General Wake County Schools discussion thread (2012) (Cary, Wake Forest: transport, kindergarten, activities)

[CHTransplant]

Or they can't really figure it out until they know which kids are going where ...

[raleighjayne]

Honestly, I thought that they were going to use express bus to manipulate the choices parents make. Give people 5 options but only provide neighborhood bus to 2 or 3 of those and they can funnel parents where the system wants them to go.

I'm at a loss for why they would not tell us which bus service we get with each choice. They are going to have a ton of upset parents if they only offer express service and parents don't find out until after the fact. At least there is the 2nd proximity round so people will have another chance to apply but this just seems ridiculous to me.

I still haven't heard back from student assignment but I will definitely update you when I find out.

[raleighjayne]

Ok, I have an update with some good news. Every school on your proximity list comes with neighborhood transportation for next year. It is in the box at the top of this page: Choice Selection Form |* | Wake Schools Assignment | Since I was a returning user, having signed up during the magnet selection period, I just hit 'returning user' right away. Didn't read that first page since it looked like it was all info on how to get entered into the system.

I missed that page and then couldn't find any info about neighborhood trans anywhere else. WCPSS said they may look at putting that info on the page where you actually rank your choices. I haven't heard anybody else ask the same question, so maybe I'm the only one who didn't read that info on the page.

Either way, I'm glad that they are offering neighborhood transportation to all of the choices.

[ducter]

for those that didnt see / hear about it:

Wake school board mulls rerouting buses to save $10M :: WRAL.com

some schools could end up being let out at 4pm..

[lamishra]

I think it's a CYA move based on how expensive the busing is going to be for this new assignment plan (which they've never openly discussed).

[twingles]

They want to move Davis Drive Middle to 7:30 start time - are they kidding? DD Elementary already starts at 7:45 and the bus comes at 7:00. What time would the bus come for a 7:30 start time - 6:45???

And they want to move DDE to 9:25...so if you have middle school and elementary school-aged kids, they would start school 2 hours apart. Yeah, that makes sense.

I agree with Lamishra BTW.

[evaofnc]

Man, 7:30 start time was hard enough in high school. I can't imagine doing it in middle school! Although I do remember reading about a study they did that showed if elementary school kids started school earlier in the day and high school kids started later they performed better in school.

[lamishra]

A lot of middle schools already at 7:30, in fact, I think most of them do, so it would bring DDM in line with the other middle schools in the area.

[CampCollins]

I've perused most of the 19 pages on this thread, and haven't seen anything directly pertaining to my current concern...
This statement in the assignment outline is unsettling to me:

"If you are selected for a seat at one of the schools you ranked, you will be assigned to that school for 2012-13 and you will not be able to decline the seat."

My #1 choice for my rising kindergartner happens to be the furthest distance of the 5. It currently shows only 57 applications for its 92 available seats. I'd like to feel hopeful based on that current stat, but the skeptic in me is wondering if Wake is going to factor in the distance and put my son at one of the schools closest geographically and stick by their "you will not be able to decline the seat" disclaimer. fyi... the schools closest to me are in the highest demand but I am not in favor of them for various reasons - my selection is not demographically driven.

Also, what's the point of the second round for current applications if first round applications are assigned and we aren't able to decline? Am I missing something?

[evaofnc]

If you didn't put a ranking next to any of the other choices, then it would seem to me you could decline the seat. So if you just put a 1 next to your choice and nothing else, then you didn't rank those other choices.