Tuesday, Nov. 08, 2011

Tata: Parents will get choices

Plan questions to be addressed

Wake County schools Superintendent Tony Tata offered more assurances Friday that parents should be able to get the schools they want their children to attend next school year.

The revamping of Wake's student-assignment model into a choice-based plan in which families make a selection from a list of schools based on their addresses has raised questions. One of the biggest is whether families will get their top choices.

A focus of the plan has been that once children get into elementary schools they'll know what their middle schools and high schools will be and won't worry about being reassigned.

Parents who don't like their new feeder patterns, which could result in them not going to their closest middle schools or high schools, can apply to different schools.

Tata said during a news conference Friday he's been reviewing the school capacity figures versus the projected demand.

"I feel like ... there is enough space for the numbers of students that want to get into their more proximate school," Tata said. "Now, will that happen in every case? We don't know."

The superintendent said the school system has the capacity to handle the more than 12,000 kindergarten students expected to enroll for the 2012-13 school year.

But Tata said officials still are reviewing all the data and determining how crowded they will let schools get, especially during the transitional period of the next few years. During that time, currently enrolled students will be able to stay at the schools they attend now.

The new and old plans

The plan the school board adopted Oct. 18 replaces the old approach, which used socioeconomic diversity as a factor in student assignment. Instead, proximity, choice, stability and student achievement are the new drivers.

The plan could be changed depending on the final makeup of the school board. As of press time, the runoff election between Democratic incumbent Kevin Hill and Republican challenger Heather Losurdo had not been decided.

Hill says he wants to revise the plan so seats will be set aside at high-performing schools for low-performing students who may want to attend. Losurdo has charged that Hill wants to bring back forced busing.

Tata said Friday he can't let the election take away his focus on implementing the new plan.

During the week of Nov. 14, families will receive strips telling them of their initial assignments for next year. If parents like their assignments, they don't have to do anything else. Also beginning the week of Nov. 14, school officials will begin holding parent-information sessions to explain how the new plan works.

That will lead up to January, when families can apply for the schools they want. Most of those expected to participate in the first year are families with children entering kindergarten or those who are new to the district.