Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012

Parents learn more about schools plan

Choices can be made through Feb. 24, base schools no longer apply.

In the midst of all the talk about proximity, choice and feeder patterns, a member of the Wake schools' assignment task force wants parents to keep one thing in mind.

"If you like your current school, then don't do anything," Tamani Powell advised parents at a community meeting last Tuesday at East Garner Magnet Middle School. "If you want to stay where you are, don't even go into the application (process). Just sit back and relax."

About three dozen parents attended the information session on the same day the new assignment plan debuted on the school system's website. More than 2,200 parents registered their school choices online in the first hour, according to schools Superintendent Tony Tata.

But Powell told parents who gathered in Garner that assignments for the 2012-13 school year won't be granted based on who registered first. Families may make selections and even change their choices through Feb. 24.

"You do not have to be first; there is no priority," Powell said. "You have time to explore and tour your choices."

The new assignment plan offers each student at least five elementary schools, two middle schools and two high schools. The options include year-round and traditional-calendar schools at the elementary and middle school levels. Another option is a designated "regional choice elementary," a school with a track record of achievement.

Students will be assigned to schools based on available seats and a weighted system of priorities, such as distance from home and which schools older siblings attend.

Incoming kindergartners, newcomers to the system and students transferring out of charter, private or home schools will be required to take part in the new process.

Currently, each address in Wake County is attached to base schools, but that will no longer be the case next year with the new assignment plan. The demise of the base school is a key difference between the current plan and the new plan and a reason that Powell counseled parents to make their selections carefully.

Once families choose a school, she said, they have to stick with it for the school year. "If you ask for it and get it, it's yours," she said.

That includes magnet school selections. Families have already have found out if their children got magnet seats or were placed on waiting lists.

Another key difference is that the new plan sets up feeder patterns, or school assignments that a child follows through elementary, middle and high school.

For some parents, that change is raising questions.

"I think I'm going to try and get another feeder," said Robin Bennett, a mother with a rising middle school student. "I didn't realize until this weekend my middle (school) would determine my high school."

Tina Carter wants her rising middle school student to attend a regional choice school. But that would place her rising fourth-grader in a different feeder pattern.

Carter said she wished she didn't have to go through this process during her child's middle school years. "I understand it will resolve the crowding issues at different schools and perhaps smooth things out, but right now it's complicated."

Some parents said they went to the meeting to learn more about the new plan.

"I came tonight for clarity and understanding because I was totally lost with what was going on," said parent Wanda Lassiter. "I walked away understanding there is the possibility to make changes down the road, but there's also less of a possibility than there has been in the prior system because of the limited space opportunities."