Wake school board renames two schools, honors top magnet schools

The Wake County Board of Education on Tuesday voted to rename two schools in Wake Forest and honored 25 magnet schools who were recently recognized by a national association.

Posted 2:37 a.m. Apr 10, 2013 — Updated 2:37 a.m. Apr 10, 2013

CARY, N.C. — The Wake County Board of Education on Tuesday voted to rename two schools in Wake Forest and honored 25 magnet schools who were recently recognized by a national association.

Both Wake Forest-Rolesville Middle School and Wake Forest-Rolesville High School will drop Rolesville from their names in anticipation of the new Rolesville High School opening next school year.

In fall 2012, the school system completed construction on the new Rolesville Middle School as well.

So, Wake Forest-Rolesville Middle School will be renamed Wake Forest Middle School and Wake Forest-Rolesville High School will be changed to Wake Forest High School.

The school system says the new names will eliminate the potential for confusion and better correspond to the communities the schools serve.

Also at Tuesday's meeting, the board honored eight Wake County magnet schools that were named Schools of Excellence by the Magnet Schools of America. That's the top award the national group gives each year.

Seventeen other schools were recognized as Schools of Distinction.

The 25 schools are the largest number of Wake County magnet schools ever to be honored by the organization.

"We appreciate the hard work of our schools, their teachers and their families in earning this national recognition for our school system and our community,” Wake County Board chair Keith Sutton said in a statement. “The number of our schools earning national recognition speaks to the quality of our magnet program. We are proud of the wonderful opportunities in our magnet schools for our students.”

The Schools of Excellence are: