Community Meetings To Discuss Growth Management

August 22, 2003 - The Wake County Public School System today announced a series of public meetings to inform and involve the public in the upcoming student assignment process. The school system plans to open seven new schools in the 2004-05 school year. This new approach in creating the student assignment plan is designed to provide greater community input in the development of next year's plan.

The school system will hold a total of 11 meetings over the next three months at locations throughout the county. The first series of three meetings is designed to inform the public about the need and issues surrounding managing growth in the school system. The second set of four meetings will focus on the more specific impact of student growth and crowding on certain areas of the county. The third group of four meetings will be a discussion of how specific schools might be affected by the upcoming plan.

"We are growing by more than 3,000 students each year and the challenges of managing that growth along with the opening of seven new schools call for a new approach to informing the community about our plans," said Walt Sherlin, associate superintendent for Wake County Public Schools. "As we develop our proposal which will be shared with the community in January, we believe it was important to create a discussion earlier in the process given the scope of the growth we are experiencing."

The first series of meetings will be held September 8th at Leesville High School; September 9th at Southeast Raleigh High School and September 10th at Athens Drive High School. All of the meetings will begin at 7:00 p.m.

The second series of meetings will be held October 13th at Leesville High School, October 14th at Southeast Raleigh High School, October 15th at East Wake High School and October 16th at Green Hope High School.

The third series will be held November 5th at Leesville High School, November 6th at Southeast Raleigh High School, November 12th at East Wake High School and November 13th at Green Hope High School.

After the series of meetings, the 2004-05 growth management proposal for the school system will be developed and is expected to be released in January. It will be available for public comment. The final plan is expected to be presented to the Board of Education in February, when public meetings will be held prior to its final decision.

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