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Public Comments on Wake Reassignment Plan

The following comments were received by the Wake County Board of Education regarding its 2008-2009 student reassignment plan.

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The following are some of the comments received by the Wake County Board of Education regarding its 2008-09 student reassignment plan. We have removed the names and addresses of those residents who commented on the plan.
We live in Harrington Grove and currently attend Hilburn Drive. The new proposal has us at Sycamore Creek next year. We love it! Pleased don't change it! Thanks!

I am amazed at the wisdom or lack thereof of the school board. Why on earth would you bus students past a new elementary to another school which is ten more minutes down the road. GET PROFESSIONAL HELP WITH REDISTRICTING

I live in node 394.6 My children currently attend Highcroft Drive Elementary. We are proposed to be reassigned to Mills Park Elementary, the newly constructed school. My children are currently on Track 4. My question is will we be able to keep the same track at our newly reassigned school?? If we do not get to keep the same track, can we opt out for a traditional calendar option? Any information would be great. Another comment... If at all possible we would prefer as a family to not be reassigned and we would like to continue my children's education at Highcroft Drive Elementary for the 2008-09 school year. We have been very happy there.

Thank you for the reassignment of node 706 from Forest Pines to Heritage Elementary......Thank You & Happy Holidays

On behalf of many families in the Olde Creedmoor subdivision, we would like to strongly request that the base elementary school be changed to the new Sycamore Creek Elementary School because it is so close to our subdivision compared to Jeffreys Grove. Thank you for considering this request.

THANK YOU! We are So excited to go to a new school! Keep up the good work and please don't let anyone talk you into switching us!!! Thanks again! ( I bet you get few of these!)

I was disappointed to see that we were not assigned to Sycamore Creek. Sycamore Creek is five minutes or less from our house. Baileywick, our base school, is 15 minutes away across a heavily traveled Creedmoor Road. And, unlike a lot of parents, I really would like a year round calendar, but Green, our calendar option, is even farther than Baileywick. I was hoping that Baileywick would be converted last year - didn't happen. Then I was hoping for Sycamore Creek.

At this point lets be real - do you REALLY care what the parents have to say??? The community has been screaming for years - last year they SUED due to the county not listening to us...so I will be very interested to hear if you RESPOND!!! At this point our node (nice way of keeping everyone in check!) really has no viable options for traditional calendar for elementary - I heard Chuck Delany very plainly - and he has made it EXTREMELY difficult for us to actually get a traditional seat...option really means NO OPTIONS...leave us in our neighborhoods - STOP shipping our kids all over - talk about a cost saving in GAS...of course you don't really care about the whole BUSSING issues...If I had the money I would put my kids in private schools - not an option...kind of like Delanys options!! Stop talking diversity - say it like it is - socio-ecomnomic diversity - lets make sure all the schools look the same - now - how is that working for you??? NOT as far as the NO KIDS LEFT BEHIND - now is it??? BUILD SCHOOLS where they are needed - you know the ones you made all go YEAR ROUND – even though we don't want it..thanks again for shoving it down our throats!

Thank you for considering walking distance in making your decision to send the Harrington Point, Dominion Park and Glen Arbor subdivisions to Sycamore Creek. It helps tremendously with my children's schedules and wellbeing to be within walking distance of their school. I love the idea of year round elementary schools and think my daughter will thrive at Sycamore Creek in 2nd grade.

The new school being built is closer, but frankly, when has neighborhood schools ever been a consideration of the school board when re-zoning schools. By forcing my 2nd grader to go to a year-round school next year, it will very negitively affect our family time. My older son is in a traditional Middle school, and in the best scenarios, the kids schedules will only overlap for a couple of weeks per year. Week-long family vacations will be a thing of the past. What is my family's option for a traditional school? Is there even a choice?

To Whom It May Concernt: First of all, thank you for not reassigning my children (node 692) out of Green Hope Elementary. It is the closest and most logical choice and I appreciate that common sense has kept us there. I was very relieved to see there is no change for us, though I know others are not so lucky this time. However, I would like to take this opportunity to ask that you poll the families of Green Hope (or allow us to do this through the office)about whether we want to remain YR or not. I would like to change back to a traditional school. My children only get AG every other quarter. I am going to have to pull them out for camps in June. The specialists are not there throughout the year. My 5th grader will be on a traditional calendar- which we like- but at that point I will have to choose to send my current 2nd grader to Weatherstone instead of Green Hope, I am afraid. Our family schedule is most important. All our friends who left would like to come back to a traditional Green Hope elementary. I know some have discussed this and I appreciate your thoughtful consideration.

Great assignment! We live in Amberly and are excited to be assigned to this new school, which is merely steps from our home.

Under no circumstances, do I want my children to go to a year round school. Our schedule will not work with a year round scedule. We are very happy at Hilburn Drive and do not want to change.

Very happy with the proposed changes to York. Changes should help all aspects of our struggling school.

We are part of node 342.2. Does this mean our children will leave Hilburn (traditional schedule) and be required to attend Sycamore Creek (year round). How do we appeal to stay in the traditional schedule?

My elementary child is an YR applicant that attends Green Elementary. He is frequently the only rider on the school bus at 6:45am. Much closer are at least two year-round options: Leesville and Sycamore Creek. Would it not make more sence to change our small neighborhood to a closer optional year to save on the gas of sending a practically empty school bus to our neighborhood?

It is unfair to parents and students from York Elementary to travel over 20 minutes on the beltline to attend a school in Apex. Not only is it unfair, but it does not agree with the idea of keeping kids close to their homes and not bussing them all over the county. This node should stay where it is.

I think it is quite perplexing to make neighborhood kids pass two other schools within close proxmity to go to York. I was fully surprised in that I assumed the school choices would either be the new Sycamore Creek or Leesville Elementary. I do not agree with the proposed change.

Moving out of Davis Drive Elementary makes me very sad - it is a wonderful school with excellent grades. My son has loved it and the school has been good for him. I hope that the new school will have as high a quality of teachers as Davis Drive. I DO like the fact that this new school is year round. I was hoping Davis Drive would have made that switch. So as of now, this is the main positive of the move for me.

