Fact or Fiction - Round Two
(extended answers)
1. Multi-story schools are less expensive than single-story schools.
False! Multi-story schools require less land, but they tend to cost more than single-story schools. Multi-story schools require more square footage to provide for multiple stair towers and an elevator, and they face more stringent building code requirements. Although a multi-story school requires less land, that savings is more than offset by the costs of the additional square footage.
For example, state building code requires that all pre-kindergarten, kindergarten and first-grade students be housed on the ground floor and have direct exits to the outdoors from all spaces they use, including classrooms, media centers, multi-purpose rooms and cafeterias. Second-graders may not be housed more than one story above the ground floor.
WCPSS has approximately 65 multi-story schools, with over 20 of those at the elementary school level. Of the 28 schools opening from 2002 through 2007, 24 are multi-story.
2. WCPSS re-uses school building designs.
True! WCPSS re-uses school building designs (prototypes) to reduce the cost of design. Re-using designs typically saves between $150,000 and $400,000 depending on school size, and allows for minor design improvements and modifications on each re-use. The school system has employed this cost-saving strategy for many years. In fact, all 11 of the new schools in the last building program, PLAN 2004, are prototype designs.
3. Renovation projects in the bond don’t provide additional classroom seats.
False! The 13 major renovation projects will result in a gain of almost 2,100 classroom seats. However, the main purpose of the renovation projects is to correct critical heating, ventilating and air conditioning system deficiencies in the schools and to ensure that they are safe, healthy, quality places for students to learn.
4. All new schools built in this plan will open on the year-round calendar.
False! No high schools will open on the multi-track calendar. All elementary and most middle schools included in the building program are slated to open on the year-round calendar based on projections that call for an additional 40,000 students between 2005 and 2010. The calendar for the new Wendell Middle School has not been decided yet.
5. Opening elementary and middle schools on the year-round calendar reduces the cost of the overall building program.
True! Over the next 25 years, the utilization of the multi-track year-round calendar will reduce the number of new elementary schools needed from 101 to 72, saving over one billion dollars in school construction costs.
If the 25 elementary schools opening between 2006 and 2012 were opened on traditional calendars instead of four-track year-round calendars, approximately nine additional schools would be needed. Without additional funding beyond the bond, this means no space for 7,200 students.
6. The school board refuses to accept land from developers.
False! The school system hasn’t turned down a developer’s offer of suitable land for a school in a location where a school was needed.
An example of WCPSS accepting land can be seen in the Cary Park area. If the bond passes, a new three-story elementary school will open in Cary Park (E-22) in 2008. The land was donated by the town of Cary and the developer is giving $5.5 million towards construction.
7. There is no year-round conversion plan in place: no transportation, no facilities, nothing has been discussed.
False! Planning for potential conversion to the multi-track year-round calendar began last winter. A Year-Round Advisory Committee, made up of 30 members representing every area of WCPSS Central Services, has been meeting regarding policies and 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. (WCPSS already has 15 years of experience in operating year-round schools.) Various training sessions have already begun to help ease the transition as well.
8. Part of the acreage needed for new schools is due to environmental regulations and local ordinances.
True! Typically, WCPSS needs 19 acres for an elementary school, including 10 acres for program (building, parking, sidewalks, playfields, etc.), seven acres for environmental regulations and local ordinances (landscape and stream buffers, building setbacks and stormwater detention ponds), and two acres for unbuildable space (wetlands, flood plains, right-of-way, and site conditions). Similarly, WCPSS needs 31 acres for a middle school (17 for program, 11 for regulatory compliance and three unbuildable); and 65 acres for a high school (37 for program, 20 for regulatory compliance and eight unbuildable).
9. Just adding mobile units will not take care of the crowding issue.
True! WCPSS had more than 1,000 mobile/modular classrooms for 2005-06 and has added another 100 this school year. As part of the new building program, WCPSS is also relocating approximately 100 mobile/modular classrooms per year to deal with localized crowding. Although there is nothing wrong with mobile/modular classrooms, they are overtaking playfields and parking lots, and the district is running out of space to put them. While mobile/modulars provide additional classroom space, too many on a campus lead to overloaded core facilities (bathrooms, cafeteria, gymnasium, media center, etc.), long lines and loss of instructional time. If a student loses 15 minutes a day to unnecessary time waiting in lines, that’s seven and a half days of instruction in a school year that have been lost.
10. WCPSS doesn’t have long-range plans.
False! WCPSS projects school enrollment and residential growth 20 years into the future. The Blueprint for Excellence 2006 includes 17 new schools as well as land and design start up for 13 future schools. All 30 sites are represented on the maps at www.wcpss.net/bond.
The school system contracted with N.C. State University’s Operations Research and Education Laboratory (OR/Ed) in fall 2004 to create a data-driven process to better determine long-range residential development projections and locations for future schools.
OR/Ed’s data shows the general area where new schools are needed based on future land use plans, enrollment projections and filling schools as efficiently as possible. Their data also reaffirmed the locations that WCPSS has already identified. Many of the new schools’ opening dates are marked “to be determined” because the needs in different areas may shift. All the schools are needed, but whether one elementary school needs to open before another is being analyzed.
(OR/Ed has been used to develop tentative target school locations for the next 20 years.)
11. WCPSS students outperform others in the state and nation.
True! Education Week recognized WCPSS for having the second-highest graduation rate (82.2%) among the 50 largest school districts nationwide. WCPSS’s graduation rate is 16 percentage points ahead of the state and 13 points ahead of the nation.
