NO NEIGHBORHOOD SCHOOLS in Wake County (Durham, Sanford: renting, middle school, tax)

[mommiewrites]

Yes, I understand your frustration, I really do. But Cary Hasn't been a mayberry since 1990.

The state and the media pushed Cary as THE place to live, and still do. And its a great place, despite all the issues, we are considering buying a house in Cary (and I have 2 kids). But one thing people coming in need to understand, is that this is a very high growth area. They can't build schools fast enough to keep pace. Then you add in the fact (which is the ridiculous part to me) of bussing students for economic diversity.

I fully agree that you should go to school where you live. But anymore, that isn't what happens. I do think the school board is TRYING, but it is IMPOSSIBLE to make everyone happy.

All you can do is attend the forums and meetings and hearings, and vote for school board members who are as much along your view points as possible- and sadly, very few do.

Even with all of the redistricting, Wake County schools are still excellent, and in the long run, THAT is what matters most. Yes, it is a royal PITA to have to drive your kids further, or have them taken to a school 10 miles away. Active parents will still be active, no matter what school their kids go to. MOST parents, are not active. You go to my daughters school and you see the same handful year after year.

So yes, I do sympathize, I do understand, but this is the hand we've been dealt, and it must be played accordingly. As parents, we do have other options, and some parents may choose to seriously explore those options.

Originally Posted by SarahMom

mommiewrites,
- well, yes. sigh.
Homeschooling is terrific, if only I had the confidence that it would be successful given the personalities involved. (myself included).

Private schools are a great option if you can/want to spend $21,000 for 3 kids per year. AND if you can get IN (waiting lists are a mile long now)

Charter schools are looking less and less like a hairbrained idea to me now, yes.

Magnet schools, yes if they weren't so FAR away. I don't want MY kids on the bus for 45 min each way either.

You see, mommiewrites, we have had a fabulous neighborhood public school doing a terrific job for our family in the 3 years since my first child started. We can walk to school, although often they take the bus. Can you tell how much I resent big brother coming in, pushing us out of our school and wreaking havoc in my life? Working with a family is a hard enough scheduling nightmare without things changing every year. This kind of instability is not what we worked so hard for and chose this neighborhood for. I think others moving in might take heed. Mayberry is not all its cracked up to be anymore.

[NYCinNC]

By some of the Posts here it seems that it is affecting the Parents more than the Kids. If your kids have to go to a school that is 10 mins away than the one that is right down the block from you. Whats the big deal. I remember having to travel an 1 hour and half to get to school by Bus and Subway back in NYC. Your Kids are not going to be traumatized. My Daughter is 2 right now, so I will plan accrodingly

[findingmesomeday]

Originally Posted by SarahMom

NChomesomeday, In what way does the Fairfax Cty VA school system work very nicely? Does big brother tell the little kids to 'jump Johnnie, jump!" every year? If they don't use this very-disruptive-to-familes-and-neighborhoods technique, then I think it could be worth looking at!

Fairfax County has neighborhood children attending neighborhood schools (with as many as 2-4 elementaries feeding into a middle an 2-3 middles feeding into a high school, so yes, those schools are farther away).

There is no "redistricting" based on social diversity which IN MY OPINION is enforced bussing and we all saw how well that worked back in the 1970's.

Other posters who have lived in Fairfax County have said it works there because the county is more homogenous than the Triangle area and I guess to a degree that's true---IF the real goal is diversity. However, even Fairfax has it's very well to do areas and it's borderline, if not downright poverty areas and yes there are some schools performing better than other schools. But overall the county has a very well regarded school system and I think they are a good example of how to make it work in a large county. There are over a million people in FFX cty.

Fairfax does have immersion and other specialty programs. I can't call them "magnets" per se because they are not specifically chosen because of the financial and social make up of the area in which they are in.

BTW, I live in MA right now where all the schools are town based, not county based. There are pros and cons to this system but the biggest "pro" is the neighborhood school. The "con" is that if you decide to move 1/2 mile away and it happens to be in a different town, you have to pull your kids out of school and put them in the local town school. Most people don't do that because they become attached to their town though. Almost 25% of the moves in my town are from one house to another WITHIN town.

