Booming growth breeds angst in Wake County parents amid school district re-assignment plan

CARY, N.C. (WTVD) -- As the largest school district in the state, in one of the fastest-growing counties in the country, the Wake County Public School System (WCPSS) is constantly trying to keep up with a growing number of students.

District officials are trying to balance the need for new schools with the interests of families already established in their communities.

It's putting some families in a difficult position, especially those in the fast-growing portion of western Wake County near areas such as Apex and Cary. Many families voiced concerns Tuesday night at the WCPSS board meeting about how this plan pulls their children from their well-established and nearby schools, to place them in new schools farther from their homes and away from their friends and communities.

"We've worked so hard to build that community consistency, that network of parenthood, it would just be devastating," Bailey Butler told ABC11. Butler's kindergartener attends Olive Chapel Elementary, which is on a year-round calendar. When her now-3-year-old eventually enters the school system, if she isn't granted an exception, Butler will have children on different schedules.

Jason Schreuder's family is in a similar predicament. He has three young children who will switch back and forth between year-round and traditional calendar year schedules at different times if his family also is not granted an exception.

"We'll be on multiple, multiple calendars and we're going to have to juggle that with two working parents, and it's going to be a nightmare," Schreuder said.

Though the scheduling conflicts will be difficult to navigate, Schreuder said his bigger concern lies with the emotional well-being of his children switching back and forth between different schools. The schools they're being pulled from will isolate them from their current friends, and then by the time they're ready for high school, Schreuder said they'll be switched again away from their friends for a second time.

"They're at risk of having to make new friends two times in the next five, six years, and I'm concerned about the long-term stability for them," Schreuder said.

WCPSS's Senior Director for Student Assignment Susan Pullium told ABC11 that the district does not take re-assignment lightly and tries to minimize the effect on families as much as possible.

"We've been trying to be really responsive to these communities and help them understand why the recommendations are being made," Pullium said. "We do understand that change is just something that some communities just are not ready for ... we get that. We understand that."

She said that school re-assignment is part of a growing district, and on some level is unavoidable. Pullium also mentioned that many people who are moving here might be from areas that don't have county-wide districts, and may not initially be fully familiar with the demands of a county-wide district with hundreds of schools, vs. smaller municipal districts with far fewer schools.

"We have four new schools that we're opening for the 2025-2026 school year, and they're all in areas that are experiencing high rates of growth. So, that's by design. We really do project for far in advance, and we know that these communities are going to be growing and developing and that we're going to need these schools," Pullium said. "In order to make sure that we have sufficient number of students to successfully operate those schools, we need to identify attendance areas."

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She said the district began doing meetings earlier in the fall in response to parent feedback, asking parents to raise any concerns they may have as early as possible to help shape the re-assignment plan. She said there have been five revisions just from one parent feedback session last month.

Parents such as Schreuder said they've been involved in every step of the process, voicing specific concerns and providing feedback. He spoke up again during Tuesday night's meeting in a final effort to change the fate of his kids in WCPSS.

"I'm hopeful," Schreuder said. "If I didn't think there was a chance, I wouldn't be here."

Pullium said that the district deeply appreciates feedback from families and that it does shape how re-assignment decisions are made over time. For example, the district received feedback from parents that they would rather have the district fill schools more slowly than have to re-assign children multiple times as areas grow. To make that happen, every single one of their four new schools has a recommended or projected opening enrollment of less than 70%.

"We're trying to do a better mixture of existing neighborhoods and new neighborhoods so that they can have a more stable assignment long term," Pullium said.

In 2017, the North Carolina state legislature also passed a bill that caps class sizes for kindergarten through third-grade students, so that teachers are responsible for fewer students at a time, which contributes to the necessity of these new schools and re-assignment plans.

"When we're in a high growth area, elementary schools really are the ones that feel the fastest because of those restrictions, particularly in kindergarten through third grade, and so unfortunately, that means that our elementary schools are the ones that are opening at the fastest rate and are experiencing the most impacts from a school opening or a reassignment," Pullium said.

The final vote on this re-assignment plan will take place Nov. 26.

With continued growth in Wake County, WCPSS knows there will be future re-assignment decisions that have to be made. They encourage parents to engage early with the district to help them make these decisions before plans are finalized.