It's about time you made this school equal/closer in F/R to Davis and Green Hope. There is a big difference between these school populations...I have attended Davis with my older kids. This allows for Weatherstone to be on equal footing with the other schools. Thanks!

We just moved from Orlando, FL and decided to buy our house due to the fact that it was zoned for Leesville elementary and for that reason only! After we got use to fact that Leesville was going year round, we became very happy with this school. My daughter LOVES this school and it being year round is even better. She is in 2nd grade and has made all new friends. I am all for change, but I just hope that you will leave Leesville elementary as the year round option for our node. It is the closest year round school to our address. I would hate to move her again! Thank you for listening

My daughter is a transfer student to Brier Creek. I do not wish her to change schools. What is the policy for transfer students? Thanks

Unbelievable. All the nodes (388.2, 389.3, 389.1, 541.0) in the development that I live in (Haddon Hall) have the traditional calendar option of Davis Drive except for our node. Talk about singling children out. I thought that part of the plan was to keep children together as much as possible. For you to single out a node in a development and send them all the way to Raleigh, while the rest of the development stays in Apex, is just plain wrong. You just don't seem to want to do right for the children. Shame on you for taking things out on the children.

Thank you! I am so excited to have my daughter go to a year round school. I was planning on having to go through the lottery to get her into Morrisville next year for Kindergarten but knew that was a long shot. This is much closer to home and a guaranteed spot makes it absolutely wonderful. As the daughter, sister and sister-in-law of teachers, I am convinced that year-round is educationally sound. I feel it's too bad that parents can't get past their irrational attachment to how things were when they grew up to see that what's traditional is not always what's best. Please keep my family at Laurel Park.

My family is very excited to go to a school within walking distance. I think year round schools are great for kids. My children have been watching the construction of Sycamore Creek and asking when can they go to Sycamore Creek. Thank you for reassigning us to Sycamore Creek.

Thank you for listening to the community's input regarding the disparity and inequity of Wake County's diversity policy, and addressing that disparity with this proposal. This proposal is a win for the students being reassigned to Hunter, and a win for the students who remain at Stough. The students reassigned to Hunter not only will have a shorter distance to travel to school, but will also be attending a school where the F/R percentage is lower and more resources will be available to serve highneed students. ALL students at Stough, which will still have a significant number of F/R students even after the move, will benefit by having fewer high-need students, and thus more resources available for the rest of the student population. I agree with the school board and growth management's belief that a magnet school such as Hunter, situated in the middle of a low-income area, should have a higher F/R percentage than 26%. There is no benefit in sending students who live nearby to a more distant school, where the F/R percentage is nearly twice as high (as was the case with Stough). Therefore, I fully support this proposal and hope that growth management will submit this change to the school board in January. Sincerely, Parent at Stough Elementary School

I object to having my youngest child moved for her 4th and 5th grade years from Davis Drive Elem. To Laurel Park Elem. primarily because I have 3 older children who will be on traditional calendars at their middle and high schools. This will force our family into an undesirable split of schedules and create a hardship for us. I sincerely appreciate your consideration of our concern in this matter.

I was disappointed that this node was not assigned to Sycamore Creek Elementary. We are located in the same neighborhood as parts of node 569 which may be reassinged to Sycamore Creek. It would be nice if all the kids in the neighborhood went to the same shool. Not to mention, the fact that Sycamore Creek is much closer.

I would like to see ANY proposal accepted that would reduce the number of ESL students from Adams elementary. This is America, our official language is ENGLISH. Yet, there are classes at Adams where the English speaking children are a MINORITY. That is discrimination in our OWN country. Diversity is fine, but not to the extreme that a class has only ONE english speaking girl in it. I have 2 children at Adams, the third to enter this upcoming year. I would not want to pull out of a year round school, but will if my child is a minority in her kindergarten class, track THREE. WHY is track three the ESL track? Why can't that also be spread onto all 6 classes at the school. Does anyone making these decisions teach Kindergarten? How difficult a task when half your class does not speak the language you are teaching. This is also not fair to the bright children who are slowed up by children just trying to master a language. All incoming ESL children should have to pass a basic language test before kindergarten. If they fail, they go to a class for PRE kindergarten that is just about getting them ready for an English speaking classroom. Then, they start kindergarten the following year, more on level with ALL their peers. AMERICA, yes everyone treated with respect, but don't penalize the Americans who enter school speaking English when many of the ESL students were born here too. THEY need to catch up, the English speaking students do not need to be kept back by this. No child left behind should also mean no child kept back by unprepared peers.

Thank you thank you thank you for finally moving this node close to home! It will make a huge difference for the parents in Long Lake to be able to support the school with the children going to Hilburn Drive Elementary. Also, the children won't have to endure such a long bus ride anymore. Thanks! Let's make this part of the FINAL proposal!

I agree with the 2008-2009 Draft Reassignment Proposal. Farmington Woods is overcrowded. My daughter is in Kindergarten with a class size of 31. I believe she is not receiving the same education as the classes with 22 children due to the class size not the teachers. My daughter says things get lost more in her class than the other kindergarten classes because it is so big.

Our base school is Baileywick, and I really would like to be on a year round calendar. However, our year round option is Green Road, which is very far, so I have not applied. I had hoped that Baileywick would be converted - it was not. I had hoped that we would get reassigned to Sycamore Creek (which is half the distance to Baileywick) - we were not. So I checked the calendar options, hoping that our year round calendar option would be something closer than Green Road, but no luck. Our year round elementary option is still Green Road. I don't understand with so many more year-round schools why we don't have more year-round options. I can think of three year-round schools off the top of my head (Pleasant Union, Brassfield, and the new Sycamore Creek) that are closer to us than Green, and there may be others. Why not open up some of these year rounds for calendar option for our node?

My children were among the students re-assigned to the new Mills Park Elementary School. They are coming from Highcroft Drive Elementary which is currently in the Year Round Calendar. My question is, If students are coming from a year round calendar school, will they remain on the same Track they are currently assigned to, or will they have the opportunity to request what Track they would like to be assigned to? Thank you!

Green does not need an increase in free and reduced lunch students. We have had a steady increase over the past several years, and the projection of 41% is excessive. Our volunteer resources are already stretched to the limit, and this trend may cause higher income families to opt out.

