Wake Schools is sticking with its reassignment proposal

The Wake County Public School System isn't making any changes to its proposed plan to reassign several thousand students next year to new schools.

Families that opposed the first draft told the school board Tuesday that they were disappointed no changes were being made to the proposal.

The second draft of the assignment plan was released during the school board’s work session Tuesday, as scheduled, although it doesn't include any changes. The school system is still scheduled to host another virtual information session on the proposal Oct. 24, and they will open another feedback portal on the second draft. A public hearing is set for Nov. 8.

No school board vote adopting the plan will occur until Nov. 21 — after a third and final draft is formed. It has the potential to affect up to 5,000 students and their families, moving them out of 21 schools and into different schools.

Sana Hadley, who is protesting the move of Garner's Magnolia Park and Oak Park families from Bryan Road Elementary to Aversboro Elementary, says she'll keep contacting board members, pushing for changes.

School board members asked system officials to consider more in-person feedback sessions in the future. The system has used virtual feedback since issuing the first draft of the proposal and did in-person focus groups before that only where new schools were set to open.

Some families need different ways to offer feedback, Board member Tara Waters said.

Reassignment is an annual practice in the fast-growing school system. It’s partly prompted by new schools opening and is often prompted by school crowding, as well. Many families aren’t worried by the proposals — some neighborhoods even ask for reassignment — but many others find them disruptive and worry about the impact changing schools will have on their children.

Ashley Arnold, whose daughters would move from Parkside Elementary to Pleasant Grove Elementary under the initial proposal, says her husband had to switch schools in Wake County when he was in second grade.

“He remembers thinking it was tragic for him. … He didn't like his new school because his friends weren't there,” Arnold told WRAL News. “And he's like, this is happening all over again.”

Some families told WRAL News they don’t know where their children would go to school next year because they don’t want to change calendars — from traditional to year-round, or vice versa — but won’t be eligible to stay at their old school, either.

On Tuesday, Board Member Chris Heagarty, who represents Arnold and other affected neighborhoods in Morrisville and North Raleigh, asked school officials to consider making Pleasant Grove Elementary a year-round school. It would align with the calendars many of the families moving into Pleasant Grove are already on, as well as the middle school calendars some of their children are already on.

"We can’t avoid the disruption that’s associated with growth. … But we can do something about that calendar," Heagarty said. Officials said they would talk to families in the area about the idea.

A common frustration among parents is that families in established neighborhoods are often reassigned to make room at their schools for families who will be moving into closer, newer developments.

But system officials have said sending new neighborhoods to schools farther away, and keeping older neighborhoods in schools they’re not as close to, is inefficient for their struggling transportation system. They called that type of assignment “hopscotching.”

More development is planned for Morrisville, creating thousands of new homes, Heagarty said. He asked whether system officials had considered that development and the possibility that Pleasant Grove Elementary might become overcrowded, forcing families to move to yet another school.

Officials met with Morrisville leaders in recent days on that pending project, said Susan Pulliam, the system's senior director of student assignment.

"We had no indication we would need to reassign these families any time soon, based on their projections," Pulliam said.

David Klages, another Parkside Elementary parent, told the school board Tuesday, during public comment, that he was worried about future development in the area and the pending construction of a new middle school and a new high school in Morrisville.

"There’s a good chance these neighborhoods could get impacted again," Klages said. The school board should develop a comprehensive plan for the new schools and nearby neighborhoods before having families move elementary schools, he said.

Some of the affected areas have experienced reassignments already in the past decade.

School system officials have held four virtual information sessions, in which they took some audience questions submitted via a chat.

At the Oct. 3 school board meeting, two school board members spoke about their concerns related to some of the reassignment proposals. One family having to be on multiple calendars would be very disruptive, Heagarty said.

The proposed student assignment plan for next year would, for the most part, move students out of overcrowded schools or into schools closer to them.

But some families who would move out of overcrowded schools would move to schools farther away from them. Some would have to change calendars, and calendars for elementary students may not align with calendars for middle school siblings.

The proposal affects fewer schools than in recent years, although it’s likely to affect a similar number of students. That’s about 2% to 3% of the system’s roughly 161,000 students.

Most, but not all, families affected would be able to apply to stay at their current school through a stability transfer, but most would not receive any bus transportation if they transferred.

Families moving from Parkside Elementary or Alston Ridge Elementary to Pleasant Grove, for example, would not be able to transfer if their oldest elementary school child is currently in the second grade or younger. The same would apply to families being moved into the new Woods Creek Elementary in Holly Springs.