Managing Growth Archives

March 22 Education Exchange Looks at Growth, Site Selection

The Wake Education Partnership is sponsoring an Education Exchange meeting to "provide Wake County citizens an opportunity to learn more about how student enrollment growth is projected and how Wake County school sites are selected." The Wake County Citizens' Facilities Advisory Committee and WCPSS staff will be making presentations. The meeting will be held on March 22 from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m. at the Knightdale Town Hall, 950 Steeple Square Court.

Posted by Chip Sudderth at 10:55 AM on March 19, 2007 | Leave Feedback

Moving Forward with Public-Private Partnerships

At its Facilities Committee meeting yesterday, the Board of Education directed school staff to work with county staff to determine the amount of funding available to lease a school or schools through public-private partnerships. The amount of funding available would determine the number of schools that could be built above and beyond those in the November 2006 bond referendum. Then, WCPSS staff would be able to bring a more concise timeline and plan of action back to the school board.

The Board of Education is studying public-private partnerships (PPPs) as a financing mechanism for schools. Senate Bill 2009 was ratified in August 2006, giving school systems the ability to enter into a lease for privately-developed public schools. Previously, N.C. school systems could lease and renovate facilities, but now, the Board of Education could identify where schools are needed, provide design and construction specifications to the builders, and then lease the facility upon completion.

One of the advantages of PPPs is that a private group may have access to a property in an area that the school system may have trouble finding a school site.

WCPSS is moving forward with PPPs based on the assumption that the primary goal of PPPs as a financing method is to reduce crowding by acquiring additional capacity above that provided by CIP 2006. While the PPP process may reduce the time needed to acquire school buildings in the future, such time savings may not be realized on the first project(s) undertaken.

Also at the meeting, WCPSS staff provided an overview of the Facilities Design and Construction Department's program management organization and budget. In addition, Mike Burriss, assistant superintendent for facilities, said that he's meeting with municipal and county managers on Wednesday and will ask them to form a study committee to determine how to improve the permitting process.

Posted by Kristin Flenniken at 9:39 AM on March 14, 2007 | Leave Feedback

School Board Revisits Voluntary Year-Round System

At its Committee of the Whole meeting yesterday, the Board of Education revisited the planning assumption of opening all new schools on the year-round calendar.

Staff shared that to return to a voluntary year-round system in 2010-11 would require an additional seven elementary and two middle schools -- above the 25 already opening between 2006 and 2010 -- at an additional cost of $285 million. Changing the planning assumption of opening all new schools as year-round would also require an additional three elementary schools and one middle to open between 2011-2015 -- above the 21 in the next five-year capital improvement program -- at a cost of $143 million. The next CIP was estimated at $1.027 billion.

However, staff pointed out that these numbers are probably low as the next building program is based on enrollment projections from 2006, which indicate a declining rate of growth during 2011-2015. Chuck Dulaney, assistant superintendent for Growth and Planning, said that the growth projections for five years or further out are less certain and lower than what will likely occur.

At a special meeting February 1, the Board of Education directed staff to determine how many new schools would be needed to return to a voluntary year-round system, how much it would cost and how soon it could occur. This directive was in response to the commissioners' announcement of deferring money for converting 22 schools to the year-round calendar in July 2007 and their suggestion of moving up the next bond referendum to fall 2007.

Returning to a voluntary year-round system, similar to what was in place in 2005, means filling year-round schools mostly by application and maintaining a ratio of approximately one out of every six schools opening on the year-round calendar.

Staff shared that simply moving up a bond would not add classroom seats before the 2010 school year, due to the time needed for finding land, design, permitting and construction. With an additional 8,000 students projected for 2007-08, and only five new schools opening, WCPSS will still need to transition the 19 elementary and three middle schools to the year-round calendar in July to meet enrollment increases.

While school board members stressed that they are not necessarily for or against moving up a bond, they do see the suggestion as an opportunity to revisit the planning assumptions agreed to by both the Board of Education and Board of County Commissioners in September 2005, which included opening all new elementary and middle schools on the year-round calendar as a way to decrease costs.

The additional $430 million would only address returning to voluntary year-round; it would not decrease the level of crowding or reduce the number of mobile/modular classroom units.

Board Chair Patti Head said that the school board would have preferred all along to keep a voluntary year-round system, but that they were "boxed in" by extreme growth and limited resources. Schools on the multi-track year-round calendar can serve 20 percent to 33 percent more students than schools on the traditional calendar because at any given time, three of four groups of students are in session. For every three schools on the year-round calendar, that's one less school that WCPSS needs to build.

WCPSS gained 7,500 students for the 2006-07 school year.

Posted by Kristin Flenniken at 2:31 PM on February 21, 2007 | Leave Feedback

Board Approves Funding for Year-Round Carts, Mobiles

February 13, 2007--At a special meeting, the Board of Education approved funding from emergency reserves to cover the year-round conversion costs for 22 schools and the associated costs of relocating mobile/modular classroom units.

The school board approved using $1,523,660 from the operating portion of undesignated fund balance to provide year-round carts, equipment, library books and supplies. Teachers at multi-track year-round schools store all their classroom materials on carts, similar to an armoire on wheels, when they "track out." Relocating 25 mobile/modular classrooms requires approximately $1.4 million, of which $730,000 is available. The board approved covering the remaining $670,000 from the capital outlay portion of undesignated fund balance.

Board members called today's meeting to avoid further negative impacts on teaching and learning following the county commissioners' decision to freeze funds approved in the November 2006 bond referendum tied to schools transitioning to the year-round calendar in 2007-08. The commissioners' action has already delayed the relocation of mobiles -- to year-round and traditional schools -- by at least a month. This means some classroom units will not be ready until after school begins, and principals will have to double up classes and hold some classes in multi-purpose rooms and media centers.

There is currently $22 million in undesignated fund balance. Typically, school systems want to have six percent of their operating budget in a reserve fund for emergencies. After the reduction to cover year-round costs, WCPSS will still be in the six percent range and have enough to operate the school district for approximately six days.

WCPSS gained 7,500 students this year and is expecting another 8,000 students for 2007-08. Even with five new schools opening, the school system would still not have classroom seats for approximately 4,000 children without transitioning 19 elementary and three middle schools to the year-round calendar.

Earlier this year, the school board approved options for families. There are more than 2,000 elementary seats at 17 schools and nearly 600 seats at eight middle schools available for families assigned to year-round schools to seek. Families may also apply for seats at traditional calendar magnet schools.

Posted by Kristin Flenniken at 3:02 PM on February 13, 2007 | Leave Feedback

Making the Most of New High School Space

At its Committee of the Whole meeting Jan. 23, the Board of Education heard a staff proposal that allows WCPSS to get the most use out of its new high school buildings during a period of rapid enrollment growth.

The new building program, Blueprint for Excellence 2006, includes construction funding for two high schools (Heritage in Wake Forest and another location to be determined) and land and design funding for two future high schools. WCPSS has identified three circles -- H6 in northeastern Wake, H7 in southwestern Wake and H8 in southeastern Wake -- as areas of the county that need new high schools. The district does not have land for any of these sites yet.

Since new high schools typically only open with ninth- and 10th-grades, staff proposed opening Heritage High in 2010 as scheduled, with not only its own students, but with ninth- and 10th-graders for nearby H6 as well. The following year, H6's ninth- and 10th-graders would move to its permanent campus, joined by 11th-graders.

Bringing H6 online a year earlier allows both H6 and H7 to open in the same year as opposed to picking one over the other, helping provide much needed classroom seats.

However, for Heritage, H6 and H7 to open in 2010, and for H8 to open in 2011, the county would need additional capital funding in January 2009.

The school board asked staff for additional information and will continue this discussion on February 6.

Posted by Kristin Flenniken at 3:07 PM on January 24, 2007 | Leave Feedback

Board of Education continues discussion of public private partnerships

At its Dec. 12 Facilities Committee meeting, the Board of Education heard from Deputy State Treasurer Vance Holloman and Wake County Budget and Management Services Director Johnna Rogers on public private partnerships.

Holloman said capital leases are allowed under legislation passed earlier this year that permits schools to enter into leases to finance construction, repair or renovation of schools. The leases are subject to approval of the county commissioners and the local government commission.

Holloman said under build to suit capital leases, the board of education must adopt a resolution stating that the lease agreement is in the best interest of the schools considering time, cost and quality. The school board must find that the private developer is qualified to deliver the service. The contract and any pre-development agreements must be approved by the county commissioners.

Holloman said the local government commission would look at the lease agreement to determine if it meets several factors. The commission will consider the necessity of the project, amount and nature of outstanding debt, debt and fiscal management practices and current and future tax rates. He said the school board in its findings to the commission should show the debt is necessary, debt management practices are good, tax increases will not be excessive and the capital lease is preferable to a bond issue.

Holloman said general obligation bonds are a less expensive way to finance school construction than the installment purchase process for a capital lease.

You can see Holloman's presentation here.

Rogers told the board there are different types of public private partnerships that could range from little to complete privatization. She said private participation could occur at various stages of the capital project development. The school board and county commissioners must analyze costs versus benefits on a case-by-case basis.

Rogers said public private partnerships are effective for multi-faceted projects where both public and private components exist and some infrastructure is shared; the private sector is willing to bear certain risks that the public sector wishes to minimize; or other benefits such as timing or construction costs can overcome the county's favorable cost of capital.

Rogers said the county will evaluate public private partnerships on construction comparisons and the cost of capital. Construction comparisons would answer who can build at a lower cost, the quality of construction, or the ability to build the project more quickly to help avoid inflation costs or provide needed seats more quickly. The cost of capital would look at the interest rate being charged by the private sector. She noted there is no one-size fits all analysis.

You can see Roger's presentation here.

Board members agreed to continue their discussion of the issue. The Citizens Facility Advisory Committee will hear a presentation on public private partnerships at its meeting Dec. 18.

Posted by Bill Poston at 8:53 AM on December 13, 2006 | Leave Feedback

Improvements in Staff, Student and Parent Outcomes

The Wake County Public School System released the findings of a 2005-06 grant-funded research project that examined the impact of large-scale renovations of school buildings on student achievement, attendance, and suspension rates, as well as the impact on teacher and parent outcomes. The study found: There is sufficient evidence to suggest that renovations contribute to improvements in staff, student and parent outcomes.

WCPSS, in conjunction with the Council of Educational Facility Planners International (CEFPI), compared two-year pre-renovation trends to two-year post-renovation trends at 18 of the Wake schools that had undergone a major renovation beginning with or following the summer of 1997 and completed no later than the summer of 2003. The study involved collecting and analyzing data from End-of-Grade and End-of-Course exams, SAT scores, average daily attendance, out-of-school suspensions, and parent satisfaction surveys. Findings also reflect interviews with school staff.

Looking at the 18 schools, the study found:

• Increases in scores on reading and math End-of-Grade exams

• Increases in scores on nine of 10 End-of-Course exams

• Increases in combined SAT scores at five of the six high schools

• Increases in parent satisfaction with school facilities

• Increased average daily attendance at middle and high schools

CEFPI; Rebecca Zulli, Ph.D., Director of Research and Education, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Christina Lighthall, REFP, Senior Director, Long-Range Planning, WCPSS; and William Carruthers, Ph.D., Senior Director, Grants Administration & Compliance Reporting, WCPSS contributed to the report.

Read the executive summary.