Is this a Cary school or Apex? This should not be a yr round school!!! Salem and Baucom already are Davis is not. There are too many in my area not enough traditional.

I am strongly opposed to the shift of node 391.5 from Davis Drive Elementary to Green Hope Elementary. DDE is by far the closest elementary school to our node. There is very little difference from a diversity standpoint in these two schools. There is a large amount of new development in closer proximity to Green Hope than our node, and I would assume newcomers to the area with elementary age children. This proposed change is not well thought out and encourage the decision makers to consider a better solution, i.e. assign students closer to Green Hope and also to reassign those that opt out voluntarily from year round schools.

I have lived in this neighborhood for three years and we have been switched three times now. My main concern isn't going to Leesville Road Elem. My main concern is that we will go there and then be switched again to the new school (E24) when that opens. How many times can one node be moved?!?!?!?!?

Excellent job ..Please keep the movement of children from one comunity to another to a min.. year round is great I have seen a major difference in the ability for children to retain knowledge during the 3 week track out VS not retaining their edge after a 3 month vacation .. again keep up the good work.

Regarding Davis Drive Elementary, your plan states that "Staff wants to raise the percentage of students from low-income families to make the school more comparable to other schools in that area of the county. Suggested changes will raise the percentage from 9% to 21%." However, you are sending higher income students from WestPark subdivision from Davis Dr. to Green Hope Elementary. Under the new plan, you want to have the low-income % at Green Hope at 10%. Therefore, Davis Dr.'s low income % will NOT be comparable to "other schools in the area of the county!!" We are almost as close to Green Hope as we are to Davis Dr. These two schools should have a very similar ratio. When the low-income ratio rises, test scores fall. High achieving students are provided with less challenging work because teachers have to work overtime to help bring the low-income students up to standards. This is evident at Davis Dr. even this year when the low-income % went from 6 to 9%. Davis Dr. has been a high performing school winning the Blue Ribbon Award twice. WHY do you want to change this? Is Wake County's goal to have all mediocre schools and no high performing schools? If you more than double Davis Drive's low-income ratio next year, you will end up with yet ANOTHER average elementary school in the county. We moved here from Northern Virginia and specifically chose Davis Drive based on test scores, even though we both worked in North Raleigh. If all Wake County scores decrease, as they are bound to if the low-income % rise, people moving from other areas of the country will think again before moving to Wake County and/or placing their children in a public school system with mediocre scores that will not offer challenging work to higher achieving students because of having to spend time working with low-income students. When I volunteer in my daughter's 3rd grade classroom, I spend the entire hour assisting the lower-income students who are not performing well. If you further increase this low-income %, the need for parent volunteers will increase, and the time devoted to students who have the potential to learn at a higer level and rate will decrease. The end result will be that Wake County will be a mediocre school system, with mediocre test scores, and mediocre students who will not receive the education they deserve that will enable them to succeed and compete in higher education. In essence, "no child will be left behind" and no child will reach his or her potential. You must keep Davis Drive's low-income % level at a lower rate. It is unfair to students, parents, and property owners to raise it to TWICE the level of Green Hope Elementary's. This affects not only the education of the students (my main concern), but also property values. Please stop the social engineering! Parents of Davis Drive students have worked hard to buy houses (and pay HIGH taxes!) to place their children in higer performing schools and also spend countless hours working with these students at home. You must allow these higher -income students to continue to learn in an environment where they can be given more challenging assignments and learn at a faster rate. The plan to more than double Davis Drive's low-income percentage is a recipe for failure of the school and the students! Placing a low-income student in a higher-income school does NOT make that student smarter or learn faster. It makes the student feel badly about him or herself and causes them to spend more time traveling to school and less time studying. This plan must be changed. AGAIN, please do not increase Davis Drive's lowincome percentage!

I strongly disagree with the decision to move node 244.9 to Green Elementary. Green Elementary is already above the system average for low-income students. Why are you assigning 22 students, 95% of whom are free and reduced lunch to Green, further stretching the limited parent resources at Green and creating a situation where the upper income parents may decide to leave?

Salem does not need more low income students from a different node. The staff works hard to communicate and serve their current population, which is extrememely difficult due to the fact that that the families are mostly Hispanic, non English speaking, or in very poverty stricken circumstances. Staff resources are taxed in these areas as it is. This entire policy wastes taxpayer money in transportation costs, and money spent on these kind of reassignments. The students and families would be much happier in their neighborhhod schools, and not spending 45 minutes to 1 hour on a bus EACH WAY every day. This also doesn't make sense as the students would be changing to a year round calendar, instead of traditional. Are we going to waste money on more court costs again?

It was with great interest that I looked at the 08-09 reassignment plan since I read that your goal was to balance free/reduced lunch percentages for schools that were near each other. I guess skepticism would have been a better choice of words. Upon looking at your goal to increase the FRL% at Carpenter Elementary from 15% to 24% I wanted to know what the goal for Green Hope Elementary, Turner Creek, and Highcroft would be. Not only are their 08-09 goals below the current level for Carpenter, their ESL% (for 2006...the most current data I could find) is at 0% whereas Carpenters was at 10.8%. It seems that Carpenter should stay at the percentages it is at currently and the other schools need to absorb more FRL kids. Now that they are working on Louis Stevens road, many of the Preston Village students will be quite close to Carpenter next year. It seems you should move some of those Preston Village students and the ones on the western side of Hwy55 to Carpenter (who are actually closer to Carpenter), and you should move the newly redistricted Carpenter reduced lunch students to Green Hope. Some of them are actually closer to the other schools I mentioned than Carpenter. From volunteering at the school, it seems that another data fact that you should try to balance is the ESL students. This % seems to have a impact on the level of learning in the classroom and the amount of time higher achieving students receive pertinent instruction. Again, Carpenter seems to be shouldering all of these students in this area of wake county.

I would like to share my comments about the proposed redistricting our house from Leesville to York Elementary. This school is twice as far from our house as our current school. In addition Hillburn and Sycamore, when it is completed, are both substantially closer than York. Also this school functions on a traditional calendar while Leesville is a year round school. I think that it is completely unacceptable to ask parents who have to structure their work schedules around their childrens education to consistently switch it. Not everyone has extremely flexible work schedules. Thanks

YAY! We were hoping to get to go to the new Laurel Park Elementary - good!

