Board Approves 2006-07 Growth Management Proposal
March 23, 2006 - After seven months of discussion with the community on filling new schools opening for 2006-07, the Board of Education approved a growth management plan at its meeting Tuesday night.
2005-06/2006-07 School Assignment Locator
Growth = New Schools
120,504 - enrollment for 2005-06
127,531 - projected enrollment for 2006-07
Students are being assigned to seven new schools in 2006-07.
Plan based on:
12 community engagement meetings in the fall led to Dec. 12 growth management proposal.
2,000 comments through e-mail, letter and phone calls led to Feb. 14 proposed growth management plan
More than 500 speakers addressed the board in seven public hearings.
The growth management plan responds to dramatic growth in student enrollment with enrollment increasing by more than 6,400 students this year and estimates projecting an increase of 7,000 students for next year. Enrollment for 2005-06 is 120,504.
The proposed plan moves 9,307 students and caps enrollment at two elementary schools. The assignments will fill seven new schools: Holly Springs High, Panther Creek High, Barwell Road Elementary, Brier Creek Elementary, Carpenter Elementary, Holly Grove Elementary and E19. Enrollment is capped at Brassfield and Pleasant Union elementary schools.
The plan is significantly smaller than the first proposal presented in December. The final plan included 9,307 students, nearly 2,200 less than the initial proposal of 11,495.
There were several changes made to the plan on the day it was approved. At its meeting, the board agreed to remove changes in the year-round transportation pattern for eight nodes that were being moved from Oak Grove Elementary School to Adams Elementary School. The 70 students in the nodes will remain at Oak Grove Elementary. The nodes removed from the plan included 418.1, 419.5, 419.6, 419.7, 419.8, 421, 422.1, 422.2.
In an afternoon work session during its committee of the whole meeting, the board agreed to remove two nodes from the plan that were being moved to Garner High from Middle Creek High, allowing the students to remain at Middle Creek. This change included nodes 470.2 and 470.3. The board also allowed a third node to remain with the other two, keeping a neighborhood together as families requested. This added high school students in node 613 back into the plan, moving them from Garner High to Middle Creek High.
The proposal allows grandfathering. Students who have been assigned to an existing school may remain at their original school, with the condition that they provide their own transportation. Fourth-, fifth-, seventh-, eighth-, 10th, 11th-, and 12th-graders are given the option to remain at their original school, when reassigned to an existing school.
For the first time, WCPSS will assign students two new high schools in the same year. Holly Springs and Panther Creek will open with ninth and tenth grade students, providing juniors and seniors the chance to remain at their schools. The plan provides relief to crowded high schools across the school system. It may be 2010 before the next high school opens. It would be part of the next school construction program.
Two additional high schools - an Early College of Health and Sciences and the East Wake School of Integrated Technology - will open next year. The Early College will be launched with about 50 ninth-graders in space provided by Wake Tech on its campus near WakeMed. The East Wake Technology Academy continues the process begun last year with the creation of the East Wake Health Science Academy providing East Wake High students areas of theme-based learning.
The five elementary schools will open on the year-round calendar on four tracks, or schedules. Three of the tracks will be in session and one will be on break allowing the school to serve a larger number of students. The schools are Barwell Road Elementary in southeast Wake County, Brier Creek Elementary in northwest Wake County, Carpenter Elementary in western Wake County, as well as two early start schools: Holly Grove Elementary and E19. Holly Grove will start in an unused wing of the new Holly Springs High while the new permanent school is built on adjacent property. E19 will move into the temporary modular campus on Spring Forest Road in North Raleigh. All of these schools are opening as multi-track, year-round schools.
Harris Creek Elementary will leave the modular campus and move into its permanent building on Forestville Road near Mitchell Mill Road.
The Growth Management plan recommends continuing a cap on Brassfield and Pleasant Union elementary schools. Caps were approved to help crowded schools in fast growing parts of the county. The cap means families who moved into the Brassfield attendance area after May 1, 2003 and into the Pleasant Union attendance area after May 1, 2005 will be required to attend schools that are farther away until space opens up for them. Brassfield was capped at 675 students with Lacy, Lead Mine and Lynn Road serving as overflow schools. Pleasant Union was capped at 720 with Forest Pines Drive serving as its overflow school.
The board's actions followed a lengthy community discussion that included two board work sessions and seven public hearings that drew more than 500 speakers, a public comment period on a draft proposal that resulted in more than 2,000 comments and a series of 12 community engagement meetings held across the county last fall.
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