Community meetings discuss growth management
Sept. 15, 2003 - The Wake County Public School System will hold 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.
 Dr. Beavers speaks at Southeast Raleigh High in the first series of community meetings on growth management. |
Community meetings underway
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 held at three high schools
this week drew about 250 people. The meetings were designed
to inform the public about the need and issues surrounding
managing growth in the school system.
Beavers discusses assignment
At the meetings, Dr. Ramey Beavers, senior director of Growth
Management talked about the student assignment process and
its twin challenges: promoting academic success and responding
to explosive growth. Beavers said growth in the county continues
to explode beyond the ability of the school system to absorb,
worsening crowded conditions, expanding the use of mobile
classes and making it difficult to keep pace with the new
facilities required. He said student assignment is only a
part of the solution in helping students achieve academic
success, along with efforts such as the Accelerated Learning
Program, Project Achieve and leadership development.
Dr. Beavers described the characteristics of healthy schools:
- 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 facility,
- A safe, orderly and inviting learning environment, and
- A diverse student body.
Beavers described the efforts to assign students as new schools open to keep all schools healthy. He said the timeline for this year's assignment plan provides for:
- September to November - community input sessions,
- January - preliminary proposal and community feedback, and
- February - recommendation to the board, and board public hearings.
The assignment plan will fill seven new schools: Highcroft Elementary, Turner Creek Elementary and Salem Middle in west Wake; Jones Dairy Elementary and Heritage Middle in north Wake; and Forestville Elementary and Knightdale High in east Wake.
More meetings planned
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.
The second series of meetings will be held Oct 13th at Leesville High School; Oct 14th at Southeast Raleigh High School, Oct 15th at East Wake High School, and Oct. 16 at Green Hope High School. All of the meetings will begin at 7:00 p.m.
-wcpss-