting agendas to give all board members time to have input. Goldman said that was good, but there still were only three people casting votes. Every step of the plan should be brought to the full board, she argued.

"We're making a plan," Tedesco said. "I don't agree with your plan," Goldman said.

Member Anne McLaurin said that the committee was making changes to proposed attendance-zone maps in an accelerated process. Tedesco answered that the committee is working through a process, not making final devisions.

"Everything that comes to that committee is decided by you and Chris," Goldman said.

Member Deborah Prickett told Goldman she disagreed and that Tedesco had given her chances to speak but that she "didn't jump in."

"We need to calm down a little bit," Malone said. "We're in the very early stages of a process."

"You can't say 'calm down, calm down'" Goldman said. Malone said Goldman had been given chances for input and did not take them.

No one should think that current maps on the district's website are the "be all and end all" of the process. "Stick with us" and the plan will be "all right," he said.

"You're building and building and building" a plan on "a foundation that has not been approved by the board," Goldman said just before Margiotta ended the discussion.

Marvin Connelly, assistant superintendent for student support services, briefed the board on the plan. He said that the district needs to have clinical-level counselors in the Project Enlightenment program and cannot provide the same parent-counseling services with other counselors and psychologists who work in the school system. He said the schools hope to target 500 families this way.

Member Carolyn Morrison said she has seen the Project Enlightenment counselors at work and thought it important that the same people who had been providing services be kept in the positions.

Interim Superintendent Donna Hargens told the board that the administration's goal was to go outside for help in order to provide the same services as before the budget cut while not incurring the benefit costs associated with employees.

It is possible that there may be providers who are "maybe even better" than the county department, Connelly said.

"These are recurring dollars, not one-time" spending, member Kevin Hill asked. Hargens told him that was right and the effort was to get the same services for less money than was spent before.

The proposals met with general approval, indicating they would be approved later at a voting meeting.

"What effective practices is that tool evaluating at this point? member John Tedesco asked. "You're trying to create strategies to help teachers" be more effective in working with students, Hargens said.

However, the administration does not plan to use the system to run an effectiveness index next year because it would take two weeks of a staff member's time during tight budget times, Hargens said. She added, however, that principals are using the data in each school to make decisions and shape help for students. The system has already paid for access through next July, the board was told.

It was unclear after the presentation whether questions would take continued design work off the board's agenda for its voting meeting later on. The board is slated to approve the "schematic design." Facilities officials told the board that holding up design work for a month to get answers to members' questions would put the project behind schedule.

Member Anne McLaurin said she liked the design, "but it deserves more public attention" and time to comment.

The high school became contentious when a new board majority took office last November and voted in one its early actions to drop a location the previous board had chosen. The school will be a four-story structure and will have several common spaces because those are something the architects said they heard from the public were missing in many schools.

One way to get that space without enlarging the building was to put five stairways on the outside of the building, which will be clad with brick. Board Vice Chair Debra Goldman said she was concerned about "horrifying scenarios" that do not "take a great leap of imagination" with outside stairs during winter weather and with possibly 2,200 students using them..

"We've used exterior stairs before" on schools in the county, architect Hal Bowen said. The five exterior stairways are in addition to four indoor stairways, he said. He told Goldman that two of the stairways could probably be enclosed for an added $200,000. He noted, too, that exterior stairs are more open to view, making them less likely for any incidents.

If three outside stairways were enclosed and the other two made exit-only, it ought to address safety concerns, Bowen said.

The stairs will be covered and have screening alongside them, Bowen said. He said he was not sure that enclosing the stairs would be worth the extra expense, but could be done.

The building will have two passenger elevators and a service elevator for "cafe spaces" on different floors, Bowen explained.

Board member Keith Sutton asked if upper floors would be hot, but Bowen said controlling a four-story building was not unusual. The design calls for a water-cooled heating and air conditioning system, which is more efficient than the air-cooled systems usually used in schools, he added.

The school's design is intended to win LEED Silver compliance, a standard for environmentally friendly and energy-efficient architecture, Bowen told the board.

 "The new LEED rating system is really geared toward energy efficiency," Bowen said.

"You have done everything that you can do?" for efficiency, board member Anne McLaurin asked. Bowen said that the architects had done everything the project can afford to be nominated for the LEED Silver certification, but trying for a Gold rating would be prohibitively expensive.

Cherry Huffman has designed the renovation of Broughton High School in Raleigh, Middle Creek High School in Cary, the Wakefield Campus and Millbrook High School for the Wake County system.