Wake plans 2 new magnet schools, changes at 3 other magnet schools

The Wake County Board of Education is applying for federal funds to turn two schools into magnet schools and change the magnet school programming at three more schools.

The board approved an application Tuesday for the funding, which is needed to renovate and upgrade parts of the schools to better serve new programming.

The two new magnet schools would be East Wake High School and Wendell Middle School, which would be part of a five-school magnet theme revision in the county’s eastern side.

Wake County Public School System leaders project growth in suburban areas in the eastern half of Wake County. At the same time, the district faces increased competition in those areas from private and charter schools.

That’s created an opportunity to draw more students to existing schools on the county’s eastern side that are below capacity, Kimberly Lane, district senior director of magnet and curriculum enhancement, told the board at its student achievement committee earlier this month.

The new schools would not be application-based. Rather, they’d only be for students already living in the schools’ base attendance zones.

If the grants are approved, the schools’ themes would change over the course of the next five years.

East Wake High School would specialize in science, technology, engineering, the arts and math (known as “STEAM” curriculum), and Wendell Middle School would focus on arts and design.

Zebulon Magnet Elementary School and Zebulon Magnet Middle School, currently “gifted and talented’ schools, would further specialize in science, technology, engineering and math. They would also add “academically and intellectually gifted” basic courses.

Wendell Magnet Elementary School, currently focusing on arts and science, would become an arts and design school.

Design could include courses in computer-based technologies and artificial intelligence.

The school system surveyed parents, including parents who had enrolled their children in charter schools, and a panel of businesses, finding that science, arts and academically and intellectual gifted programs were among the most desired magnet school themes. Charter school parents said they would consider returning to the school system if they had more opportunities to send their children to nearby schools offering more rigor and opportunity.