[ny,ny]

Originally Posted by SarahMom

[SIZE=1]Please know before you move here with children that Wake County School Board president Rosa Gills publically announced in the News and Observer that THERE ARE NO NEIGHBORHOOD SCHOOLS IN WAKE COUNTY. iWhich means, that if you move here you can look forward to the insecurity of not knowing whether your child will, from one year to the next, be reassigned arbitrarily by the school board. I have three children and my whole family affected by this big brother decision. I encourage you to do research into the school board's biographies. It will become clear that their priorities are a social engineering agenda and not an educational agenda for your children. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=1][/SIZE]
[SIZE=1]Many children are 'shipped' 45 min or more one way with school beginning at 7am. Think about how much time there is to reconnect with family and study at home....[/SIZE]
[SIZE=1][/SIZE]
[SIZE=1]Welcome to Socialism circa 2008....[/SIZE]
[SIZE=1][/SIZE]
[SIZE=1]Read on.....[/SIZE]
[SIZE=1][/SIZE]
[SIZE=1]"No Neighborhood Schools"[/SIZE]
[SIZE=1]newsobserver.com | Dozens rally in Cary against reassignments[/SIZE]
[SIZE=1][/SIZE]
[SIZE=1]Board is not listening[/SIZE]
[SIZE=1]http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/media?id=5894074[/SIZE]
[SIZE=1][/SIZE]
[SIZE=1]Parents are hating it[/SIZE]
[SIZE=1]http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/media?id=5891912[/SIZE]
[SIZE=1][/SIZE]
[SIZE=1]Background of our Growth Manager[/SIZE]
[SIZE=1][/SIZE]
[SIZE=1][font=Helv]Public face of reassignment values diversity[/SIZE]
[SIZE=1]News & Observer, The (Raleigh, NC)[/SIZE]
[SIZE=1]March 5, 2006[/SIZE]
[SIZE=1]Author: T. Keung Hui; Staff Writer[/SIZE]
[SIZE=1]Estimated printed pages: 4[/SIZE]
[SIZE=1]Want to be hated by parents and taxpayers? Then the Wake County school system has the job for you.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=1]You get to oversee the student reassignment plan. You have to figure out how to convert schools to a year-round calendar. And you determine how many new schools have to be built in a bond issue that will raise property taxes.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=1]It's all in a day's work for Chuck Dulaney, who recently accepted the newly created position of assistant superintendent for growth and planning.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=1][/SIZE]
[SIZE=1][/SIZE]
[SIZE=1][/SIZE]
[SIZE=1][/SIZE]

SaraMom,

Great post! You are doing a service to any one looking to move to Wake County. People need to be aware of the WCPSS agenda.

It amazes me how closed minded people are on this subject. To put F&R's and ESL ahead of quality of education just seems to be political foolishness and not consistent with the childrens best interest.

WCPSS is not handling growth well at all, they are in way over their head!

Last I heard we still had freedom of speech in the USA, and recall that was part of the process. I applaud your efforts at expressing your opinion and thank you for your post!

[VaNC]

To put F&R's and ESL ahead of quality of education just seems to be political foolishness and not consistent with the childrens best interest.

I thought that thinking of these students too WAS about quality of education FOR EVERYBODY.

I agree with the PP who said, it seems like the parents that are upset, not the kids. As I have said before, multiple times on this board. I am 40 years old and recall getting redistricted as a kid to a much farther away school. The rest of my neighborhood did too. My Mom didn't say anything other than...hey, here is the school you are going to. As long as the school they are assigned to is a good school (which most in Wake are) I just don't get the complaint.

I also think you are misinterpreting Rosa's statement. She is saying that Wake County has to move kids around as needed to fill new schools, etc. Their primary mission is to provide a quality education for ALL students in Wake County. By the looks of the statistics, they are doing a great job of that. We should be thankful to live in a place with great schools. I am really blown away that people would CHOOSE a lower performing school district than WAke just to avoid redistricting. Are those people looking more at the quality of the education that their kids are getting or convenience? My kids are getting a great education in Wake County schools.

[MAtoNC!]