Posted by Kristin Flenniken at 1:18 PM on November 7, 2006 | Leave Feedback

Feng Shui Report Recommendations

The Wake County Public School System is already pursuing six of the seven recommendations included in an Oct. 24 report on the upcoming building program.

• Our renovations do address health and safety issues and add classroom seats at the same time. While the main purpose of the renovation projects is to correct critical heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) system deficiencies in the schools and to ensure that they are safe, healthy, quality places for students to learn, the projects will also result in a gain of almost 2,100 classroom seats.

• WCPSS is already pursuing nine of the 10 recommended school construction alternatives.

• Creating a pay-as-you-go fund to decrease the interest paid on debt is out of the school system's purview. WCPSS doesn't finance school construction, Wake County government does.

• WCPSS does re-use efficient school designs -- all 11 of the new schools in the current building program, PLAN 2004, are prototype designs. School efficiency comparisons in the report, however, are misleading since different groups count non-assignable spaces differently. WCPSS and the Department of Public Instruction, for example, classify toilets and custodial areas as non-assignable spaces, while the American Institute of Architects (AIA) considers them assignable.

• WCPSS has already integrated wireless technology into the upcoming building program's design specifications. New schools are wired for wireless technology. Although wireless technology is becoming more affordable, laptops still cost approximately one-third more than desktop computers do.

• The Board of Education already decided in March/April 2006 to build larger schools to serve more students at a lower cost per student while maintaining current acreage standards. By opening on the year-round schedule and increasing the number of classrooms, new elementary school capacity will increase from 655 to 1,124, larger middle schools on the year-round calendar will increase from 981 to 1,623, and traditional high school capacity will increase from 1,663 to 2,223 students.

WCPSS does build multi-story schools, and has recently declared two pieces of unusable land surplus and ready to sell (a total of 7.5 acres).

• WCPSS has been trying for years to seek standardized rules and requirements for permitting, inspections, etc. The school district would welcome a broad-based effort to adjust them for schools.

For a more detailed response, please visit the Blueprint for Excellence 2006 resource center .

Posted by Kristin Flenniken at 6:11 PM on October 27, 2006 | Leave Feedback

WCPSS Projects Winning Design and Construction Awards

The Raleigh City Council will award Broughton High School's addition and renovation project a Sir Walter Raleigh Award for Community Appearance at 6:30 p.m. today at the McKimmon Center.

The award recognizes an institutional project that exhibits a new standard for excellence and an example of the future, an awareness of the importance of good community appearance and stewardship of the land, and improvements upon an existing site or structure and preservation of important historic and cultural features.

Broughton underwent a complete renovation of all the older parts of the campus - more than 150,000 square feet total. Renovation of the original 1929 building required special care to repair the exterior walls without sacrificing the historic features of the building. The job proceeded in several phases, with students being moved into temporary classrooms on the site.

The project team included: WCPSS Facility Planner Larry Sherrill, WCPSS Construction Supervisor William Hartley, Principal Roy Teel, architect Cherry Huffman, and general contractor J.M. Thompson.

William Henley Dietrick, a well-known N.C. architect from the 1920s to the 1960s, designed the original building. He won the right to design the school in a design competition.

Another school project recently received an award as well. The new Holly Springs High School was awarded the EDGE award for Best Project in Suburban/Rural Environment by the Triangle Business Journal, Oct. 11. DeVere Construction Company won the honor in the general contracting category.

TBJ developed the EDGE Awards program in 2004 to recognize excellence in engineering, architectural design, general contracting and landscape contracting industries. Nominations were required to detail how projects enhanced its surroundings, minimized potential negative effects on the environment, used innovative project management tools and generated positive return on investment for owner.

The new three-story high school was built for 1,663 students and is a partnership between the school system, the Town of Holly Springs and Wake County. Holly Springs High is built from a re-used (prototype) design, also seen at Green Hope, Wakefield and Middle Creek high schools.

The project team included: WCPSS Project Manager Norm Kligerman, WCPSS Facility Planner Harold Hinson, Principal Luther Johnson, Jr., architect Cherry Huffman, general contractor DeVere Construction.

Posted by Kristin Flenniken at 9:36 AM on October 26, 2006 | Leave Feedback

Renovations Ensure Existing Classrooms Are Usable, Boost Academic Achievement

Not only would the upcoming bond allow the Wake County Public School System to add classroom seats and make existing ones healthy -- in essence, keeping them usable -- it could boost academic achievement.

The main purpose of the renovation projects is to correct critical heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) system deficiencies in the schools and to ensure that they are safe, healthy, quality places for students to learn. The 13 major renovation projects included in the bond will also result in a gain of almost 2,100 classroom seats.

Most of the renovations are tied to indoor air quality issues. The list has been trimmed down from 40-plus projects based on the highest health and safety concerns. Most of the buildings included in the plan are 40-years-old and haven't had a major renovation.

Replacing poor HVAC systems decreases maintenance needs, increases the quality of life for students and staff, and improves achievement. A research report released in October 2006 found that "air quality and temperatures in classrooms are important factors in the learning process and improving them should be given as much priority as improving teaching materials and methods" (Effects of HVAC on Student Performance, American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers, Inc., www.ashrae.org, 2006.).

The report goes on to say "...this study provides strong evidence that improving indoor air quality in classrooms by increasing the outdoor air supply rate, and reducing moderately elevated classroom temperatures, can substantially improve the performance of a wide range of tasks characteristic of schoolwork...."

The campuses of the 13 schools slated for major renovations are 30-50 years old and renovations are being undertaken so the facilities can serve another 40 years.

Aversboro Elementary, 1965
Bugg Elementary, 1964
Lacy Elementary, 1953
Lynn Road Elementary, 1976
Poe Elementary, 1955
Root Elementary, 1958
Smith Elementary, 1964
Wilburn Elementary, 1962
East Millbrook Middle, 1975
Martin Middle, 1959
Cary High, 1958
East Wake High, 1965
Enloe High, 1962

For a description of each project, go to the Blueprint for Excellence 2006 resource center.

Posted by Kristin Flenniken at 4:59 PM on October 24, 2006 | Leave Feedback

Panther Creek High School Dedication Ceremony

The Wake County Public School System, the Town of Cary and Wake County will hold a ribbon cutting and dedication ceremony for the new Panther Creek High School at 9 a.m., Monday, October 16. After the ribbon cutting, guests will be able to tour the campus. The event will be held in the school's auditorium.

Panther Creek High Principal Rodney Nelson, Superintendent Del Burns, Wake County Board of Education member Ron Margiotta, Wake County Commissioners Chair Tony Gurley, and several student leaders will make remarks before the student-led tour. The high school band and vocal jazz ensemble will also perform.

The new high school opened with approximately 900 students in grades 9 and 10 and will add a grade each of the next two school years. Panther Creek was built from a re-used (prototype) three-story design, also seen at Knightdale High School.

Directions:
From I-40: Take exit 278; turn right on Highway 55 and go approximately 5 miles. After going under the I-540 overpass, turn right onto McCrimmon Parkway at the traffic signal. Proceed until you see the school on the right. Take the second entrance to the school, marked student parking.

From Cary/Apex: Take Highway 55 towards Durham and pass through High House Road/Highway 55 intersection. At the third traffic signal, turn left onto McCrimmon Parkway. Once you turn onto McCrimmon Parkway, proceed until you see the school on the right. Take the second entrance to the school, marked student parking.

Note: McCrimmon Parkway in Morrisville does not currently connect with the McCrimmon Parkway in Cary, where PCHS is located.

Posted by Kristin Flenniken at 3:08 PM on October 13, 2006 | Leave Feedback

Accommodations for Families and Year-Round Track Clarification

The Board of Education made an additional accommodation for families and cleared up some confusion regarding year-round track assignments at today's Committee of the Whole meeting.

By a unanimous vote, board members agreed that students in a year-round elementary school should be given some priority over someone in a traditional calendar elementary school in the application process to attend a year-round middle school. The priority would fall just below the priority already granted for those with siblings on the year-round calendar.

To clear up some confusion in the community, the board also discussed year-round track assignment. If a student at an existing year-round school moves back to his base school because of conversion, he will be given the same track assignment. For example, if a student is on track 2 at Turner Creek Elementary and moves back to Olive Chapel Elementary, he or she will stay on track 2. If the student wishes to change tracks, he or she may apply for a track change in March 2007 at the same time those already attending Olive Chapel can apply for a change. Olive Chapel students would indicate their initial preference for track assignment in January 2007.

Board chair Patti Head stressed that they were trying to accommodate as many families as possible and still fill classroom seats as efficiently as possible. Everyone is guaranteed a seat at their base school and then have a choice to apply to a magnet or calendar option, she said.

In other business, the school board agreed to the proposed new school locations presented last week as part of the Blueprint for Excellence 2006. We've added links to maps of these new locations, as well as the locations of major renovation projects on the Blueprint for Excellence 2006 online resource center.

Posted by Kristin Flenniken at 4:11 PM on October 10, 2006 | Leave Feedback

Most Commonly Missed Statements on Quiz

Since we posted the Fact or Fiction -- The Straight Story online last Monday, more than 5,000 people have taken the quiz. From the beginning, quiz-takers have gotten approximately one in three questions wrong. Here are the top three most commonly missed statements (in order), along with the back-up info.

1) Instead of raising property taxes, the Board of Education should implement impact fees so that developers help pay for growth.

False! First, the school board does not have taxing authority. County commissioners determine whether to raise property taxes. Second, at this time, neither board has the ability to levy impact fees (or transfer fees for that matter); it would require legislative approval to do so.

The Board of Education is charged with determining school needs and the Board of Commissioners is charged with funding those needs. However, in light of the tremendous, continued growth in Wake County, the school board recognizes the need for multiple funding sources to pay for that growth and is drafting a resolution in support of impact fees.

2.) WCPSS's construction costs are higher than most other N.C. districts.

False! WCPSS bid day building costs for new schools have been below the average Department of Public Instruction cost per square foot for each of the last five years. If other counties' school construction costs seem lower, often times it's because it isn't an apples to apples comparison. Before comparing counties' school construction costs, find out what's included in the amount.

Based on data from DPI's website dated 3/17/06, WCPSS spent approximately $121/square foot and the average N.C. school district spent $126/square foot for the building portion of new school construction in 2005.

3.) The Wake County school system hasn't spent all the money from the last bond yet.

True! As far as the school system's current building program, WCPSS has built five of the 11 new schools included in PLAN 2004, with the remaining six to open in the 2007-08 school year. Work is paid for as it is completed.

WCPSS will be coming out with a new set of questions for Fact or Fiction soon.

For more information on the building program, please visit the Blueprint for Excellence 2006 online resource center.

Posted by Kristin Flenniken at 1:43 PM on October 10, 2006 | Leave Feedback

New School Locations, Growth Management Timeline and Year-Round Plans

WCPSS Growth & Planning and N.C. State University's Operations Research and Education Laboratory (OR/Ed) presented maps of proposed new school locations at the school board's Committee of the Whole meeting yesterday.

The Blueprint for Excellence 2006, the school system's new building program, includes 17 new schools and land and design start up for 13 future schools. All 30 sites are represented on the proposed maps.

The school system contracted with OR/Ed in fall 2004 to create a data-driven process to better determine long-range student enrollment projections and locations for future schools.

OR/Ed's data reaffirmed the locations that WCPSS has already identified. The circles represent the general area where a new school is needed based on future land use plans, enrollment projections and filling schools as efficiently as possible. Many of the new schools' opening dates are marked "to be determined" because our needs in different areas may shift -- we know we need all the schools, but whether one elementary school needs to open before another is being analyzed.