I am very happy for the children who will get to attend their neighborhood school and like the addition of this node. Wasn't the nodes that are being moved to Dillard just added to Hunter in the past year or so? I thought you weren't supposed to move the children except for every three years. I am concerned about the overcrowding. We are extremely overcrowded this year with high class sizes. We love Hunter, and I am so glad my kindergartener is happy there, although the mileage on my van is mounting higher each week from driving her!

We do not wish to switch schools with only 2 years left in elementary. We just converted to year round at Leesville and now your proposing to turn around and change it the very next year. We have lived in this school distict since 1991. I don't think it is fair to impact us because of growth somewhere else. Our daughter is doing very well at Leesville and has established many friends both with students and many teachers. She also attends the YMCA afterschool program where she has been since the beginning. Many strong bonds have been formed with the YMCA staff there. We are happy with the year round school and with Leesville. We take our daughter's education very seriously and believe this can have a negative impact. I know you all have a tough job and I do appreciate the time you put into making our schools as good as they can be. I appreciate any consideration you can give us in this matter.

Please consider changing this school to traditional as there are no traditional options. Even if it remains year-round, it would be great to see it operating on the earlier bell schedule. Thanks.

YAHOO! We are THRILLED with the change to a year round school...only wish it had happened two years ago when you moved us from Baucom to Briarcliff. The change to Laurel Park is a "4" for us...the geographic closeness and the change from traditional to YR is EXACTLY what we were looking for two years ago...

My rising 3rd grader will be going to his 3rd Wake County elementary school because of this change (Kindergarten at Baucom, 1 and 2 at Briarcliff, and now 3 at Laurel Park). Wouldn't it be nice if we who have been moved SO often get first choice on track assignments at the new Laurel Park Elementary!! Just a suggestion for those of us who have been patient and denied our children the chance to make longer friendships with student peers....

I hope very much that our base school is switched to the new Laurel Grove year round school. Our neighborhood is currently at Adams Elementary for year round. It would be VERY nice for our kids to be able to go to school with the other kids in the neighborhood, and not have to travel across town. Thank you!

Reguarding Davis Drive Elementary, DDE has been a high performing Blue Ribbon school and now due to the WCPS attempt at social engineering by integrating an unrealistic % of low income kids into our school and taking away some of our best and brightest we are at risk of losing this accolade.When are you going to take into consideration the good of ALL students and not just the few? When are you going to realize that integrating low income students with high performing students is not a magic pill that will make everyone smart, and learn fast? Such a high % oflow income students will most definitley lower DDE test scores making DDE just another public school. For 11 years Davis Dr. Elem. has been known as one of the best schools in Wake County due to its great staff, caring parents who have devoted countless hours of service and dedication to this school and their children, and of course a great student body.We are at risk of losing all of this. As parents we made our choice of where to live by school test scores more so than anything else. Achieving diversity to this degree is not worth the problems it is creating nor is it a neccessity. Please do not ruin a great school like Davis Drive Elemen. by increasing the % of low income students.

Our daughter currently goes to Green year round elementary school. With this new proposal she will be reassigned to Leesville. In order for her to go to Leesville we will have to drive by Sycamore Creek elementary school every morning. Sycamore Creek is only 1.5 miles from our house and Leesville is 4 miles.If our child has to be reassigned it makes sense to me for her to go to the closer school. In addition, her best friend who goes to Green and and her base school is Brooks is being reassigned to Sycamore Creek. They are over 8 miles and 20 minutes drive away from Sycamore Creek. For her to be reassigned to Sycamore Creek and our daughter not to be does not make any sense.

I am the father of 2 girls (currently kindergarten and 3rd grade), both going to Hilburn Elementary. We have had a wonderful experience at Hilburn and its traditional calendar. I am very cautious to make any changes. We have been reassigned to Sycamore Creek which is a year round school. I am open to consider this, but can my children continue @ Hilburn if I opt for a traditional calendar in lieu of the year round calendar? Will there be buses running to Sycamore Creek? I understand Principal Faircloth is headed to Sycamore Creek. I am sure she will get the new school up and rolling and will be missed at Hilburn! Are there any traffic plans in the works for Sycamore Creek? Currently the traffic patterns during the morning school/commute hours outside the Sycamore Creek location are very problematic and will most likely worsen with student and bus traffic next school year. Thank you for your consideration and I would be grateful for any response.

This is the school we want. Our family prefers the year round calendar, so we are extremely supportive of this proposed change! Thanks.

We are extremely dissapointed to learn of this new reassignment proposal. We chose this neighborhood because we wanted our child to attend Brooks Elementary. I hope that this proposal does not pass.

When will you stop inflating capacity with trailer numbers? The Leesville Elementary School has a brick and morter capacity of 540. Using your own goals of the ratio of students in trailers would put this nowhere near your listed capacity. If you continue to COOK THE BOOKS with these unrealistic numbers,you will never gain the trust of the taxpayers of Raleigh and the parents of the students. It is time to start using concrete numbers on capacity and to stop inflating capacity.

This is the only assignment that makes sense for this node. If this node is not assigned to Mills Park right across the street it would be abhorent. Assigning this node to the close by Mills Park should provide stability to this area. Please don't change the assignment.

I agree that Davis Drive is overcrowded and support the plan to reduce the total number of students attending the school. This is an appropriate goal. However one of the best features of Davis Drive is that it is a truly neighborhood school. Most children live and play near the school which creates a sense of community and wonderful school spirit. Therefore I do not like the idea of bussing in a group of kids from the opposite side of Cary. I understand that the goal of this plan is to increase diversity but it also creates two distinct populations of students who do not interact with each other outside of school because they don't share the same neighborhoods! It will be difficult for families that live 20-30 minutes away to participate in school events and activities. This will damage the community spirit Davis Drive now enjoys. Therefore I disagree with this portion of the plan. Penny Road is a wonderful school and it is likely those families do not want their children to have to endure a long and arduous bus ride across Cary to satisfy a staff goal of "diversity." I encourage you to solicit input from those families, and to keep Davis Drive a truly neighborhood school with families that live, work, and learn in close proximity to each other. That is what has made Davis such a great school and I would hate to lose that.

