Parents unhappy about Wake's school assignment plan
CARY, NC (WTVD) -- More than 1,000 Wake County students are going to be impacted by the Wake County School District's new student assignment plan.
Parents and elementary school students arrived at Tuesday night's board meeting ready to protest the change.
Mills Park Elementary School dad Brad Hall says his sons are being ripped away from friends and the change will ruin the family's sense of community.
"Imagine a group of children going to the same school and fifteen percent of them are moved," said Hall. "We have dumped a lot of time, energy, and money into Mills Park. We've paid for a lot of things in that school. We're closer to the school (and) we're entrenched into the school with the teachers and the principal. It does not make sense."
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Wake is getting ready to open three new schools to ease overcrowding. River Bend Middle, Rogers Lane Elementary, and Horton Creek Elementary are all opening in fall of 2017.
"The reason we're opening these schools is because of extremely high growth," said WCPSS spokesman Matt Dees. "We're happy that people are here. We're happy that people want to attend our schools, but that means we have to build new schools to try to accommodate that growth."
Mills Park Elementary in Cary is 50 percent over capacity right now, and new students can't enroll.
"182 students who live in the Mills Park base attendance area cannot attended Mills Park Elementary because of an enrollment cap," Dees said. "We've had an enrollment cap at Mills Park Elementary for years. The board would prefer not to have any schools with an enrollment cap. Unfortunately, it's a reality."
The school board finalized the assignment plan Friday and presented it Tuesday during their meeting.
The board is expected to vote on the plan December 6.