Also during the meeting, the school board reached consensus on a draft 2007-08 timeline for year-round track assignment, magnet and calendar applications. There will be separate applications for magnet schools and for calendar options (either into year-round from traditional calendar or into traditional calendar from year-round). All applications would be completed online to provide faster processing and notification to families. Lots of support will be provided to those who need it.

Caroline Massengill in the year-round office updated the board on the plan for converting the 22 schools to the year-round calendar in 2007-08. Planning for potential conversion actually began last winter. Before the vote to transition to year-round, optional meetings were held with principals. A Year-Round Advisory Committee, made up of 30 members representing every area of central services, has already met twice regarding policies/practices that will be affected by year-round. In addition, each new year-round school has been paired with an existing year-round school for additional help and guidance. Various training sessions have already begun to help ease the transition.

There's additional information on the Year-Round Schools Resource Center.

Posted by Kristin Flenniken at 4:08 PM on October 4, 2006 | Leave Feedback

Fact or Fiction - The Straight Story Opens on WCPSS Website

An interactive quiz, Fact or Fiction - The Straight Story, opened on www.wcpss.net today to test one's knowledge of issues surrounding the school system's upcoming building program, Blueprint for Excellence 2006. There is a lot of misinformation circulating in the community, and this quiz allows the Wake County Public School System the opportunity to set the record straight and ensure people have the facts.

Test-takers simply read a statement, click Fact or Fiction, and then read the supporting facts. The school system will expand the quiz as WCPSS hears of additional rumors or "fiction."

WCPSS has 128,070 students for the 2006-07 school year, based on preliminary 20th day enrollment figures released earlier today. This is 7,566 more students than the 120,504 who attended on the 20th day last year. The school system is entering a six-year period in which the district is projected to grow by between 7,000 and 9,400 students each year, with enrollment surpassing 160,000 students by the year 2010.

The Blueprint for Excellence 2006 is the school system's plan to ease crowding in schools and provide classrooms for the thousands of additional children moving into Wake County by 2010. It covers four main areas: new construction and crowding solutions, land banking, renovations, and technology. The Blueprint would mainly be financed through a $970 million bond referendum on November 7, in which voters will decide whether to invest in the future of Wake County's children, schools and community.

The bond will help:

• Build 17 new schools (11 elementary, 4 middle and 2 high) to open in 2008-2011;


• Transition 19 elementary schools to the multi-track year-round calendar to gain approximately 3,000 seats in 2007-08;


• Transition 3 middle schools to the multi-track year-round calendar and add mobile/modular classrooms to gain 2,000 middle school seats in 2007-08;


• Acquire land and proceed with design startup for 13 future schools to open in 2011-2013;


• Cover major renovations at 13 existing schools (8 elementary, 2 middle and 3 high);


• Address repair and maintenance projects (roofs, air conditioning systems, boilers, etc.) at nearly 100 campuses; and


• Replace old, outdated computers in schools.

For additional information, visit the Blueprint for Excellence 2006 website.

Posted by Kristin Flenniken at 3:42 PM on October 2, 2006 | Leave Feedback

Update on Citizens' Facilities Advisory Committee

Billie Redmond and John Mabe, co-chairs of the Citizens' Facilities Advisory Committee (CFAC), gave an update on the committee's progress to the Board of Education and Board of County Commissioners yesterday morning.

The two boards jointly created the committee in June 2006 to evaluate Wake County's and the Wake County Public School System's building programs, with the initial focus being on school design criteria, construction management and delivery methods. Committee members have experience in corporate leadership, architecture and engineering, financial management, and public administration. The county hired DeJong & Associates, an education facility consulting firm, in partnership with Summit Consultants, a facility cost estimating firm, to serve as consultants to the committee.

During CFAC's first two meetings, they created a work plan for the next six months, got grounded in Wake County's process of building schools, and created a cost comparison template to compare WCPSS with other districts. The committee held its second meeting at Barwell Road Elementary and will hold its next meeting on September 26 at Panther Creek High, where the group will review the planning assumptions that the new building program is based on.

CFAC's first assignment for the consultants is to perform detailed data analysis on programs and construction, ranging from square footage and class ratios to requirements to materials' costs, construction and site work. The process will involve surveying school planning, educational programming, and construction costs of five schools districts across the nation and four within North Carolina.

Don Haydon, WCPSS chief facilities and operations officer, said that it is important to gather enough data to obtain an apples to apples comparison between districts. He said that in addition to gathering data to compare costs, he is looking forward to suggestions for improvement.

"I personally hope we come out with some aha's and gather some useful information that might enable us to make our schools even more efficient and cost effective."

The consultants will make site visits and interview staffs between September and November. So far, eight of the nine districts have agreed to participate in the comprehensive data analysis:

Travis County (Austin), TX
Clark County (Las Vegas), NV
Fairfax County (DC Suburb), VA
Gwinnett County (Atlanta Suburb), GA
Orange County (Orlando), FL
Forsyth, NC
Guilford, NC
Johnston, NC
Mecklenburg, NC

These districts were chosen because they are national peer counties, school systems that WCPSS uses as comparable districts, or they are N.C. counties that are often compared to Wake.

CFAC expects to have its first quarterly report in October and a final report on school district comparisons in January.

Posted by Kristin Flenniken at 9:28 AM on September 21, 2006 | Leave Feedback

Board Approves Transitioning Three Middle Schools to Year-Round

At its meeting this afternoon, the Board of Education approved transitioning three middle schools -- North Garner, East Wake and Salem -- to the multi-track year-round calendar in 2007-08 to provide additional classroom seats and provide calendar continuity for families.

The decision came after the board reviewed feedback from a public hearing, online comments, e-mails, phone calls, and work sessions.

Earlier today, at its Committee of the Whole meeting, the school board removed Wakefield and Leesville middle from the potential list of schools to transition to year-round in 2007-08. They removed Wakefield Middle because there are already two year-round middle schools in the area, Durant Road and Heritage. The board removed Leesville Middle because the three main elementary schools that feed into it are on the traditional calendar.

In addition, the board reached consensus on making an additional accommodation for families: Rising seventh and eighth graders at existing year-round middle schools whose base school transitions to year-round may stay at their current school.

Posted by Kristin Flenniken at 5:51 PM on September 19, 2006 | Leave Feedback

Board Refines Potential Middle School List

At its Committee of the Whole meeting today, the Board of Education discussed transitioning several middle schools to the year-round calendar to provide additional classroom seats and provide calendar continuity for families.

The board reached consensus on placing North Garner Middle School --instead of East Garner Middle -- on the potential list of schools to be converted. They also removed International Baccalaureate Programme status from North Garner Middle, directing staff to come back with recommendations on how to best use existing resources at North Garner and East Garner.

After discussing the pros and cons of whether to convert Leesville Middle, the board decided to keep the school on the potential list and gather more feedback. The potential list of existing middle schools that could transition to the multi-track year-round calendar include: East Wake, Leesville, North Garner, Salem and Wakefield.

There will be a public hearing on the middle schools at 7 p.m., September 14 at Sanderson High School, and the public may also submit comments online until Thursday, September 14, at 5 p.m. At the Committee of the Whole meeting, Sept. 19, the board will discuss feedback from the hearing and online comments before taking a final vote.

In addition, the board reached consensus on making additional accommodations for teachers: If a teacher is on a traditional calendar and his/her child is at a converted school, the board agreed that the child would have priority for a traditional calendar seat and/or have priority for track assignment if the choice is to stay at the base school.

Posted by Kristin Flenniken at 5:02 PM on September 12, 2006 | Leave Feedback

Tenth Day Student Enrollment

WCPSS had 127,767 students in school today. This is 7,388 more students in school than the 120,379 students who attended the tenth day of school in 2005-06.

On the 20th day of 2005-06, student enrollment was 120,504. We'll be able to compare that number directly to this year after our September 22 attendance figures have been certified in early October.

(Updated to correct information release date.)

Posted by Chip Sudderth at 3:58 PM on September 8, 2006 | Leave Feedback

Board Approves Designating 19 Elementary Schools to Year-Round

At its meeting this afternoon, the Board of Education approved transitioning 19 elementary schools to the multi-track year-round calendar beginning in 2007-08 to provide space for the thousands of additional students entering Wake County schools.

The Wake County Public School System had 126,922 students in school today. This is 7,425 more students than the 119,497 students who attended the seventh day of school in 2005-06. On the 20th day of 2005-06, student enrollment was 120,504. WCPSS will check enrollment again on day 10 and 20.

After lengthy discussion on how to handle growth, on May 16 the board approved the conversion of enough elementary schools to the year-round calendar to gain 3,000 seats as part of the new building program. Schools on the multi-track year-round calendar can serve 20-33 percent more students than those on the traditional calendar.

The board then gathered extensive community input through work sessions, public hearings, online comments, e-mails and phone calls, before today's vote.

Ballentine, Baucom, Brassfield, Green Hope, Harris Creek, Highcroft, Hodge Road, Holly Springs, Knightdale, Leesville Road, Lockhart, Middle Creek, Olive Chapel, Pleasant Union, Rand Road, Salem, Vance, Wakefield and Willow Springs elementary schools will transition from the traditional to the year-round calendar in 2007-08. The school board also added a magnet program to Forestville Elementary in Knightdale.

At the Committee of the Whole meeting earlier today, the school board reached consensus on a number of items and directed staff to come back with a plan or strategy for making the following accommodations for teachers and families:

• Children of teachers at all year-round schools will be guaranteed placement on the same track as their parents

• Children of 12-month staff at year-round schools will be given priority of placement on the same track as their parents

• Fourth- and fifth-graders at year-round schools whose base attendance area is converted to year-round will be allowed to grandfather without transportation

• Kindergarten through third-graders at year-round schools whose base attendance area is converted to year-round will be given priority to stay on the same track

• Siblings will be given priority placement on the same track at year-round elementary and middle schools

The board also asked staff to come back with proposals and a timeline for expanding the current process of applying to magnet schools and for calendar options.

On Tuesday, September 12, the board will continue discussions on possibly converting some middle schools to the year-round calendar. The board will hold a public hearing regarding the middle schools at 7 p.m., Thursday, September 14; the location is yet to be determined.

Posted by Kristin Flenniken at 5:20 PM on September 5, 2006 | Leave Feedback

Seventh Day Student Enrollment

WCPSS had 126,922 students in school today. This is 7,425 more students in school than the 119,497 students swho attended the seventh day of school in 2005-06.

On the 20th day of 2005-06, student enrollment was 120,504.

WCPSS will check student enrollment again on day ten.

Posted by Chip Sudderth at 4:12 PM on September 5, 2006 | Leave Feedback

Fifth Day Student Enrollment

WCPSS had 126,454 students in school today. This is 7,375 more students in school than the 119,079 students who attended the fifth day of school in 2005-06.

On the 20th day of 2005-06, student enrollment was 120,504.

WCPSS will check student enrollment on day 7 and day 10.

Posted by Bill Poston at 4:03 PM on August 31, 2006 | Leave Feedback

First Day Student Enrollment

WCPSS had 118,677 students in school today. This is 4,302 more students in school than the 114,375 students who attended the first day of school in 2005-06.

On the 20th day of 2005-06, student enrollment was 120,504.

WCPSS will check student enrollment on day 5, day 7 and day 10.

