School board releases revised Wake County student assignment proposal
CARY, N.C. (WTVD) -- School assignment is once again in the spotlight for Wake County schools. At Tuesday's school board meeting, a revised draft of the plan, crafted in part by parents, was presented the board.
"We want to be looked at individually and not as a line on a map," said Chrissy Hudrick, one of many parents facing possible changes in the new school assignment plan. She lives in the Bishops Grant neighborhood in Wake Forest.
According to the first draft of the proposal, her neighborhood would fall under a base area for Richland Creek Elementary.
"Jones Dairy is currently 2.5 miles away from Bishops Grant, while it is a five mile drive to Richland Creek," she said.
Her issue was addressed in the second draft of the student assignment plan. Students now attending their base schools in the Bishops Grant neighborhood will now be able to stay at their current school with transportation.
Concerns like hers are echoing throughout the county, from a plan where roughly 30 to 40 schools are affected, either by adding students or changing schedules from year round or traditional. The new plan is supposed to help with issues of growth, overcrowding and fill under enrolled or new schools. Three of 17 planned new schools are scheduled to open by the next school year.
Click here to see the School Base Preview tool for 2015-2016.
"We are building the entire plan being mindful of all the schools coming in parts of the county," said Cathy Moore, Deputy Superintendent of School Performance for Wake County Schools.
They're also taking into account concerns from parents.
"Parents and community members know their neighborhoods best so we're working hard to keep neighborhoods together and make changes that make sense," said Christine Kushner, chair of the Wake County School Board.
So with a school district of 155,000 and growing, board members are examining every draft of this plan and won't have a final stamp of approval until December. A third draft will be reviewed in November but before that concerned residents will have several changes to speak their minds, either online or in four upcoming public meetings that will start at 6:30 p.m.:
- Oct. 9 at Wake Forest High School
- Oct. 14 at Apex High School
- Oct. 16 at Millbrook High School
- TBD at Southeast Raleigh High School
