Does the redistricting problem effect middle and high schools too? (Raleigh: home, neighborhood)

[Kim Mauch]

We are considering relocation and hear so much about the redistricting problems. My children are late elementary/early middle school age. Does it effect the middle school and high school kids too?

[House Lady]

simply because there aren't as many students in the higher levels. I wish some demographer would explain that to me.
We took an informal survey of 50 realtors in my office regarding their personal experiences and what they hear from others. There were only a few incidences of involuntary school changes. The rest were from people choosing to move to another neighborhood, etc. Of those that were involuntary, there were no complaints. The families loved the new schools and transportation had been worked out. It wasn't a controlled survey, but all of us know quite a few people. I just asked earlier on another thread to hear from parents whose kids have been moved. We don't hear much from those who haven't actually had the experience, just those worried about it happening. (Ditto for the year round schools.) People move around here so much that kids are frequently changing schools anyway. Also, the vast majority of kids are not moved, just a small percentage. I saw those stats on an earlier post. Anyone remember them?

[Lisalrenee]

Is it that there aren't so many kids at the higher level - or that there are significantly more kids per high school? I mean high schools around here have like 2000 kids in them -- which is about 10 times more than many elementary schools.

[House Lady]

I was just kidding. The higher level schools are larger. I really do not know the stats on how many kids are in each grade level. Does anyone have that?

[just_sayin']

The average Wake County school has between 1500 and 2100 students. Yes, High Schools and Middle Schools get reassigned, but no, not as often as elementary schools. The area of Apex we lived in was assigned to Apex High for our son's first 3 years there, and then for the 2006-2007 school year, his senior year, it was reassigned to Panther Creek High school, which is up in Cary/Morrisville about 20-25 minutes way. Upperclassmen (rising juniors and seniors) stayed at Apex high, while the freshman at Apex high who lived in that area (basically everything in Apex west of Kelly Road, as well as anywhere north of 64) had to move to Panther Creek for their sophomore year. My daughter was a rising freshman that year; so for the 2006-2007 school year I had a son who was a senior at Apex High and a daughter who was a freshman at Panther Creek. I believe they did the same thing for areas of Cary assigned to Green Hope HS, and NW Raleigh assigned to Leesville; took the freshman from those areas and moved them from those schools to Panther Creek. There were also freshman from Apex who were reassigned to Holly Springs HS for their sophomore year.

[VickiR]

Mostly when a new high school opens, the rising 9th graders go to the new high school and the others finish out at their original high school.

There is too much rivalry to move kids from high school to high school.

I can't imagine that it would be so awful to have a 9th grader at one high school and a 11th grader at another. After all, with 4 kids, there was a time when I had one in elementary school, 1 in middle and 1 in high school and one at home with me!!!

Vicki