Posted by Bill Poston at 4:11 PM on August 25, 2006 | Leave Feedback

Citizens' Facilities Advisory Committee Web Site Launches

This June the school board and county commissioners created the Citizens' Facilities Advisory Committee. The committee's website is now online at WakeGOV.com.

The advisory committee includes members with experience in corporate leadership, construction, financial management or public administration who live in the community. The advisory panel will review projections for enrollment, review data for school construction costs and life-cycle costs, evaluate opportunities to reduce costs of new school construction and report back to the board, commission and public.

Posted by Chip Sudderth at 2:28 PM on August 22, 2006 | Leave Feedback

Board to Look at Transitioning 'A Few or Some' Middle Schools to Year-Round

At its Committee of the Whole meeting yesterday, the Board of Education directed staff to look at needs of conversion of 'a few or some' middle schools to the multi-track year-round calendar to provide families the opportunity to have middle school and elementary school children on the same calendar and to provide additional classroom seats.

Part of the capital improvement program includes gaining 2,000 middle school seats through conversion to the year-round calendar and/or the addition of mobile/modular classrooms.

Schools on the multi-track calendar can hold 20 to 33 percent more students than those on a traditional calendar because one of four groups of students is on break at any given time.

At the committee meeting the board also continued discussing staff's recommendations for changing 23 elementary schools to the multi-track year-round calendar. The board began reviewing the list of general topics generated at its August 8 meeting, which includes joint use agreements, middle school options, magnet school composition and program impact, sister/cluster schools, healthy schools, and the eastern area needs. The board also requested additional information regarding number of year-round denials, true capacity gain, and how many mobiles will be moved and the cost.

The board will continue its discussion next Tuesday at its Committee of the Whole meeting.

Posted by Kristin Flenniken at 12:44 PM on August 16, 2006 | Leave Feedback

School Board Finalizes Year-Round Criteria, Adds Public Hearing

At its Committee of the Whole meeting today the Board of Education finalized criteria to guide the conversion of some elementary schools to the year-round calendar, and extended the timeline for converting schools to allow for additional community input.

Based on community feedback, the board elevated the importance of whether a school's base population was growing and the need to minimize reassignment in the decision to convert schools. They also recognized the importance of maintaining a quality instructional program and the importance of keeping all tracks healthy.

From June 20 to July 17, the school system gathered 534 comments from the website, and on July 13, held four focus groups of teachers, principals, parents, and board advisory council chairs.

On August 15, staff will present a list of schools to convert based on the criteria that board members approved today.

The board decided to add a public hearing on August 28 and take comments online regarding the specific schools. Board chair Patti Head said this will give the board and the public time to digest the information as it relates to specific schools before the board makes a final vote September 5.

Originally, the school board was planning to give preliminary approval to a list of schools to convert on August 22.

The new building program that seeks to ease crowding and provide classrooms for the thousands of additional students moving into Wake County includes converting enough schools to the year-round calendar to gain 3,000 elementary school seats. Schools on the multi-track year-round calendar can hold 20-33 percent more students than those on a traditional calendar because one of four groups of students is on break at any given time.

Guide to Year-Round Schools

Posted by Kristin Flenniken at 6:27 PM on July 18, 2006 | Leave Feedback

Raleigh #6 in US in Rate of Growth

Raleigh ranked sixth in population growth of the nation's largest cities, according to a report from the US Census Bureau released yesterday. The report rated Raleigh sixth in the nation in numerical growth from July 2004 to July 2005. The Census Bureau estimate put Raleigh's population at 341,530 as of July 1, 2005.

You can read more at http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/population/007001.html

Posted by Bill Poston at 2:09 PM on June 22, 2006 | Leave Feedback

Long-Range School Planning Data Added to Growth Resource Center

Please check out the long-range school planning information on our Growth Resource Center! We now have a whole section dedicated to the school system's work with N.C. State University's Operations Research and Education Laboratory to create an analytical, data-driven process that incorporates land use and future developments into determining the best locations for new schools. This site includes data from the first two phases of the project: an overview of the process, presentations, and maps illustrating student enrollment growth by school level. Data from the next stage should be available at the end of the month.

The student density maps show that through 2012, most growth will take place along the southwestern and northeastern bands of I-540 -- exactly where WCPSS is planning to build schools.

Two years ago, WCPSS contracted with the OR/Ed. Lab at the Institute for Transportation Research and Education. This ongoing long-range school and community planning process involves WCPSS, Wake County government, the 12 municipalities, and the Capital Area Municipal Planning Organization, with the Lab coordinating updates. The new method improves upon the current system by incorporating municipal planning data and projections into school and infrastructure planning, adding GIS technology and operations research methodologies, and projecting school sites beyond a three- or four-year bond cycle.

In spring 2006, the Lab provided enrollment projections, broken down into 39 urban/non-urban service areas across the county, through 2025; these projections will reflect the municipalities' data on land use plans and future developments. The Lab's model will use the Wake County Planning Department's countywide enrollment projections as a baseline, but the forecasted growth will be broken down into smaller geographic areas than what was used previously. School board members and county commissioners will use this data to help determine the locations of new schools to open in 2010 and beyond.

In addition to the projections, the Lab is working with WCPSS to construct an optimization model to generate target areas for school site land banking. By the end of June 2006, the Lab will provide target areas, or circles, for new school locations, as well as student population growth by geographic planning regions, through 2025.

The model will be updated each year to validate and adjust municipalities' assumptions on subdivision build-out rates and to capture new activities.

Posted by Kristin Flenniken at 11:33 AM on June 20, 2006 | Leave Feedback

Capacity Gain is the Most Important Criterion for Conversion

At its Committee of the Whole meeting today, school board members told staff that capacity gain is the most important criterion when considering which elementary schools to designate to the multi-track year-round calendar for 2007-08.

All board members ranked "How much capacity (space for new students) will be gained through conversion of a school?" as their first or second priority. Board members also agreed that the other 11 criteria are important and need to be considered. The board will continue its discussion of criteria at 1 p.m. on Tuesday, June 20.

Staff briefly discussed several ways the school system may gather community feedback on the criteria, including setting up an area on the WCPSS website for online comments, sending a form for written comments to every school for display in the office or lobby, and convening a focus group to discuss the criteria.

Here are some important dates as the board continues its discussion:

June 20 -- The Board of Education revises and identifies most important criteria to be utilized by the Growth and Planning Department.

June 20-July 18 -- The Growth and Planning Department receives and summarizes community comments regarding the criteria.

July 18 -- Staff reports on community input and the Board of Education adopts a set of criteria for conversion of schools.

July 18-August 14 -- Staff applies the criteria and develops a proposal for consideration by the board.

August 15 -- At the Facilities Committee meeting, staff present a proposal to the Board of Education in which sufficient elementary schools are converted to multi-track calendars to gain 3,000 additional seats for the 2007-08 school year and in which sufficient middle schools are identified to provide appropriate multi-track year-round middle school feeder options for the elementary schools.

August 22 -- The Board of Education discusses, revises, and gives preliminary approval to the selection of schools for conversion.

All of this information will be factored into the 2007-08 Growth Management Plan, which would be presented in late November or early December. The community would have opportunities to provide feedback at public hearings.

Posted by Kristin Flenniken at 5:35 PM on June 13, 2006 | Leave Feedback

School Board Discusses Possible Year-Round Designation Criteria

At its Committee of the Whole meeting today, the Board of Education began discussing possible criteria for designating schools to the multi-track year-round calendar. The new capital improvement program for 2007-2009 includes converting enough elementary schools to the multi-track year-round calendar to accommodate an additional 3,000 students, with the understanding that WCPSS will make every effort to accommodate families that can't make year-round work where seats are available.

Chuck Dulaney, assistant superintendent for Growth and Planning, presented a list of criteria for board members to consider. As homework, he asked them to put the criteria in rank order of importance. Dulaney and his staff will then compile a possible weighting system based on the feedback. On June 13, the board will continue their discussion of criteria and look at a timeline and work plan.

The possible criteria presented today include:

A. Does the school community want to convert to the 45/15 calendar (as indicated through the process approved by the Board of Education)?

B. Would conversion of this school enable the Board of Education to remove a cap on enrollment or return spot nodes to the base assignment area of the school?

C. Does the school have sufficient projected membership to organize at least one class at each grade level on each track?

D. How much capacity (space for new students) will be gained through conversion of a school? Does the capacity gain provide space for special needs students? Can the capacity gain be optimized through adjustment of mobile/modular classrooms?

E. Is the student population growing in the base area of the school? Will the capacity gained through conversion be utilized without reassignment or movement of mobile classrooms?

F. How many students residing in the base area of the school currently attend year-round schools through the application process? If those students return to their base school after conversion, how much capacity gain is created in the existing optional year-round school?

G. Does the school facility have obstacles to the movement of materials on carts between classrooms? If so, can those obstacles be addressed through minor facilities modifications such as construction or reconfiguration of ramps or sidewalks?

H. Is there a traditional calendar school that could be made available to parents who can't make the year-round calendar work for their family?

I. Will conversion to a year-round calendar require reassignment of some of the school's base area because of the large number of students that might return from existing year-round schools? If so, how much reassignment is required?

J. Does the school have a year-round middle school feeder option or can such an option be created? How much reassignment would be associated with creation of a middle school feeder option?

K. Will conversion of this school and any necessary related student reassignment have a negative impact on the district's efforts to maintain healthy school assignments?

L. Will conversion of this school have a negative impact on the school's ability to accommodate transfer students?

After gathering community input on the criteria, staff will present to the Board of Education in August a list of schools that could be converted. The board would be asked to approve the list by or before September to give schools time to be ready to open in July 2007.

The school board also began discussing parameters for schools requesting conversion to a single- or multi-track year-round calendar.

Posted by Kristin Flenniken at 7:49 PM on June 6, 2006 | Leave Feedback

School Board Approves Capital Improvement Program

The Board of Education approved a capital improvement program (CIP) last night that seeks to provide more room for crowded schools and thousands of additional children moving into Wake County by 2010.

The $1.055 billion school construction plan will build 11 new elementary schools, four middle schools and two high schools. Additional capacity is created by converting some traditional calendar elementary schools to multi-track year-round, adding mobile units at middle schools, and adding ninth-grade centers for five high schools. The plan will provide improvements at existing schools including East Millbrook Middle, Lynn Road Elementary, Aversboro Elementary, Martin Middle, East Wake High, Lacy Elementary, Root Elementary, Poe Elementary, Wilburn Elementary, Bugg Elementary, Cary High, Enloe High, and Smith Elementary.

The approved plan differed from the earlier draft by adding:

• $50 million for two additional elementary schools to open in 2009;

• $6 million to accommodate crowding at middle schools either through the purchase of additional mobiles/modular classrooms, through the conversion of middle schools to year-round or a combination of both (where there is demand for more year-round middle school seats); and

• $2 million for additional swing space.

The new CIP assumes the conversion of enough elementary schools to the multi-track year-round calendar to accommodate an additional 3,000 students with the understanding that WCPSS will make every effort to accommodate families that can’t make year-round work, where seats are available.

"We have listened to staff, parents, the community and our teachers," said Patti Head, Board of Education Chair. "We believe this plan is responsive to the most critical needs for renovations and capacity. Families wanting year round now will have increased options; families who prefer traditional calendars will have options; teachers will have options and most importantly, all of this has been done, and is being requested, to not compromise academic excellence."