I think it is great you are bringing the children back closer to home. It will be hard having two children on two different calendars. If you cannot make the middle school year round, I hope we will be able to transfer our older children to the middle school to keep the family on the same schedule if possible. When I moved here, I was able to get the older one into Heritage middle but was not able to get the younger one into year round. I did the different calendars for six months and it was really hard. I then pulled the older one out and put him on traditional to get the same schedule and now I find myself in the opposite dilemma. I will try to get my older child back in the middle school by the magnet process. Please help our family with this by making it not impossible to get our older children in year round as well.

As a parent of a rising kindergartener, I'm disappointed that we will be moved from Oak Grove. We were planning on selecting this year round school for our daughter as we have read and heard such good things about this school. Now I don't believe we'll select year round school as I have just read many negative parent reviews of Adams. Very disappointed with the constant redistricting in Wake county. Makes it very hard to plan from year to year.

I'm very pleased with our neighborhood being assigned to this school. THANK YOU VERY MUCH !!!!!

This is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard! Why in the world would node 343.1 be changed to Jeffreys Grove??? Pleasant Union, Sycamore Creek, Baileywick and even Brassfield are all closer schools. Our children are established at Baileywick, and although we realize this is not an issue of importance to the school board, IT IS OF PARAMOUNT ISSUE TO US!!! I am at the school volunteering regularly. I shouldn't have to drive twice as far to get to my "local" school. It is reasons like this that schools have a hard time getting volunteers! If you must uproot our children like pawns, at least put them in a closer school. If we choose (and are lucky enough to get into) our year-round option - Leesville - we pass Sycamore Creek on the way. How much sense does that make??? We are committed to Baileywick, we have put a lot of time and effort into that school, and our children are happy there. Are you really going to ruin all this with a click of your mouse??? If you could please reconsider this node change, you would certainly make us very happy. Thank you.

I a very DISAPPOINTED by the proposed draft to move node 318.4 to Hilburn Elementary. We live within walking distance to Leesville Elementary. What can we do as parents to protest this change? I would like to keep my daughter at Leesville Elementary!

I believe this is an awesome change and I fully support making the schools more in line with each other as far as the F&R percentages.

I was very disappointed to see that our node was not reassigned to the new school Sycamore Creek. Our neighborhood is currently divided into different elemenatary and middle schools. My house is three house down from the split. With the reassignment, they once again split our neighborhood. They reassigned the section that is further away from Sycamore Creek to them and left us. We are currently 2 miles from the new school. Our neighborhood needs to come together. Please reconsider!!!! I do not think that is fair to have to pass Sycamore Creek to get to our assigned year round option of Leesville. Please re-consider our node to be reassigned to Sycamore Creek. Our section of the neighborhood is in agreement that we would like to be reassigned. I would be glad to do whatever possible to petition with my neighbors. Thank You!!!!!

We are one of the few (perhaps only) families in our neighborhood who have not given up on the Wake County public school system. My wife volunteers at Baileywick every week, and I volunteer as well as much as my job permits. Our kids are involved in school activities, and are happy there. They have made friends, they love their teachers, and are excited to be Baileywick students. They are going to be absolutely distraught when we have to tell them that they are being yanked out of their school. It is THEIR school - they have made it a second home of sorts. They are excellent students that add a lot to the classroom and their classmates, but they are not the type of kids who do well with a constantly changing environment. They need stability to flourish and excel. I can't say strongly enough that this will be devastating to them. I understand changing demographics may force unwelcome changes at times, but this change doesn't even make sense. There are FOUR OTHER SCHOOLS that are closer to us than Jeffrey's Grove. Shipping them to that school is a ridiculous waste of time and resources. Think of all the extra fuel spent on buses and cars. Think of all the time lost dealing with extra distances and traffic. Disregarding the emotional impact such a relocation has on our children, this particular change in schools makes NO RATIONAL SENSE. It is a complete waste of resources. We believe in the public school system and want to support it, but we will not be able to stay engaged with it if these sort of arbitrary and illogical changes continue to be imposed on us. The last thing the Wake County school system needs is the loss of more of its future top students. We will not send our kids to a substandard school. You will lose two academically gifted students and you will lose two very dedicated parent volunteers. We are happy with Baileywick, or at least a reasonably close alternative. Jeffries Grove just doesn't make any sense at all. Please reconsider this node change.

I cannot see the logic in changing the base school for a neighborhood that has had stability in schools for as long as WestPark. I have a 10th grader at Green Hope High who spent all of his elementary years at Davis Drive Elem. I have a 4th grader at Davis this year I expect to finish his elementary school years there. I have a four year-old I hope will go through Davis Drive Elem. If this change becomes effective and I decide to grandfather my 4th grader, then I potentially have two sons in different elementary schools. Why disrupt one of the last stable neighborhoods in West Cary? If I understand the proposal correctly, a group of students were moved out of Green Hope to a new school in Cary Park, so to fill those slots at Green Hope, our neighborhood is being moved. The slots we vacate at Davis Drive are to be filled by a group from Penny Road. Why doesn't the group from Penny Road get moved to Green Hope without disrupting our neighborhood? Seems like that would be a more logical plan to reduce the number of reassignments.

I do not understand why our node, 343.2, was not included in the base nodes for the new Sycamore Creek Elementary. This new school is 2 miles from our house while our current elementary school is over 6 miles away. Also, our neighborhood is split between two nodes, 343.2 and 569.0. The other node, 569.0, was reassigned to Sycamore Creek. I attended a meeting at Baileywick last month where Chuck Delaney discussed the possibility that the opening of Sycamore Creek would affect the base nodes of Baileywick north of Norwood Road. I expressed to him at that meeting that we would prefer to unite our neighborhood at one school instead of dividing the neighborhood between two different schools. I am asking again for Wake County Schools to reconsider this issue and reassign node 343.2 to Sycamore Creek Elementary. Thank you.

