Across Wake County, parents are fighting the district's plan to reassign their students --shuffling kids and busing students miles from their home.
"The kids need a break, they really need a break from shuffling around," Nicolette Galvin said.
Dozens who packed a Cary High School auditorium worry their children won't adjust socially.
"Our kids will be losing their friends when they move from their middle school to their high school," Salem Middle School parent Rob Galvin said.
Others say reassignment will simply disrupt their lives.
"I'm going to be balancing a year round child a mile from my house to a child that would go to high school six miles from my house on a traditional calendar year," Heather Schneider said. "They're going to miss out on opportunities because I can't be two places at once."
Wake County school leaders say classrooms are full and at the rate the county is growing reassignment is needed to prevent overcrowding at new schools in the future.
The county's plan would move 26,000 students to different schools over the next three years. Essentially, one in five students would be transferred, many as part of the system's plan to focus on socio-economic diversity.
"They should just concentrate on the growth problem and not try to solve some off the other problems their trying to solve including the socio economic diversity," Galvin said. "If they focus just purely on growth they would have more money to spend for building new schools and investing in schools that really need it instead of wasted money on bussing kids around from across the county."
There are three more reassignment meetings scheduled. The next one is Wednesday night at Wake Forest Roseville High School.
In January, the reassignment plan will go to the board. They will then hold their own public hearings so it could be a while before parents and students know anything definitively.