This morning, the school board presented the CIP to the county commissioners, who will determine funding. Part of the amount is expected to be financed through a bond referendum in November.

Approved Capital Improvement Plan

Posted by Kristin Flenniken at 12:44 PM on May 17, 2006 | Leave Feedback

School Board Makes A Few Changes to CIP

At its Committee of the Whole meeting today, the Board of Education made a couple of additions to the draft capital improvement plan after staff decided to pull the two regional bus transportation centers. The revised plan's bottom line total remained at $997 million and will come up for a final vote May 16.

School board members decided to add funding for bus parking, as well as a portion of Enloe High School's major renovation project and a major renovation project at Smith Elementary School to the draft plan. Both projects would address health and safety issues.

Staff decided to pull the two regional centers from the draft plan and instead recommended funding land for bus parking while studying ways to gain maximum savings from the regional centers in the future. They said it was important to get bus parking off school sites. The biggest savings will come in travel time, and having a remote facility versus having to drive to the service center at Rock Quarry Road.

The school board also continued its discussion of year-round designations. Chuck Dulaney, assistant superintendent for Growth and Planning, said that over the next 20 years, the elementary school population is expected to double. The use of the multi-track year-round calendar could reduce the number of new elementary schools needed over the next 20 years by 25, saving the county almost one billion dollars.

"By choosing the multi-track year-round calendar for elementary schools as your default, you're freeing up a huge amount of money that can be used for other purposes," Dulaney told the board. "This is a basic strategy for meeting our enrollment over the next 20 years - not just in 2007-08."

Several board members questioned whether the remaining 20 or so traditional elementary schools would be located across the county in an equitable fashion for families. Dulaney indicated that his staff will work to try and provide alternative traditional calendar schools for all of the county's planning regions when they bring a draft of a detailed plan to the board later this summer.

Posted by Kristin Flenniken at 6:20 PM on May 9, 2006 | Leave Feedback

Addressing Your Questions About Year-Round Designations

Several of the same questions have been coming into the Growth Resource Center. I'd like to clear a few things up.

First, the Board of Education is continuing to discuss the capital improvement plan and year-round policy issues, and will vote on the final plan May 16. The board is looking at designating most traditional elementary schools to the multi-track calendar as a way to provide an additional 6,000 - 7,000 classrooms seats and avoid building another seven elementary schools at $150 million. However, there are some traditional schools that do not have enough classrooms to be able to function on the multi-track calendar. Conversely, some of the larger magnet schools may be designated as multi-track year-round. Program magnets are expected to maintain their magnet status.

If the school board proceeds with the current proposal, it plans to discuss specific schools to designate as multi-track year-round, as well as a timeline for conversion, towards the end of June. These schools would open on the year-round calendar for the 2007-08 school year.

The school board is also considering a single-track calendar for magnet elementary schools, most middle schools and all high schools. This new calendar would be more family-friendly by providing some common breaks with the multi-track year-round calendar. Staff has presented a draft six-week calendar, but is currently drafting one with a longer summer break.

The board will still need to address various year-round policy issues, such as what happens to students in existing year-round schools and whether track priority would be given to siblings.

Posted by Kristin Flenniken at 1:58 PM on May 9, 2006 | Leave Feedback

Teacher Year-round Survey Results

The summary results for the recent online survey of Wake County Teachers about the proposed calendar change are available (87 KB Adobe Acrobat File) .

Posted by Paul Cory at 12:13 PM on May 9, 2006 | Leave Feedback

County Commissioners Support School Board's Draft Building Plan

At a joint work session this morning, county commissioners gave non-binding approval to the school board's draft capital improvement plan. Recognizing that the Board of Education will continue to refine the draft until its May 16 vote, commissioners said they supported the general size of the building program, as well as year-round conversion and the larger school sizes. Both boards emphasized the importance of speaking with a unified voice on the outcome of the November 2006 school bond referendum.

School board members also stressed that they tried to create a plan that the community would accept, knowing that the November bond is the first of three school construction referenda needed over the next 10 years to handle enrollment growth. Projections show Wake adding 40,000 students in the next five years and 72,000 students by 2015.

The draft capital improvement plan currently stands at $997 million. Based on previous funding ratios, approximately 20 percent is paid with cash, or pay-as-you-go funding, with the remainder on a bond referendum.

The school board will vote on a final plan on May 16, and then present it to the county commissioners on May 17.

Posted by Kristin Flenniken at 12:33 PM on May 3, 2006 | Leave Feedback

School Board Continues Capital Improvement Plan Discussions

At today's Committee of the Whole meeting, staff presented a summary of revisions that the Board of Education has made to the draft capital improvement plan. The bottom-line total has changed from approximately $994 million to $997 million as a result of a few changes. The school board will continue refining the draft plan leading up to the final vote on May 16. Tomorrow morning, the Board of Education will share its current revisions with county commissioners at a joint meeting.

The school board reduced the total funding request for new schools and crowding solutions from $676 million in the prior draft to $640 million by doing the following:

• Eliminating the need for a swing space elementary school (a school built new and utilized as temporary housing while the existing school is being renovated),

• Using a smaller school model for the new Wendell Middle School (981-capacity traditional or 1293-capacity year-round), and

• Adding permanent seats at Cary High School instead of building a separate ninth-grade center in modulars or a leased facility.

Increases to the new school section include adjusting the cost for two high schools, correcting a math error and adding design costs for a future elementary school.

The school board increased its funding request for existing school projects from $318 million to $356 million due to the following:

• Adding the first portion of Cary High School's addition project to provide capacity (as stated above),

• Adding a portion of Enloe High School's PLAN 2004 deferred project, and

• Correcting a math error in the amount needed for life-cycle replacement of furniture and equipment in existing schools.

Reductions to the existing school section include using East Garner Elementary as swing space for Aversboro Elementary during its renovation project and reducing the amount of space needed for the child nutrition warehouse.

Posted by Kristin Flenniken at 5:21 PM on May 2, 2006 | Leave Feedback

Board Gives OK To Year-Round Elementary Schools For 2007-08

Nearly all elementary schools would convert to a multi-track year-round schedule at the beginning of the 2007-08 school year as a result of action taken today by the Wake County Board of Education.

The board spent 10 hours over the last day and a half going through the staff's proposed construction improvement program line by line. They gave staff direction on making changes to the proposal that will be voted on by the board May 16.

The major decision today was to convert elementary schools to the multi-track year-round calendar saving seats for 6,000 to 7,000 students and avoiding construction of seven additional elementary schools that would have cost about $150 million in this current construction program. Over the next 10 years, multi-track, year-round elementary schools could save up to one billion dollars.

Additionally, the board directed staff to look at middle schools. Board members asked staff to report back Tuesday on converting some middle schools to the multi-track year-round calendar. Board members had several reasons: meeting the needs of the increasing number of families on the elementary multi-track year-round schedule, demand that is greater than available space for next year, increasing geographical convenience across the county to multi-track, year-round middle school and potentially eliminating the need for constructing one of the middle schools in the proposed construction program.

The board reaffirmed its opposition to multi-track year-round high schools.

The board delayed action on the proposal to change non-multi-track schools to a single-track calendar. The single-track calendar would be designed to have more breaks in common with the multi-track year-round calendar. The board asked staff to reconfigure a draft single-track calendar to provide an eight-week summer break.

Assistant Superintendent Chuck Dulaney said the board has taken several steps that could lead to additional cost savings in the construction program. Dulaney said the board asked about removing one high school and one middle school from the proposal. He said board actions Thursday may eliminate the need for an elementary school.

Board members will discuss the construction program next Tuesday at 1 p.m. in a committee of the whole meeting.

Posted by Bill Poston at 3:23 PM on April 28, 2006 | Leave Feedback

Board Making Progress on Draft Capital Improvement Plan

At its planning meeting today, the Board of Education went through staff's draft capital improvement plan line item by line item to see what changes it wants to make. Until the final vote on May 16, however, all decisions are subject to change. By and large, the school board approved most of staff's proposal. Tomorrow, the board will address the year-round piece.

The board agreed with staff's proposal to include:
*10 major renovation projects,
*25 percent of life-cycle furniture and equipment replacement in existing schools,
*75 percent of environmental and ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) compliance in existing schools,
*Child Nutrition warehouse, and
*Assessment of existing facilities (as called for in September 2005 planning assumptions).

In addition, the board decided to include 100 percent of the request for technology replacement at existing schools (replace servers, computers, cables). Staff had proposed including 25 percent of the request, but that would not cover all of the infrastructure needs or any computer replacements.

Board members also directed staff to re-instate part of Cary High School's deferred renovation and addition project as a way to add enough capacity for a ninth-grade center to open in 2008-09. (This results in a decrease in the funding needed for ninth-grade centers and an increase in the amount needed for renovations.)

Staff will present additional information tomorrow regarding the two regional bus transportation centers and design startup for future renovations before the board makes decisions on those items.

As a side note, there was a mathematical error in the calculation of furniture and equipment costs for existing schools; it should be $4.8 million as opposed to $1.3 million.

Posted by Kristin Flenniken at 6:50 PM on April 27, 2006 | Leave Feedback

Draft Capital Improvement Plan Released

Staff presented a draft capital improvement plan to the Board of Education at its Committee of the Whole meeting this morning that was substantially smaller than original estimates. By converting 59 elementary schools to the multi-track year-round calendar, which saves space for more than 6,000 students or $150 million, as well as deferring a number of renovation projects and other needs, staff cut the program to $989 million. After the presentation, school board members decided to reinstate high school stadiums -- at least temporarily -- which raised the draft plan to $994 million.

The draft includes $676 million for new schools and crowding solutions and $318 million for the most critical major renovation projects and districtwide needs for a school system whose student enrollment is expected to grow by 35 percent over the next five years.

The school board will have a month to refine the proposal before voting on a final capital improvement plan May 16. County commissioners will vote June 5 to determine what appears on the November 2006 bond referendum.

Key features of the draft plan include:
*Conversion of all 59 non-magnet, single-track elementary schools to a 45/15 multi-track calendar for the 2007-08 school year (saves the building of seven schools)

*Maintain single-track calendars for magnet elementary schools, middle schools and high schools that align to the extent possible with multi-track year-round calendars

*Open 14 new schools between July 2008 and July 2010, including nine multi-track elementary, three multi-track middle and two high schools; one new elementary school to serve as swing space to open in 2011; one new middle school to open in 2011

*Funding for land and startup design of 12 more schools planned for 2011, 2012 and 2013

*Open six ninth-grade centers in 2007 and 2008 to serve the most overcrowded high schools for a five-10 year period

*Relocate at least 75 mobile classrooms from elementary schools to middle schools to meet middle school crowding needs in 2008-09, and relocate up to 100 mobile classrooms each year to the most crowded schools

*Priority one major renovation projects: East Millbrook Middle, Lynn Road Elementary, Aversboro Elementary, Martin Middle Phase II, East Wake High

*Priority two major renovation projects: Lacy Elementary, Root Elementary, Poe Elementary, Wilburn Elementary, Bugg Elementary

*Warehouse space for Child Nutrition Services and two regional bus transportation centers

Draft Capital Improvement Plan

Posted by Kristin Flenniken at 2:14 PM on April 13, 2006 | Leave Feedback

Reducing the Cost of the School Building Program

In today's Committee of the Whole, the Board of Education took straw votes on possible ways to reduce the cost of the school building program. The board potentially cut $1.4 million per new elementary school, $2.8 million per new middle school, and $4.4 million per new high school. The largest savings comes from eliminating stadiums from the high school model.