91 percent of WCPSS students in grades three through eight perform at or above grade level. In 2005, a record number of schools (61) were honored as N.C. Schools of Excellence, while another 43 were cited as Schools of Distinction, under state accountability standards.
Expansion Management Magazine recently ranked WCPSS the number one mid-sized metro school district in the nation.
12. Growth doesn’t pay for itself in Wake County.
True! If the county had a higher percentage of commercial growth than residential, then growth could pay for itself (based on property taxes), but that's not the case in Wake County. Wake’s residential growth is a higher percentage than commercial growth. Adding residents does increase the tax base, but these residents also require additional services (such as schools, law enforcement, parks, libraries), which cost money.
Also, Wake County’s revaluation every eight years has been “revenue neutral,” meaning the county counteracted increases in the tax base and property values by lowering the tax rate so that taxpayers do not see an increase as a result of revaluation. In other words, property taxes would generate the same amount of revenue after the valuation as before.
13. Bonds are the most cost effective way to borrow money for new schools and renovations.
True! General obligation bonds allow the county to borrow money and repay it – with interest – over a long period of time, typically 15-20 years. This is similar to someone taking out a mortgage to buy a house. Most people do not have enough money to pay cash for a house or a car, so they borrow money and repay it with interest while using the house or car. As the facilities will be used over a number of years, this is an equitable way of sharing the cost with current and future residents as Wake continues to grow.
Wake County is one of only three counties in North Carolina, and one of 22 in the nation, that have a AAA bond rating, the highest possible rating which translates into the lowest available interest rates for capital borrowing.
Another way to pay is through certificates of participation (COPs). COPs do not require voter approval and carry higher interest rates. If the same building program was paid for with COPs instead of G.O. bonds, it would cost $56 million more over the life of the bonds.
14. WCPSS has had multi-track year-round schools since 1991.
True! Since opening the first multi-track year-round school in 1991, WCPSS has added another 19. Test scores, student attendance, and teacher satisfaction have all been good. Year-round has grown in the district as new schools have opened and the pace of student enrollment has increased.
15. The only reason that other school districts have returned to the traditional calendar from the year-round schedule is because they couldn’t make it work.
False! Typically, if a district returned to a traditional calendar it was because its growth had slowed down and the district was able to build enough schools. Clark County, Nevada is one example of where year-round schools continue to be successful; a large number of Clark County’s elementary schools are on the multi-track calendar.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, many school districts in California were experiencing tremendous growth, but because of various tax measures, didn’t have money to build needed schools. The state passed incentives for school districts to go on a multi-track calendar. For example, Los Angeles moved to a multi-track (a three-track model) calendar, but changed to traditional and single-track calendars as it was able to build new schools and pass bond referenda.
The Crane School District in Yuma, Arizona is another example. This district moved to a single-track year-round calendar in the early 1990s in anticipation of a growth problem. Crane didn’t have bonding capacity to build schools because it was mainly a residential community. A few years later Crane moved to a multi-track calendar. Once the district built enough schools, it moved back to a single-track year-round calendar.
16. Breaking Wake County into six smaller school districts would reduce the size of administrative staff and be more responsive to parents.
False! Breaking Wake County into smaller districts would promote schools of “haves” and “haves not.” This is one of the reasons the Raleigh City and Wake County school districts merged in 1976. Also, having one superintendent, one central services staff, one maintenance staff, etc. is more efficient than having six sets of staff.
The General Assembly has followed a policy of school system mergers because of the benefits of unified county school systems. State law continues to recommend 100 school districts; changes would require legislative approval.
17. WCPSS made improvements after detecting the transportation fraud.
True! Some of the new measures WCPSS implemented include: having a comprehensive audit of financial transactions for the past three years performed, hiring a chief business officer, additional internal auditors, fiscal administrators and business managers for Transportation and Child Nutrition Services, new procedures for approving purchasing orders, the use of fraud detection software, annual fraud awareness training for employees, establishing the state’s first independent audit committee for a county commission or school board, and a fraud hotline.
18. Most WCPSS elementary and middle schools will operate on the year-round calendar in 2007-08.
False! Of the 96 elementary schools in 2007-08, 38 will operate on the year-round calendar; of the 32 middle schools, eight or nine will operate on the year-round calendar. (The calendar for the new Wendell Middle School has not been determined yet.) In 2007-08, WCPSS will open three new year-round elementary schools, and 19 elementary schools will transition to the year-round calendar. One or two new year-round middle schools will open and three will transition to the year-round calendar next year.
19. Charter schools in Wake County enroll students from other counties.
True! In the 2004-05 school year, more than 600 of the approximately 4,000 students in Wake's 13 charters were residents of other counties.
20. Wake County charter schools could enroll enough students to reduce the number of new schools to be constructed.
False! Wake charters grew by an average of fewer than 300 new Wake students the past three years. At this rate, it would take approximately four years to add enough charter schools to equal one WCPSS year-round elementary school.
21. Existing charter schools in Wake County could petition to serve more students.
True! Under the state laws that govern charter schools, the schools have the ability to petition the state to increase the number of students they serve.
22. Families with children on both year-round and traditional calendars will only have 20 common vacation days distributed throughout the year.
False! The four year-round tracks have a range of 28 to 43 days off in common with the traditional calendar, not including weekends. Track 1 has 35; track 2, 28; track 3, 38; and track 4, 43.
23. The school board has not made any accommodations for families related to the year-round calendar.
False! The school board has approved a list of family accommodations, posted on the Year-Round Schools Resource Center. For example, siblings will be given priority for placement on the same track in both elementary and middle school (if both are year-round).