Friday, Feb. 26, 2010

Parents plead for school calendar changes

CARY - Dozens of Wake County parents pleaded Thursday for changes in school calendars and student assignments while arguing over the diversity policy and neighborhood schools.

More than 300 people jammed Panther Creek High’s School auditorium on Thursday night for the last of five public hearings held by the Wake County school board to discuss school calendars. Thursday's meeting was among the largest.

While some parents talked about year-round versus traditional calendars for their child’s school, more talked about changes they want to see in school assignment.

Carol Gay was among several parents in the Brier Creek area of northwest Raleigh who lobbied against the planned reassignment of their children this fall from Panther Creek to Broughton High near downtown Raleigh. Gay, a single mother, lamented how the changes might affect her daughter, a junior at Panther Creek this year.

"If I choose to grandfather her in next year, she won't have bus transportation," Gay said. "And I can't afford to buy her a car."

Gay said she worried that leaving friends could impact her daughter's social development, and the long commute might cause her to lose interest in extracurricular activities.

"I feel I have a right to keep her at Panther Creek where she's comfortable and has friends," Gay said.

Meanwhile, parents at some Wake schools that were converted to a year-round calendar in 2007 also lobbied for a return to the traditional calendar. Year-round schools can hold more students than traditional-calendar schools, but the future growth that the conversions were based on largely haven’t materialized yet because of the recession.

"Please give parents a real choice between calendar options," said Paula Kane of the Macarthur Park neighborhood in Cary. "We shouldn't be told here's the year-round school in your neighborhood, and oh, the traditional school is all the way across town."

School administrators will recommend Tuesday which year-round schools to convert to the traditional calendar for the 2010-11 school year.

Some speakers also wanted to have their say about plans by the new school board majority to end the district’s nationally recognized diversity policy in favor of going to neighborhood schools.

Among the most vocal on Thursday was Mayor Keith Weatherly of Apex, who railed against the "random reassignments" of the past and urged school board members to "reject the failed policies of the previous [school] board."

"We have the best schools in Wake County because we have the best teachers, not because of the policies or diversity goals of social engineers," Weatherly said.