School board members also agreed to increase the overall capacity of the middle school model from 981 students to 1,281 students, with the goal of reducing the number of new middle schools WCPSS would need to build. The school board also agreed to increase the capacity of the high school model above the current 1,663 students, but did not decide how much to increase the capacity.

Staff will factor these tentative decisions into the draft capital improvement program they will present to the board on Thursday, where there will be additional discussion. Today's straw votes are not final.

The board acknowledged that these reductions will impact teaching, learning and operations, but is working to reduce the amount of the November bond referendum to an amount palatable to the voters. The school board tentatively agreed to the following reductions in its models.

At the high school level:
*Delete high school stadium and provide track with lighted practice field
*Reduce non-assignable square footage (bathrooms, mechanical spaces) in the high school model

At the middle school level:
*Reduce size of all middle school science rooms from 1,200 to 1,100 square feet each
*Reduce all regular middle school classrooms by 100 square feet each to 850 square feet
*Reduce all non-assignable square footage (bathrooms, mechanical spaces) in the middle school model
*Reduce size of special needs and support classrooms by 100 square feet each
*Delete one practice field

At the elementary school level:
*Reduce non-assignable square footage (bathrooms, mechanical spaces) in the elementary school model
*Reduce the size of all regular kindergarten – fifth-grade classrooms by 50 square feet each

Staff pointed out that constructing single-story schools instead of multi-story ones would save approximately $265,000 per school at the elementary level and save $435,000 per school at the middle school level.

Chuck Dulaney, assistant superintendent for Growth and Planning, stressed that the final decisions will impact not only the next four or five years covered in the upcoming building program, but what the school system will be doing for the next 25 to 30 years.

Posted by Kristin Flenniken at 6:19 PM on April 11, 2006 | Leave Feedback

Yes, We'll Have Band

Students have been registering for courses at the two new high schools opening next year: Holly Springs and Panther Creek. Staff will then use this information to determine how many sections of various courses they need to offer -- all based on what students want and need. It is important to remember that these are course selections, not students' schedules. Staff will take students' input and develop schedules over the next few months.

To clear up a couple rumors floating around out there.... Both Holly Springs and Panther Creek high schools will have band and all junior varsity and varsity sports except varsity football in 2006-07. Varsity football will be added at both schools for the 2007-08 school year. Holly Springs High will be part of the Greater Neuse River Conference, and Panther Creek High will be part of the Tri-7 Conference.

Posted by Kristin Flenniken at 2:02 PM on March 31, 2006 | Leave Feedback

Comparing Construction Costs Isn't Always Apples to Apples

If other counties' school construction costs seem lower, often times it's because it isn't an apples to apples comparison. Before comparing counties' school construction costs, find out what's included in the amount. For example, the Wake County Public School System provides playfields and athletic fields; Forsyth County does not - the community pays for them.

You've probably heard a lot about increasing construction costs the last few years. In addition to the rising costs across the state, schools in Wake County are experiencing a significant jump in site development costs. Over the last three years these costs have almost tripled. Why the dramatic increase?

1) Easy-to-develop land is almost non-existent in a rapidly developing county like Wake. The available sizes of property remaining are more costly to develop.

2) Wake municipalities are increasing their regulatory requirements. For example, municipalities are requiring WCPSS to make road improvements when the district builds a new school. These additional costs to WCPSS are more expensive and demanding than in other districts in the state because Wake is an urban area.

3) The number of environmental requirements - which affect districts across the state - is rising and with limited land, the cost for meeting these requirements is greatly increased.

4) The cost of site materials such as petroleum and asphalt are increasing.

In the March 21 committee of the whole meeting, the Board of Education heard WCPSS administrators describe the impact of cost reduction options in the next school construction program. The board and school administration will continue to discuss cost savings in the next school construction program in meetings next month.

Posted by Kristin Flenniken at 4:30 PM on March 30, 2006 | Leave Feedback

Cost-Saving Options for Schools: Pros and Cons

The latest issue of the School Construction Report takes a look at some potential cost reductions on building elementary, middle and high schools, as well as the possible impact on academic and student programs.

You can subscribe to the School Construction Report and other e-mail newsletters here.

Posted by Chip Sudderth at 4:19 PM on March 30, 2006 | Leave Feedback

WCPSS's Market Share, or "Where Do New Students Come From?"

In a prior blog entry discussing the comparatively minor impact of immigration, I mentioned a report from our Growth and Planning Department examining where our new students were coming from along with other demographic information.

That report, "Students Leaving and Entering WCPSS In 2005-06" (what some staff call the "market share report"), is now complete. I'm linking the PDF file here until we have a more permanent home for the Growth and Planning Department's reports on our website (coming soon).

Here's a quick summary:

• More students came to WCPSS this year from private/religious, home or charter schools than left last year.

• Despite the rapid growth in student membership, the overall makeup of the student population changed only slightly.

  • There was a slight increase in the percentage of Hispanic students (from 8.2 to 9.2 percent), a slight decrease in the percentage of White students (from 56.8 to 55.4 percent), and almost no change for Black, Asian and Multi-racial students (26.9 percent, 4.7 percent, and 3.6 percent respectively).

  • A higher percentage of new students are from families with low income.

  • A lower percentage of new students are identified for special education services.

  • About the same percentage of new students as continuing students come from homes where English is not the primary language.

All the numbers are broken down in this six-page report. Have a look!

(Updated with a more descriptive link to the earlier blog entry.)

Posted by Chip Sudderth at 2:16 PM on March 16, 2006 | Leave Feedback

A Note About the Public Hearings

After the registration period for the six student assignment public hearings ended on Feb. 24, the Wake County Board of Education decided to allow individuals who had signed up for multiple hearings to speak at a single public hearing. The Office of Growth Management contacted those speakers to let them know of the decision and to identify which single public hearing they preferred. On-site registration for the remaining public hearings at Middle Creek High and Knightdale High will be similarly limited to individuals who have not spoken at a previous public hearing.

Posted by Chip Sudderth at 4:41 PM on March 3, 2006 | Leave Feedback

Always Looking at Ways to Improve Facilities

At this morning's Facilities Committee, the school board once again demonstrated its openness to others' ideas. First, the committee agreed to support the Wake County Government hiring (and paying for) an independent educational facilities consultant firm that would be available on a long-term basis to both school board and county commissioners to answer questions and perform research. (How do Wake County schools compare to those in other large districts, for example.)

Most likely, the firm will validate what WCPSS is already doing in terms of designing and building schools, but if it doesn't, the board is open to how the firm can help the district do things better. The county has narrowed the list of possible firms down to three groups and will hold interviews and make a selection soon.

Second, the school board agreed to jointly form an independent capital improvement program advisory committee with the county commissioners. Although still in the discussion stage, the small advisory committee would evaluate the WCPSS capital improvement program, as well as design criteria and construction methods. Together, both boards would select committee members with backgrounds in corporate leadership, architecture and engineering, financial management, and/or public administration. Stay tuned.

Posted by Kristin Flenniken at 1:27 PM on March 3, 2006 | Leave Feedback

NCSBA on Immigration

There's been a lot of media interest, and separately some misinformation, about the impact of illegal immigration on Wake County's student population growth.

First, some demographic info from a forthcoming report from the WCPSS Growth and Planning Department: Of the more than 8,500 students new to WCPSS in grades 1-12 at the start of the year, 47.9 percent of new students were white, 30.1 percent black, 11.2 percent Hispanic, 5.4 percent Asian, 4.8 percent multi-racial, and 0.5 percent American Indian. Of the more than 10,000 incoming Kindergarteners, 52.1 percent were white, 24.4 percent black, 13.4 percent Hispanic, 5.3 percent Asian, 4.6 percent multi-racial, and 0.2 percent American Indian.

You can infer from that demographic information that international immigration, legal or otherwise, is just a small percentage of our 6,400-plus growth this year. What you also need to know is that WCPSS is legally bound to serve Wake County students regardless of their immigration status.

Allison Brown Schafer, General Counsel and Director of Policy for the North Carolina School Boards Association, responded to the News and Observer's recent coverage of the issue with this letter (reproduced with her permission).

Your Feb. 27 article on schools and illegal immigration failed to include one very critical fact. In 1982, the U.S. Supreme Court held in Plyler v. Doe that illegal immigrant children domiciled in this country may not be denied a free public school education.

The case challenged a Texas statute that withheld state funds from local school districts for the education of children not legally admitted into the United States and authorized districts to deny enrollment to such children. The plaintiffs in the lawsuit claimed that the statute violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. The Supreme Court agreed that the state law was unconstitutional, reasoning that "[i]f a State is to deny a discrete group of innocent children the free public education that it offers to other children residing within its borders, that denial must be justified by a showing that it furthers some substantial State interest. No such showing was made in this case."

Since this 1982 case was decided, public school districts across the country have been required to provide free public education to children of illegal immigrants. School districts have no choice in the matter, nor do state legislatures.

Note that per the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, children born in the United States are natural-born citizens under the U.S. Constitution, regardless of their parents' immigration status.

Posted by Chip Sudderth at 10:01 AM on March 3, 2006 | Leave Feedback

Cost to Avoid Total Year-Round Conversion: Four Cents

The cost difference between building mainly new schools and converting all existing elementary and middle schools to a multi-track year-round calendar: four cents.

The school board and county commissioners discussed the tax rate implications of sample building program scenarios through 2010 at a joint work session yesterday. The meeting is part of a long, on-going process to determine the best way to provide much-needed classroom seats in a school system that is expected to gain 40,000 students in the next five years, and the financial impact on the community.

In costing out three scenarios, county officials said building mainly new schools would require a property tax increase of 11.1 cents for capital and operating the facilities, whereas converting all existing elementary and middle schools to a multi-track year-round calendar would require a 7.2-cent increase. Basically, it comes down to: Is it worth $75 a year to go year-round?

	Bond Amount	Tax Rate Increase for Capital	Tax Rate Increase for Operating the Facilities	Total Tax Rate Increase - Impact of Scenarios for Capital Programs	Total Annual Tax Increase on Median House in Wake ($175,000)
Scenario A	$1.705 billion	7.9 cents	3.2 cents	11.1 cents	$200/year
Scenario B	$1.563 billion	6.5 cents	3.1 cents	9.6 cents	$168/year
Scenario C	$1.225 billion	3.4 cents	3.8 cents	7.2 cents	$126/year

Scenario A costs $1.975 billion and includes:

• Build 28 new schools (19 elementary, 6 middle and 3 high), with them opening on a mix of traditional and multi-track year-round calendars.
• Convert 10 existing elementary schools and 4 middle schools to year-round.
• Address renovation needs deferred from earlier building program proposals and all life-cycle maintenance needs.
• Provide recommended support facilities, technology infrastructure, and facility assessments and start-up funding for future projects.

Scenario B costs $1.797 billion and includes:

• Build 22 new schools (14 elementary, 5 middle and 3 high), with all elementary and middle schools opening on the year-round calendar.
• Convert 7 existing elementary schools and 4 middle schools to year-round.
• Address renovation needs deferred from earlier building program proposals and all life-cycle maintenance needs.
• Provide recommended support facilities, technology infrastructure, and facility assessments and start-up funding for future projects.