Hello. I am a parent that will be moved from Penny Road Elementary to Oak Grove (Year Round). I object to this proposal on the following grounds: Year round schools are not beneficial for working parents because many of the programs offered during a traditional calendar are not offered during track out time. Additionally, you have increased the number of families that will have children in middle school on a traditional track while their elementary aged children are in year round. This means that parents will have to take off twice as much time from work if they cannot get child care. Plus, you have taken away an older sibling that could have taken care of younger family members on those teacher workdays or early release days. Therefore, it should be assumed that most of your working parents and single parent homes will opt out of the year round and apply for the traditional school - which you are required to honor. This will then increase the number of children at traditional schools to overflowing while these year round schools are under-attended. The answer is to turn back the year round schools into traditional schools and build more of them. Leave a few year round schools for people who want them. As a mother of four children, it is important that we not only live together as a family but that we can take the time to explore and enjoy trips together. If you force a year round schedule on us then you will be breaking apart our family time. A childís growth is greatly affected by the interaction he/she has with his/her family.

My school is Adams, but UNFORTUNATELY my son is not effectecd by the reassignment. We hoped, we waited, we begged, but we were disappointed..again... as usual. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE REASSIGN US! His school is Adams because his Base School is Briarcliff. As a neighborhood school it is a Failure. It effects our house values, our quality of life (see below), our children's future and our perception of NC. No one, (okay, 99%) in our neighborhood enrolls and graduates their child from Briarcliff. Was it a good school once? Absolutely, it's why we bought our house 11 years ago. Is it now? Not EVEN CLOSE! In our neighborhood we LONG for the idea of neighborhood schools where our children will grow up and be educated along with their peers and friends, develop a sense of community and school spirit.. Again, UNFORTUNATELY, it is a pipe dream for our neibhborhood which will likely be unrealized in the lifespans of our children. You've TOTALLY missed the boat on this one. Converting it to a Magnet Program would have solved the problem, but it wasn't, so our neighborhood "farms" its children out to year rounds, magnets, private schools...anywhere but there. WHAT ARE YOU THINKING????? I currently have my children on two separate Calendar schedules, rather than send my son to his base school. Talk about Family Hardship... but I can't look him in the face and tell him that we're okay with him attending a school with not only the lowest test scores, but the highest povery, esl and attrition rates in Cary. When are you going to start looking at this from the point of view of the students, instead of the administrators and test tabulators and the PR people writing about the NC schools in Forbes Magazine? We WERE one of the top school districts in the country. Maybe the curent reality hasn't caught up with the press, but Wake County Education is a sinking ship and we're throwing the children overboard as fast as we can to save the boat. AS far as I'm concerned you've failed my family and my children. You don't provide the educational programs/opportunites that my son needs and deserves. You Won't accept him into a magnet school that could, you callously leave our family in disarray and excuse yourself on the Grounds of Diversty. HELLOdiversity isn't working. Please wake up, smell the coffee, and START focusing on developing a plan and a program/ a concept that will strive to meet the needs of ALL Wake County children (yes, even the nondiverse ones)and stop throwing all your Hats into One Ring. Focusing our attention on the needs of neighborhoods would allow us to recognize and acknowledge the disparate needs of our low income/ esl students and meet them...IN THEIR NEIGHBORHOOD SCHOOLS, rather than bus them around the County and say we're doing it for their own good. Require tutoring or volunteer hours at these schools, from every WCPSS parent at a

Please consider keeping Leesville Elementary as our Year Round Option for this node (318.4). We went through the conversion last year and have really become fond of the schedule. Please consider keeping this as an option for us! Our family loves Leesville Elementary School. Stability is extremely important for my children. Leesville is our home! I understand the need to fill the base attendance area for Hilburn, but Green YR is not a good option. It is too far and it does not provide the stable environment that we are looking for! My older son has attended Leesville since Kindergarten (he will enter 3rd grade) and my younger son is a Kindergartner this year. We would love to continue on in this school. Please give us that option. I know that sometimes looking a maps and nodes, decisions get made without really considering the needs of the children. Please consider the need for stability and for us to stay at the Year Round school we love.

We moved here in 2005 and this will be the third school our children have attended since our move. We started at Wake Forest Elementary (which we loved),were then reassigned to Forest Pines El.(which we were skeptical, but went along with it), now you are talking about changing to North Forest Pines. My two children are suffering from all of these changes. They have not had any stability in their schooling since we moved here. Moving our children around every other year is a bit ridiculous. Why was our node not moved to North Forest Pines to begin with when the last reassignment occurred just a year and a half ago? I find this very poor planning by the district. I am not happy about being shuffled around once again within a two year time frame.

As a parent of a current second grader at Hilburn Drive, Daniel Boodee, who would be reassigned to Sycamore Creek, I am concerned about his schedule not meshing with that of my older children who are all three in Leesville Road High School. As a single mother, the impact on our family of having to balance a completely different school calendar for my youngest child could be overwhelming. Is there any way you can guarantee that my son could be placed in Track 4, which I understand is closest to a traditional calendar, thus minimizing the juggling I will need to do. I am pleased that Kristen Faircloth has been selected as Principal of Sycamore Creek and believe this (and hopefully the following of some Hilburn teachers to Sycamore Creek) would make this transition easier for my son, who is very sad about having to leave Hilburn.

We are very pleased to be moved to Sycamore Creek. Thanks

Dear Members of the Board: I cannot begin to express how thrilled I am with the proposed changes to our base school and the unchanged nature of our year-round option. First off, I have a tremendous amount of respect for both Brier Creek and Hillburn Elementary. I do not know that I would have been happy with any other options for our year-round our traditional calendar choices. Secondly, Hillburn Elementary is right behind our home, so I have always found it incongruent that it was not our base school. My husband and I are very interested in sending our son to a school that is close to home and within his community. I find that so many communities are somewhat disjointed due to scattered (location-wise) school assignments. We find it important to build within our own community and feel that our son will benefit from attending a school within his own territory. One of the resulting benefits will include his ability to foster more close friendships due to proximity and a shared community. I truly feel as though the school board got this one right and appreciate all of your hard and sound work on this project. Kindest Regards

If we are switched to Green Hope Elementary, a year round elementary school, our middle is still traditional. Conflicting schedules. Also we do not want year round. We currently attend Davis rive a traditional school, why are we now being assigned to a school further away and a totally different calender? We want DDE. No year round. What would our traditional option be? We should have the right to know all our options because we cannot be forced to year round. This plan just does not make sense. We are in a neighborhood that since DDE has opened its doors our neighborhood kids have gone. We should stay. This is unfair to our kids and families. We, West Park, are a huge part of the DDE PTA and we have a lot invested in this school. Please reconsider this grave mistake. Thanks.

