Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
My family and I are considering a move to the Raleigh/Durham area Summer 2021. I have read quite a few threads on here that discuss schools and I am overwhelmed and confused by the information. Can someone please provide clarification on the following things:
Are all the public schools in this area year round?
Why are there year round schools at all in this area?
Overcrowding seems to be a major factor, are there places we can move to that don't have caps/bussing to other schools that are still ranked highly?
Some schools are on a traditional calendar. Some have too many students and are capped and others are underenrolled. Just make sure you’re happy with the base school wherever you move, because at that point in the year it’s very unlikely you would be able to switch to your traditional option or get a magnet/charter seat.
Last edited by farebluenc; 02-04-2020 at 10:18 PM..
Also the rankings are just more indicative of socioeconomic status than how good the school is.
You'll also see weird things like private schools that purportedly accept vouchers but for some reason have precisely 0 students on vouchers attending them.
....Why are there year round schools at all in this area?
.......
So that the schools can handle more students in the same space. There are typically 4 tracks of students, but only 3 tracks are attending at one time. Each track is 9-10 weeks in school and 2-3 weeks off.
We can try but honestly it takes a few years of living here to fully grasp what can and will go on with the schools. And things are ever changing on top of it.
First, what I'm saying applies only to Wake County Public Schools (WCPSS). If you don't want to deal with capping and reassignments, consider Chapel Hill, although it will be a stretch on your budget.
Not all public schools are year round. All high schools are traditional calendar, except for some early college/specialty schools.
Schools are year round (YR) to accommodate more students. They are in school (generally) 9 weeks and then off for 3. When students are out of school (tracked out) another class uses that classroom.
WCPSS just had a board meeting last night where they mentioned they expect fewer and fewer new students over the next years. A LOT of people are choosing charter schools. There are also some new schools that will be opening over the next few years.
WCPSS streams their BOE meetings live and they are archived on youtube. The News and Observer's education reporter live tweets the meetings - he's on twitter @nckhui.
You also should not come away with the impression that classes are meeting in bathrooms or that the schools are hovels. Yes there are some schools that are quite large and/or capped, but the schools here were generally built to handle the students they have. Just because a school is capped doesn't mean there are 50 kids in a class or kids are standing at lunch. There have been some unpleasant years at some schools but honestly little kids don't care about that stuff and there's enough staff to handle them all.
1. review threads noted above.
2. do a search in the forum for additional topics.
3. as noted, and by your questions, it's a Wake County Public School System (WCPSS) question/issue you're asking.
In NC, almost all school systems are 1 per county. We generally (if not absolutely) do NOT have separate school system taxes; schools are funded by County property tax collections, the State, and a small contribution from the Feds.
In WCPSS, you have a base assignment by address, and an alternative calendar assignment which is usually available, but that alternative could be capped.
Quote:
Are all the public schools in this area year round?
There are 116 Elementary schools. 37 of these are year-round; 10 of those are Track 4 only (closest to traditional calendar)
There are 37 middle schools. 10 of these are year-round; 2 of these are also track 4 only.
Quote:
Why are there year round schools at all in this area?
As has been said, basically 2 reasons - to maximize capacity and utilization, and believe it or not, some income families like it. You could also consider it an experiment on which calendar works better for learning.
Quote:
are there places we can move to that don't have caps/bussing to other schools that are still ranked highly?
Of the above ES, 18 are capped. There's 1 middle school, and 2 high schools currently capped.
Whether you can move to a home that attends an uncapped, high-ranking, and (sounds like) traditional calendar depends on your geographic need (commute) and your budget.
This is the best site to start figuring which schools might appeal to you:
Are all the public schools in this area year round?
No only certain elementary and middle schools are year round. All high schools and the remainder of the k-8 are traditional calendar.
Why are there year round schools at all in this area?
It's an experiment to see how it works in an effort to utilize the building all 12 months of the year.
Overcrowding seems to be a major factor, are there places we can move to that don't have caps/bussing to other schools that are still ranked highly?
https://wwwgis2.wcpss.net/addressLookup/
You can lookup addresses and assignments or look at maps for schools. We get a choice between traditional and year round with a default to traditional for our homes address. Assignments are "re-evaluated" periodically, so planning for a certain school for an address might not work out.
now, more to your personal situation (having only read this topic and your first post on the "Denver to NC" topic)...
If you moved here in 2021, what ages/grades would your kids be at that time? I see they are 4 & 7 now. Is your 4 yo starting K in Aug 20?
What would your budget to purchase a home be (understanding that by then prices are likely to be 5-9% above today)?
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