Scenario C costs $1.375 billion and includes:

• Build 9 new schools (5 elementary, 2 middle, 2 high), with all elementary and middle schools opening on the year-round calendar.
• Convert all existing traditional calendar elementary and middle schools to multi-track year-round calendars.
• Address renovation needs deferred from earlier building program proposals and all life-cycle maintenance needs.
• Provide recommended support facilities, technology infrastructure, and facility assessments and start-up funding for future projects.

No matter which scenario the school system ends up with, WCPSS will have to convert some existing schools to year-round and open ninth-grade centers in 2007-08 to manage growth.

The Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce will use the scenarios to poll voters, which will help the school board and county commissioners as they continue planning for a November 2006 school construction bond referendum.

Posted by Kristin Flenniken at 11:29 AM on February 16, 2006 | Leave Feedback

Why Doesn't Growth Pay for Itself?

Wake County Manager David Cooke explained that if we had a higher percentage of commercial growth than residential, growth would pay for itself (based on property taxes). But, that's not the case in Wake County. Our residential growth is a higher percentage than our commercial growth.

Adding residents does increase the tax base, but these residents also require additional services (such as schools), which cost money.

In their joint work session on Wednesday, school board and county commissioners said it took property taxes from two new homeowners to cover the cost of one new student. The board members added that this was the case in the past, and that the ratio may have gone up.

Posted by Kristin Flenniken at 11:03 AM on January 20, 2006 | Leave Feedback

Fiscal Impact of Building Program Scenarios

The Wake County Public School System is expected to add 40,000 students in five years and 72,000 by 2015. While growth is a sign of a healthy community, it also has a price tag. At today's joint work session between the school board and county commissioners, county staff presented bond referenda amounts and the associated property tax rate increases for two possible building program scenarios for the next 10 years.

Over the course of three bond referenda, scenario one would require a total (capital and operating) tax rate increase of 50.5 cents between now and 2016. Scenario two would require a 59.1-cent increase over the next 10 years. Wake's current property tax rate is 60.4 cents per $100 of assessed value, one of the lowest in the state.

The school construction bond on the November 2006 ballot could range from $1.08 billion to $1.5 billion. County officials said anything above $625 million would require a tax increase.

Scenario one, at $4.2 billion, designates the maximum number of elementary and middle schools to the year-round calendar. WCPSS could designate 91 schools as year-round; 10 schools are not large enough to offer multi-track year-round. Even designating the maximum number, WCPSS would still need to build 50 new schools.

Scenario two, at $5.6 billion, maintains the current percentage of year-round elementary and middle schools. WCPSS would designate one middle school as year-round and build 91 schools.

This is only a starting point. Building program discussions and refinements will continue, with WCPSS staff presenting a draft program to the Board of Education in March.

Posted by Kristin Flenniken at 6:14 PM on January 18, 2006 | Leave Feedback

Grade 10 Grandfathering Reinstated for Moves to Existing Schools

The Wake County Board of Education voted during its regular meeting this afternoon to allow rising tenth-grade students who would otherwise be reassigned to an existing school in the 2006 student assignment plan to transfer back to their original school. In order to ensure that the two new schools will have a viable student population, rising tenth-grade students assigned to Panther Creek High and Holly Springs High will not be eligible for the automatic "grandfathering." Families taking advantage of grandfathering must provide their own transportation.

Posted by Chip Sudderth at 5:57 PM on January 17, 2006 | Leave Feedback

Multi-track High Schools? Not at This Time

During today's Committee of the Whole meeting of the Wake County Board of Education, Chuck Dulaney, assistant superintendent for growth and planning, presented the reasons why WCPSS staff was not recommending that the school board pursue multi-track year-round schedules for high schools at this time.

Part of the challenge is the massive logistical hurdle in trying to make the diverse curriculum at our high schools available for all students regardless of which track they're on, the need for teachers and staff to have office and planning space comparable to what's currently available, and the need to adequately compensate coaches and extracurricular sponsors when scheduling conflicts are created. But it's not only a problem of logistics, but of cost.

From the staff's report to the board (emphasis added):

An existing high school using a traditional calendar can serve 2100 students through the utilization of mobile/modular classrooms, and the same facility can theoretically serve 2800 students through the assignment of students to four tracks, each serving 700 students. However, in order to provide a full curriculum program to all students on each track, and in order to provide twelve month administrative, clerical, and security services, the school district would need to spend approximately $3.3 million per year in local funds to supplement funding allotted by NCDPI. The district could spend less, but it would result in limiting some courses (such as some Advanced Placement or Technical Education courses) to particular tracks and restrict access to some students.

If three traditional high schools were converted to year-round calendars, it would save the construction cost of one additional high school facility, saving approximately $90 million in capital spending (projected 2010 cost). However, each of the three converted high schools would require approximately $3.3 million in the annual operating budget, resulting in $10 million dollars per year in increased operating expenses. After about 9-10 years, the capital savings would be offset by the operating expenses, and the year-round high school calendar would cost the county more than the construction cost of the additional high school.

WCPSS staff could not identify any four-track year-round high schools currently in operation in the United States. Where they've been tried by other districts, they've been abandoned.

While a multi-track year-round high school is now off the table, per a straw poll of board members at the committee meeting, staff and board members will continue to explore the possibility of modified calendars at the high school level. Southeast Raleigh Magnet High operates on a modified calendar that coincides with the Track 4 and Track 1 year-round calendars in our elementary and middle schools.

Posted by Chip Sudderth at 5:22 PM on January 17, 2006 | Leave Feedback

Growth Management Update: The Year-Round Questions

To say that there's a lot of interest in year-round schools these days is a vast understatement. We received record-breaking feedback to Kristin Flenniken's post about the different year-round options being considered by the staff and school board. A large proportion of that feedback strongly supported expansion of the year-round calendar -- some respondents praising the perceived academic benefits, others concerned with holding down the cost of school construction county-wide. But we have also heard concerns from families unhappy about the prospects of leaving a traditional calendar or possibly having children on different schedules. Opinions in Wake County range from "convert them all" to "keep things the way they are," with a wide variety of points of view in the middle.

Year-round programs certainly will have a role to play in the future of managing Wake County's growth. One reason is our "seat deficiency": under current standards we will be short 5,062 seats for students in 2006-07 and down 9,615 seats in 2007-08. In the short term, all five elementary schools opening next year will be on year-round schedules. The long-term role of year-round schools, however, is currently being debated by the school board. Here are just a few of the issues raised by the school board -- not a complete list -- at its Tuesday, January 3, Committee of the Whole meeting:

• Facility/building usage/fiscal management: Increased operational costs for year-round schools, ability to keep up with maintenance and renovations for facilities that are busy year-round, assignment, feeder patterns, transfer policies.
• Healthy schools: What role will the school board's Healthy Schools standards play in these decisions?
  • High academic achievement by all students
  • Strong parental support and commitment
  • Strong community support and commitment
  • Highly trained and effective staff
  • Attractive and appropriate learning facilities
  • A safe, orderly, and inviting learning climate
  • Strong and effective leadership
  • A diverse student body
• Human resources: Impact of expanded use of year-round calendars on teachers and staff, including recruitment, retention, professional development and demand.
• Magnet programs: Impact of expanding year-round schools on the magnet program, whether traditional calendar schools might become magnet programs, whether the purpose and number of magnet schools might be affected.
• Community/families/businesses: Student transfers, summer employment, Joint Use Agreements with municipalities for school facilities, intersession policies, potential for "opt-in" or "opt-out" policies, community engagement, child care.
• Legislative issues: Use of modified calendars in light of "summer-protecting" state legislation, unfunded mandates.
• Curriculum and instruction: How best to take advantage of the year-round calendar.

Believe it or not, this just scratches the surface. The question of how much to rely on year-round programs to help solve the growth challenge is not an easy one -- and the school board continues to wrestle with it.

Up next for the school board will be a discussion of whether year-round high schools are feasible in Wake County. Along with the challenges and issues listed above, the sheer size and scope of Wake County's high schools -- student body sizes, semester-based schedules, elective and advanced placement classes, and so on -- makes implementing a year-round schedule a tough proposition. That discussion will be during the Committee of the Whole meeting at 2 p.m., Tuesday, January 17, in the Board Conference Room.

Posted by Chip Sudderth at 2:50 PM on January 11, 2006 | Leave Feedback

Growth Management Update: The Assignment Process

Calls, e-mails and posted comments rushed like a mighty river following the release of the staff's draft proposal on December 12. Now that this formal public comment period is over, senior director Dr. Ramey Beavers and his staff are poring over the information gathered within the responses and studying what changes might be needed and/or possible given the crowding in our schools. At the February 14 meeting of the Wake County Board of Education, Dr. Beavers will present the staff's assignment plan to the school board. At that point it transforms from the "staff's proposal" to the "school board's proposal." The school board will conduct public hearings and gather further comment, make any revisions it deems necessary, and approve a final proposal on March 21 if the schedule holds. For more information, including dates and locations for the public hearings, check out the full Growth Management Timeline for the 2006-07 Assignment Plan.

Posted by Chip Sudderth at 2:05 PM on January 11, 2006 | Leave Feedback

Growth Management Update: Exploring Public-Private Partnerships

With the school system expected to gain more than 40,000 new students by 2010, WCPSS is exploring creative ways to provide classroom seats. Yesterday, staff shared information on public-private partnerships with the school board's Facilities Committee as a possible way to save time constructing schools in the future.

At this point, current state legislation prevents school districts from entering into a lease with the option to purchase; districts are not able to set the parameters for building, either. For example, WCPSS would not be able to say where a school is needed or how many classrooms it should have. (School districts are allowed to lease a building and renovate or repair it.)

The school board will decide whether to pursue introducing a new bill for the legislative short or long session by the end of February 2006.

Posted by Kristin Flenniken at 1:54 PM on January 11, 2006 | Leave Feedback

Online Comment Period for Assignment Plan Extended

Parents with feedback about a particular student assignment will now be able to leave comments at the Reassignment Plan On-Line through January 1. Thanks to the parents and citizens who requested additional time to respond.

There are other methods of feedback as well. The Office of Growth Management will be going through the responses through the month of January, modifying the proposal before it officially goes before the school board.

Posted by Chip Sudderth at 3:11 PM on December 21, 2005 | Leave Feedback

Board Sets Timeline for Reviewing Assignment Proposal

At its meeting Dec. 20, the Board of Education established a timeline for considering the growth management proposal that will fill seven new schools for 2006-07.

The proposal will be presented to the board at a special meeting 4 p.m., Tuesday, Feb. 14.

The board will hold six public hearings:
- 6 p.m., Wednesday March 1 at Garner High and Sanderson High
- 6 p.m., Thursday, March 2 at Middle Creek High and Knightdale High
- 6 p.m., Monday, March 6 at Green Hope High and Wakefield High

The board will hold a work session to discuss the proposal 9 a.m., Friday, March 10.

The board will vote on a final plan at its meeting Tuesday, March 21.

Posted by Chip Sudderth at 10:25 AM on December 21, 2005 | Leave Feedback

School Construction Report

The December 16 issue of the School Construction Report is now online.

Posted by Chip Sudderth at 2:58 PM on December 16, 2005 | Leave Feedback

Giving Feedback on the Assignment Proposal

We're reading, noting, and appreciating your comments left as feedback to the "Morning Announcements" entries. But if you have a specific concern with a specific assignment change or need to point out an issue such as an error on a map, the Growth Management staff need to hear it from you directly. They are the ones who are closest to the details. Here's how you can get in touch with them.