Please, please do not do this to my precious daughter who has long time friendships at Baucom. It was hard enough to transition us to year-round. You just can not keep doing this to our families!!! She will be devastated!! I plead with you to leave our neighborhood out of this reassignment plan.

We are in node 338.2. Our children are currently enrolled in the year round school for our node, Green Year Round. The proposal has changed that to Leesville Road Elementary. We are fine with that, but the new year round school, Sycamore Creek is on the way from our house to Leesville Road Elementary. It is much closer to our home. However, we are happy to be in a closer school whichever one.

Per your "2008-09 Draft Reassignment Proposal for Laurel Park Elementary" it states, "Staff is suggesting that the new school have ... additional areas assigned as base to provide a population of students from lowincome families that will make the new school similar to other existing schools. The new assignments suggested by staff would result in about 32% of students at the new school coming from low-income families." Please explain how this is "similar to other existing schools". Per research from your website, other schools in the area reflect the following:
+ Davis Drive elem. 21%
+ Salem elem. 18%
+ Baucom elem. 14%
+ Green Hope elem. 10%.
It would seem that Laurel Park is being used to make up for below-goal diversity for a bunch of other schools in the area. This does not seem to be a good approach.

I am the parent of a 3rd grader at DDE who lives in MacArthur Park (Node 381.5), the Camelot subdivision. By pulling us out of DDE and reassigning us to Laurel Park, you have not only split our neighborhood down the middle and in two (so that children currently at our bus stop will now be attending a different school), but have presented me with a future filled with children on opposite schedules as our middle school is on a traditional calendar. As an extremely involved parent, I completely understand the problems you face and the need to fill these new schools. However, robbing my child of his friends, taking away my grandfathering option (because LP is a new school) and forcing me to be on two different calendars is truly offensive and will have a major impact in raising my children. I will continue to keep the faith that you can do better than this.

So happy to be assigned to a traditional calendar. I have been homeschooling my younger children (assigned to Leesville YR) this year to keep them on the same calendar as my older children who are on tradtional calendar. I am very happy to be assigned to a traditional calendar so close to my home.

Once again, the original "optional" year-round schools are the losers in this reassignment proposal. We at Green Elementary continue to lose our strong student population to the neighborhood "mandatory" yearround schools (i.e., Leesville, Briar Creek, Sycamore Creek). For equity, ALL nodes, not just select high income nodes, should have the closest year-round school included in their magnet choices.

Thank you for leaving node 374 intact with Cedar Fork Elementary as the base assignment. We also appreciate having this school remain a traditional school. Previously we have tried year round, but the repeated breaks and disruption of routine and stability were a tough adjustment for the kids. We enjoy and appreciate the Cedar Fork staff and administration - it's a good school, and we're happy to be staying there!

I am purchasing a home in Amberly on Chalk Maple Dr and noticed there was no change. The students in this subdivision will now travel PAST two elementary schools (Mills Park and Highcroft) to go to Green Hope Elementary. Seems like Mills Park would be the obvious choice for these children.

PLEASE give us a Year Round school of Brier Creek or Sycamore Creek. We were just switched to Year Round at LES and love it. Now to go to be sent to a traditional school-Hilburn is horrible. At least give us a YR closer-Sycamore or Brier Creek.

Please give this node/neighborhood a closer YR option. Many of us like YR and want to remain on this schedule but to have to go to Green instead of Leesville, Sycamore Creek or Brier Creek is not right. Please consider giving us closer YR options!! Give us back our school- Leesville. We are less than 1 mile from LES.Thank you

Please accept my sympathies for the very difficult position you have of managing high growth issues. You may have already factored in walking/biking proximity, but if not I wanted to point out some unique considerations for node 391.5. There are greenways linking all homes in this node in close proximity to Davis Drive and Turner Creek Elementary Schools. The walking/biking distance on these greenways is approximately 1.5 miles and no major roads are crossed, except via tunnel under highway 55 leading to Turner Creek. Converseley, to get to Green Hope Elementary from this node, one must traverse multiple major multi-lane highways and navigate three miles of winding heavy-traffic roads, without a shoulder or sidewalk. Like many of our neighbors, we are very active in our children's current school, volunteering frequently in the classroom and coordinating the volunteer activities of other parents as lead grade parents. However, doubling the distance and travel time (with added traffic) to our child's school will likely cut into the total amount of time we, as working parents, can commit to assist teachers in the classroom. If you have not already, please consider our children's safety and impacts on parental involvement when shifting neighborhoods to more remote assignments, such as that proposed for node 391.5. Thank you again for the difficult work you do in school assignments, managing the rapid growth in our part of the county.

My family is opposed to the proposal to split the Camelot neighborhood in MacArthur Park for numerous reasons including: 1-Davis Drive has been the primary school for years and is the closest facility to the neighborhood; 2-it is ridiculous to separate children from their friends at Davis with whom they have established relationships; 3-there is no immediate growth in the MacArthur Park neighborhood which warrants the need for children to be redistricted to a new school to accommodate increased neighborhood size; 4-many neighborhood children have siblings who attend Davis Drive Middle School - the children will be separated from the siblings, and it will put a huge burden on parents to have to drive to or attend events at two different schools to accommodate their children's events/requirements; 5-this will have a negative effect on neighborhood property values for those homes which are currently assigned to the highly desirable Davis Drive School node. There are many other reasons, but these are the most significant. The decision to switch school assignments for a neighborhood which has attended the Davis Drive facility for years is unneccesary, arbitrary and not at all beneficial to the children and their families.

I have a daughter in kindergarten at Davis Drive this year. This reassignment doesn't make sense to me. The first sentence says that this reassignment would put kids closer to home. Davis Drive is within walking distance for us, so moving us certainly doesn't help us in this way. Then if we choose out of year round our traditional school choice is in another part of town...how is this helping us? Also, MacCarther Park would be split up, it seems to me that neighborhoods should be on the same assignment, how is this helping with the building of a sense of comminity? With our middle school not changing eventually I will have two children on different schedules, definitely a problem down the road. Having to tell my shy little kindergartener who is loving school and has many friends that she will have to go to a new school just breaks my heart. I think she would have a hard time adjusting and then down the road when she has to move to middle school she would be back to readjusting again to a different school, plus friends that are split up again. Please try consider not having this node changed or as least having Davis Drive be our traditional calendar choice instead of Briarcliff. Thank you.

At Olive Chapel, we will welcome any children from low income families. However, these children seem to be coming from a node that is miles from our school-that would mean that their parents would not be able to be very involved. Wouldn't it make more sense to move some low income kids from Apex elementary to Olive Chapel.....or have you realized that you have shot yourself in the foot with the year round conversions because those parents will, no doubt, reject year-round because it is so expensive for child care, and it makes life incredibly difficult and exhausting having children on different schedules. Yes, I guess that is probably the answer. Maybe you should just dump the whole year round debacle, make all the schools MODIFIED year round (including the high schools) and then FILL the schools with children who live nearby! Instead, you are just further increasing your transportation budget by busing kids ALL OVER THE PLACE!!! The money could be better spent on educating the children, don't you think?

Once again, We moved to this area (Long Lake Townhomes)) and purchased a house to go to Leesville elementary school. It is close to our house(right across the street) and saves gas not to mention, we bought a house to be in this area. All of my daughters friends go to Leesville and with the proposed changes would stay at Leesville. Some stability for all children would be nice.
I do not want to have to move again only to find that in another year school assignments change again. Not to mention, the start time at the schools are very different. It has been a challenge just to get our jobs to work around the times now. It took awhile to get use to year round but we love it! Just looking for some consistancy! Please keep our year round option Leesville elementary. You are moving diversity out of Leesville area on this one. Thanks for considering my opinion

I don't understand how changing the Westpark neighborhood to Green Hope Elem. will help their diversity. Nodes 391.4 and 391.5 are not going to be adding to their FR #'s and will cause great heartache to the kids in these nodes and families that will now have children on different schedules. Our buses already are overcrowded many days, carrying two routes full of children home at once instead of the intended one route. We are told there are enough drivers/buses. Now there will be another bus needed for these kids 2x a day........ It does not make sense to change these kids from Davis Drive Elem (proposed fr 21% to Green Hope elem proposed 10%) Please look at this again. thank you

PERFECT!! This is exactly what we were hoping for. Thank you for being reasonable and thoughtful in your decision-making process.

Please review the middle school assignment as well for our node (651.0). Caroll Middle is way out of the area for just a hand full of children. These need to be reassigned to Leesville Road to keep areas contigious, neighborhood friends at one school and to avoid all the time and largely negative exposure (including traffic, waiting for unreplaced drivers that are on sick leave,...)traveling in a school bus. Thank you.

I appreciate that you are reducing the assignment area for Kingswood to prevent overcrowding. With all of the infill development going on in the area, the number of students within these nodes are increasing. Without the changes you are proposing, the school will be overcrowded and student achievement will be affected. Thank you.

We would be thrilled to be a part of this new school. It is closer to our home and is year-round which we are seeking for our children.

My daughter will be entering the 5th grade during the school year 2008-2009. She has been at Leesville Elementary since she started kindergarten. She has made the adjustment to the year round schedule this current school year at Leesville. The reassignment plan shows Hilburn, a traditional schedule school, as her new base school. It would be a hardship on my daughter if you moved her from a school she has attended for 5 years when she only has one year of elementary school left. Will my daughter be allowed to remain at Leesville since she will be entering the fifth grade? Will she be allowed to remain at Leesville since she is now on a year round schedule and Hilburn is on a traditional schedule? Please allow my daughter to remain at Leesville Elementary for her last year.

Our family is very happy with the proposed reassignment. We are unhappy with the crowding at Swift Creek this year. We are looking forward to the school being returned to optimal capacity for the best learning environment for all students. Please note that another option we would love for you to consider is to make Swift Creek a year-round school. This would be another effective way to achieve the proper capacity. Thank you for your time!

My children have been changed from Hilburn (traditional) to Sycamore (year-round) and I am very happy and excited for the change. I have two children at Leesville High as well but I think it will work out just fine. I just hope that the middle schools stay the same for a few years -- Thanks for all your hard work

Does Oak Grove remain year round?? Or does it become Traditional?? If Oak Grovers choose to remain, doesn't that cause overcrowding??

Hello, My daughter Rachel will be in 4th grade next year. This will be her 4 school in 4 years. We can not use the grandfather options because her brothers will be in 1st grade. We have lived in the same house the whole time. 4 schools in four years.

We have worked very hard to stick with COMBS - for building our community.Big PTA support.We strongly recommend NOT changing from Combs at this time.

Growth and Planning Staff, I am greatly disappointed to see my son being reassigned from Davis Drive Elementary to Green Hope Elementary for a few reasons. Firstly, you state that this is a move to improve diversity but we are not a low income node so moving us (and the other Westpark node 391.5) from Davis Drive (going from 9% to a whopping 21% low income) to Green Hope (going from only 6 to 10% low income) does nothing to help that diversity goal. Secondly, this splits my son and daughter up so now our morning commute will have us going by both Davis Drive Middle and Green Hope Elementary. Thirdly, my son has learning disabilities and is working under an IEP at Davis Drive. He is struggling in school and has made good but fragile progress at Davis Drive. Moving him to Green Hope could very well have adverse and damaging effects on his learning. For what? So Green Hope can have even lower diversity than Davis Drive? I don't get the rationale for moving our node as it doesn't help with diveristy whatsoever. I would love to provide an alternative suggestion, but I lack the data to help. If you can provide me a data file on each node, average household income, and distance from each school then perhaps I can generate an alternative. Can you give me that data? Without it I think it is unfair to ask for alternatives. Thanks for reading. I hope you will reconsider the move of nodes 391.4 and 391.5. Greatly disappointed

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