Commissioners want to rethink Wake year-round schools plan

Wake County officials said Wednesday that they would like to take another look at the school district's plan to operate all new elementary and middle schools on year-round schedules and to convert some existing schools from a traditional calendar to year-round.

During a joint meeting of the county Board of Commissioners and Board of Education, commissioners questioned the need to pursue year-round schools exclusively. They pointed to enrollment growth that didn't meet projections last fall and the community uproar over the policy.

About 6,000 students enrolled in Wake County public schools for the first time last fall, while projections called for about 8,000 new students. Also, many year-round schools last year were below capacity because hundreds of parents opted to stay in traditional-calendar schools when the district converted 22 schools to year-round schedules.

Chairman Joe Bryan said the commissioners don't plan to meddle with the district's student-reassignment plan, but they wanted to make sure parents had enough options to have children attend both traditional-calendar and year-round schools.