• Online feedback can be matched to your student assignment node through the Reassignment Plan On-Line through December 22.
• You can e-mail your comments to studentassignment@wcpss.net through January 1.
• You can write to the Office of Growth Management, Wake County Public School System, 3600 Wake Forest Road, Raleigh, NC 27609.
• You can leave a voice message on the Office of Growth Management's hotline at 501-7998.

We're encouraging you to use the most direct means of feedback because, as you might expect, we're getting a lot and this will help us keep it straight. If a picture's worth a thousand words....

Posted by Chip Sudderth at 4:55 PM on December 15, 2005 | Leave Feedback

Student Assignment Resource Center

We're continuing to add to our online Student Assignment Resource Center with a variety of background information on growth and the student assignment process. Bill Poston has just contributed a piece about the relationship between residential growth, student population growth, and school construction in Wake County.

Posted by Chip Sudderth at 4:00 PM on December 15, 2005 | Leave Feedback

Dr. Beavers on the Assignment Proposal

The following letter ran in a couple of local newspapers during the week before the draft student assignment proposal's release. In it, Dr. Ramey Beavers, senior director for growth management, discusses the feedback from the Community Engagement Meetings, the factors that led to this proposal, and the next steps in the process.

Across the county from September through November, more than a thousand parents and citizens attended the twelve Community Engagement Meetings hosted by the Wake County Public School System. We shared information about the incredible growth in our student population, which you can see reflected in the new homes being built in every corner of the county. They learned where our schools are overcrowded, where new construction is planned, and that the school board and administrative staff are working hard to develop a plan that will build new schools and offer additional year-round schools in order to better serve every child.

They also had the chance to ask questions and offer suggestions, which we took into account in planning the 2006-07 student assignment proposal. It will be presented for public comment on Monday, Dec. 12. We wanted to let you know the significant factors behind the proposal, how we responded to the Community Engagement Meeting feedback, and what will come after the proposal's release.

CROWDING: This year, we will be opening five new elementary schools -- each on a multi-track year-round calendar -- and two new high schools. While opening these seven schools will help relieve crowding, bringing students into them from their nearby neighborhoods will have a ripple effect across the county. The school board has directed that we must make full use of all our facilities. In those rare places where there are empty seats, we have been asked to fill them. Most elementary schools, and each high school, will be affected to some extent. Only a fraction of WCPSS students will be directly affected by this year's student assignment proposal, but it is the largest in our county's history.

YOUR FEEDBACK: We received many comments from parents at the Community Engagement Meetings. In putting the proposal together, we have been able to respond to many of the expressed concerns while populating the new schools. Parents have again said less frequent reassignment and distance are a priority, and we have worked to provide that for students. Where possible, we have brought back together attendance areas called "spot nodes" that had been split from neighboring attendance areas due to crowding. We have tried to clean up "feeder patterns" to keep neighborhoods together through elementary, middle and high school. Parents agreed with the school board that we should use all available seats and fully utilize the new schools in the first year. They also asked that we look ahead to future school openings as we developed the proposal, and were adamant that we continue giving rising juniors the opportunity to stay at their current school -- we heard them loud and clear.

WHAT COMES NEXT: Even taking that feedback into account, opening seven new schools means that many families will inevitably be affected. Here's what comes next, and what you can do. We will be releasing our draft proposal on the WCPSS website, www.wcpss.net, on Monday, Dec. 12 at 9:00 a.m. You will be able to check a list to see if your school is in the proposal, and then enter your address to determine whether your family is affected. We will be taking your comments through Dec. 23. We're expecting a heavy response. We'll be working through January to review your suggestions and see how we can improve the proposal. We anticipate bringing an official student assignment plan before the school board at its first meeting in February. The school board will then hold public hearings and work sessions before making a final decision in the spring.

As the grandfather of two WCPSS students, I know from personal experience that reassigning students from one school to another is often difficult. But anything we can do to relieve the crowding in our schools means that our children will receive more personal attention from teachers and be less distracted by overstuffed classrooms and long lines. We have more than 120,000 students in our schools now. By 2010, we expect more than 156,000. As long as Wake County's thriving economy and strong schools continue to welcome new residents, our schools will continue to welcome new students. It won't always be as dramatic a process as it is this year, but it is a necessary part of ensuring the health and strength of each school in every community. We're committed to making all our schools the best they can be, even in the face of historic growth. It is a challenge, but our children deserve our best.

Dr. Ramey Beavers
Senior Director, Office of Growth Management
WCPSS

Posted by Chip Sudderth at 3:46 PM on December 13, 2005 | Leave Feedback

Scratch, Win and Build?

Cha-ching! The lottery is going to solve all our school building needs, right? Sorry to disappoint you, but even the rosiest estimate shows Wake County gaining $9 million -- enough to build less than half of an elementary school. The funding formula is based on average daily membership and the county tax rate: the lower the tax rate, the less money you stand to receive. According to Joe Durham, Wake's deputy county manager, the earliest Wake could see revenues is 2007-08.

WCPSS' building program is funded through local dollars -- typically a combination of bonds and general revenues, or "pay-as-you-go" funds. However, in November 1996, there was a state bond referendum for school construction, of which Wake received $123.3 million. WCPSS used that funding to build two-and-a-half new schools and renovate 80 others. The monies were mainly targeted to address Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliance, building systems replacements, and technology infrastructure through 2003.

Posted by Kristin Flenniken at 11:27 AM on December 12, 2005 | Leave Feedback

Finding The Right Mix: Building New Schools and Designating Schools as Year-Round

The Wake County Public School System is expected to gain 7,000 new students next year, bringing total enrollment to 127,513. WCPSS is projected to add 40,000 students in five years and 72,000 by 2015. This incredible growth, on top of existing overcrowding and rising construction costs, means that Wake County schools are short 15,000 classroom seats today, and will need another 58,000 seats by 2010 and another 91,000 seats by 2015.

How did we get to this point? Let me set the stage.

* Since the current building program (PLAN 2004) was developed a few years ago, the enrollment projection for 2008-09 has gone up 18,800 students and the projection for 2013-14 has increased by 41,000 students.

* This school year, more than 16 percent of our students are in mobile or modular classrooms systemwide. At the elementary school level, one in four students are in mobile/modulars. Mobile and modular classrooms still provide a good learning environment -- that's not the issue. The issue is that the overwhelming number of units overtaxes a campus' core spaces, such as the media center, cafeteria and bathrooms. WCPSS' goal is to have eight percent of students in mobile or modular classrooms by 2012. (You don't want to completely get rid of the units because they provide the district some flexibility.)

Recognizing that there are only a few places remaining where we could add mobile/modulars, school system staff looked at providing classroom seats through various combinations of new construction and increasing capacity at existing schools by designating them as year-round.

Although converting schools to the year-round calendar alone won't solve our crowding problems, they can house approximately 20 to 30 percent more students than schools on a traditional schedule because three of four groups of students are in session and one group is on break at any given time. Also, the more year-round schools we designate, the fewer new schools we'll need to build.

Construction costs have risen dramatically since PLAN 2004 was created. This is a volatile time in the construction business. With the reconstruction effort in the Gulf Coast, there's an increased demand for labor and supplies. In late 2002/early 2003, a new elementary school cost approximately $12.3 million, a middle school cost $22.1 million, and a high school cost $36.2 million. Now, those costs have risen 60 to 90 percent.

The sample scenarios cover 2007-2015 -- meaning multiple bond cycles -- and include money for renovations to Wake's 139 existing schools. In January or February, school board members and county commissioners will determine the amount of the next school construction bond, planned for November 2006.

There are an infinite number of combinations, but the five examples below give the school board and county commissioners a starting point for finding the right mix.

Scenario 1
The first scenario involves designating the maximum number of elementary and middle schools to the year-round calendar, including magnets, at a cost of $4.2 billion. WCPSS could designate 91 schools as year-round; 10 schools are not large enough to offer multi-track year-round. Even designating the maximum number, WCPSS would still need to build 50 new schools.

Scenario 2
Under scenario 2, WCPSS would maintain the current percentage of year-round elementary and middle schools (12 percent) by adding groupings of two to three elementary schools with a middle school. At $5.6 billion, Wake would designate one middle school as year-round and build 91 schools, with a significant number of those on the year-round calendar.

Scenario 3
Scenario 3 would designate a sufficient number of elementary and middle schools to year-round to relieve crowding in 2007-2009. For approximately $5 billion, WCPSS would designate 73 year-round schools and build 78 schools on the traditional calendar.

Scenario 4
Scenario 4 is similar to scenario 3 with the exception that the new schools would open on the year-round calendar. For $4.3 billion, WCPSS would designate 73 year-round schools and build 52 new, mainly year-round, schools.

Scenario 5
Scenario 5 is an iteration of the first scenario, designating the maximum number of year-round elementary and middle schools, but reserving approximately 10 schools for traditional calendar options. For $4.2 billion, WCPSS would designate 79 multi-track year-round schools and build 52 schools.

Posted by Kristin Flenniken at 11:03 AM on December 8, 2005 | Leave Feedback

Wake Expects Another 7,000 Students Next Year

The school board and county commissioners agreed to higher enrollment projections at their joint work session today. Wake County schools are expected to gain more than 7,000 new students next year, bringing total enrollment to 127,513. The growth doesn't let up either. Estimates show Wake gaining 40,000 students by the year 2010 and 72,000 more students by 2015, for a total of 192,748 students. Yes, you read that number correctly: 192,748 students by 2015.

Superintendent Bill McNeal put the growth in perspective, explaining that most school districts in the state have a total of approximately 6,000 students. "Basically, we're growing by a school system every year."

Posted by Kristin Flenniken at 2:32 PM on December 7, 2005 | Leave Feedback

Preliminary Student Assignment Proposal Online Dec. 12

Five new multi-track year-round elementary schools and two new high schools will be opening for the 2006-07 school year. After reviewing the feedback from the October and November Community Engagement Meetings, the WCPSS Office of Growth Management is putting the finishing touches on its initial student assignment proposal, which will populate these schools while relieving overcrowding in others.

It's important to remember that this is a first draft. Several years ago, the first time anyone in the public saw the staff's annual student assignment plan was when it was presented in full to the Wake County Board of Education in the spring. Now, we release early drafts for public comment much earlier in the school year and Dr. Ramey Beavers's staff takes the feedback into account before bringing a revised plan to the school board. The intention and hope is that this early public involvement makes the process more open and results in a better plan.

We'll be releasing that initial proposal to the public here at www.wcpss.net on the morning of Monday, December 12. There will be another public comment period -- online, by telephone and by mail -- from then until December 23. The Office of Growth Management will be spending January going through the responses in an effort to improve the plan, and will then likely bring the staff plan to the school board in early February. From that point the school board takes the baton, holding public hearings and work sessions before potentially revising and adopting a plan. (We'll have more info on that part of the process later.)

With so many new schools opening to keep up with growth, this will be a large student assignment plan -- one that positions us for future growth and school construction. The vast majority of students will not be affected by the plan, but many of our schools will be. Your feedback in the Community Engagement Meetings, in the comment period following the draft's release, and further on into the process, is very important and will continue to guide us as we continue responding to Wake County's explosive growth.

(For lots of information about our county's growth, be sure to check out the WCPSS Demographics Resource Center, with details about population growth in different parts of the county, school facts, and our annual enrollment increase by school level.)

Posted by Chip Sudderth at 5:30 PM on December 1, 2005 | Leave Feedback