Parents make passionate pleas on Wake student assignment

Most spoke out against assigning students to neighborhood schools. 

"Let me explain it to you and give you some enlightenment Mister Tedesco," parent Wanda Basden said to school board member John Tedesco, who has been a vocal fan of neighborhood schools. 

Tedesco said his motives are to help under-privileged students. One of his ideas is to turn Southeast Raleigh High School - the site of Wednesday's meeting - into a magnet zone where roughly half of the students would come from somewhere else. 

"Nobody was helping the kids in these communities for years. I am going to keep trying," Tedesco said. 

Marvin Pittman, who spoke at the hearing, commended Tedesco for his work on the Economically Disadvantaged Student Performance Task Force. 

The meeting was part of a series of five on the 2011-12 student assignment plan – the final phase of a three-year plan that was adopted in 2008.

According to figures provided by the school system’s growth and planning department, proposed changes to that plan could affect 2,625 elementary school students, 1,103 middle school students and 975 high school students.

No decisions on those recommendations are expected until after the public meetings.

Two other meetings on the reassignment plan are scheduled for Thursday at 6 p.m. at Garner Magnet High, at 2101 Spring Drive in Garner, and Jan. 24 at 6 p.m. at Cary High at 638 Walnut St. in Cary.