Draft Wake school reassignment plan could affect 3,000 students. See how 62 schools would be affected

Most students reassigned under the Wake County Public School System’s proposed reassignment plan would be sent to one of the district’s three new schools, a WRAL News analysis of the district’s first draft shows.

About 2,300 to 3,000 Wake County children would be affected by the Wake County Public School System’s first draft enrollment plan for next year.

The Wake County Board of Education will meet Tuesday to discuss a second draft of the proposal, based on feedback from constituents. District officials plan to have a public hearing on the proposal later this month.

Most of the student impact would come from an effort to fill new schools in growing parts of the county. Three new schools opening next fall — two elementary schools and one middle school — are expected to enroll about 2,000 students.

Reassignments into and out of about a quarter of the district’s 200 other schools would result in gains or losses of just a handful to several dozen students at most of them. Those reassignments are meant to relieve overcrowded schools and fill underused schools.

Most of the schools where enrollment would rise or fall are on the outer edges of Wake County, outside of Raleigh.

The vast majority of students, around 98%, would not be affected by the reassignment plan.

Reassignments under the school district’s first draft of the 2022-23 school assignment plan would largely send students to schools closer to their homes, Office of Student Assignment Senior Director Glenn Carrozza has said.

The district held four virtual listening sessions in October and November, answering people’s questions about the changes submitted electronically. They’re available to rewatch on the district’s YouTube page.

During an information session earlier this month, Carrozza fielded questions about relieving overcrowded schools by changing them to year-round schools. He said such a change would impact all students, instead of only those reassigned, and that the district didn’t take calendar changes lightly.

On the current enrollment timeline, eligible families could request their children stay at their current school from Dec. 13 through Jan. 2, via a Stability Transfer request that would forfeit bus transportation to school.

People can see how they might be impacted by the proposed enrollment plan using the district’s address lookup tool.

Where the new schools are

Next year, the school system will open Apex Friendship Elementary School, Barton Pond Elementary School in north Raleigh and Hebert Akins Road Middle School in Fuquay-Varina.

Those will be the only new schools for the next two years.

The base areas affected by the elementary schools are largely near the county’s western border, in Apex and far west Raleigh.

The new Apex Friendship Elementary School will primarily impact Olive Chapel and Scotts Ridge elementary schools, which are both over capacity. The schools will continue to be over capacity once the new school opens but at a significantly lower rate than projected. Carrozza said about 500 students have already been capped out of Olive Chapel Elementary.

Several base areas would be affected by the opening of Barton Pond Elementary School in west Raleigh.

Fuquay-Varina and Holly Grove middle schools — both over capacity — would be primarily impacted by the opening of Herbert Akins Road Middle School.

Both new elementary schools will be on a traditional calendar, and the new middle school will have a multi-track calendar.

The numbers

WRAL’s estimates are based off of district projections for enrollment next year at the affected schools and the difference between what that enrollment would be if no reassignment occurred and what it would be if it did. The district projected approximate percentages of how full each school would be under both scenarios.

WRAL News multiplied each school’s enrollment capacity by those two percentages, as well as more precise percentages that would round up or down to the district’s approximate percentage. That provided an estimated range of how many students would be affected at each school and district-wide.

About 2,300 to 3,000 students would be less than 2% of the district’s nearly 160,000 students.