Originally Posted by NYer

Yes, tehy are... the neighborhood by
Triangle Town Center is not near Wakefield HS, and Wake Forest is not by Knightdale, by any stretch. It should not be so hard to make the nodes contiguous while still serving the sated goals of the diversity policy.
However, some nodes are more equal than others... some people maintain less diverse, neighborhood schools, and some nodes are bussed all over the place. Some nodes are jammed into overcrowded, underpreforming schools instead of being bussed to better performing schools with space.
It is hard to argue with the idea of spreading out the underperforming kids... that is only fair.
It is hard to argue that every kid should not have access to an equivalent education. But, in practice, it seems that the same people get the short end of the stick, every time. Rich kids are in the better schools. Poor ones are in the underperforming schools, and the middle class? Depends on the policial clout of the people in your node... it can go either way.

What I meant by that Cary kids are not sent to Wake Forest and Knightdale kids are not sent to Holly Springs, etc.

Example of regional middle/high schools in Essex County, MA:

Triton Regional: Salisbury, Newbury, Rowley

Pentucket Regional: Merrimac, West Newbury, Groveland

Masco: Boxford, Topsfield, Middleton

Hamilton-Wenham: Hamilton-Wenham



These regional schools were put into place intially because there wasn't growth. Twenty years later the sprawl of Boston commuters has caused growth. But not enough for each town to have a school. And most of these towns have one elementary school per town. It's just not designed that way.

Yes, the growth from transplants has caused most of the redistrciting. But it seems that before that Wake County weren't neighborhood schools by deisgn anyway.

Originally Posted by SarahMom
How is it pro-child to ship a kindergartener on a bus at 5:45 in the morning 1 hour to begin school at 7am? They haven't had breakfast and often sleep through the first couple of hours because they're exhausted! These are actual stories at our school. I feel so angry that these children are being shuffled around and the sacrifices they're making don't show in results FOR THEM.

What school in WCPSS starts kindergarten at 7:00am? My daughter goes to elementary school in Morrisville. She starts class shortly after 9:00am and it ends at 3:40pm.

[NYer]

What I cannot stand is that the education varies so wildly. Example: Either ALL the elementary schools should have one or two foreign languages, or band, or dance, or NONE of them (except for magnets) should have them.
Part of why people cling to a school, and fight about being sent 5 miles down the road is that the educational opportunities are so different! Some schools have regular concerts, & 2 or 3 foreign languages, others have none,because they are overcrowded! But, they don't fill up the new schools, do they? So, even after they have done their tinkering with moving kids around, you cannot, for example, chose to send your kid to a year round that has space!
My kids are at Jones Dairy. Language & Computers & Science? GONE! Lots of kids got moved to Sanford Creek & N Forest Pines, 2 new schools. Did those parents complain? Course not. Why? Jones Dairy is crowded, again, and the 2 new schools have class sizes of 17 or 18, plus all the specials we lack! Now couldn't they have moved more kids to the new schools, or let us choose to move there, and also let Jones Dairy have some specials?
If not, why not?
Same with removing the magnet status of Wake Forest ES. They did that because it was no longer "diverse"... the need to draw people to it was gone. Well, we all just paid thousands to install special dance classrooms that in a few years will be unused. Why not just reassign kids to fit the demographic you seek? Why throw the baby out with the bathwater?

[findingmesomeday]

There are regional high schools in Norfolk County and Middlesex Cty too. But they are no more than two town. Dover-Sherborn (total 600 kids!) Lincoln Sudbury. Etc.

Most of the schools don't have enough base and $$$ for technical/vocational so those are taken care of by schools such as TriCounty Voc/Tech, Keefe Tech, Whittier Tech, etc. All free to county residents.

[HollyMarshall]

Originally Posted by NYCinNC

By some of the Posts here it seems that it is affecting the Parents more than the Kids.

I would think a parent ranting and raving, running back and forth like Henny Penny yelling the sky is falling would eventually trickle down to the kids. Otherwise, I agree with you and think parents can talk their kids through these changes and they do just great.

[lamishra]

Originally Posted by HollyMarshall

I would think a parent ranting and raving, running back and forth like Henny Penny yelling the sky is falling would eventually trickle down to the kids. Otherwise, I agree with you and think parents can talk their kids through these changes and they do just great.

Don't worry, this will all settle back down in a few weeks after the proposals have been finalized and people move on with their lives (and schools) whichever ones they might be. This "ranting and raving" happens for a few months every year and then it all settles back down again. I suspect we'll be reading and hearing a lot about it in the next few weeks.