Board Reaffirms Consent Process; Adjusts Dates and Procedures
May 6, 2008 – In light of a decision handed down by the North Carolina Court of Appeals today, the Board of Education reaffirmed the assignments made for students who are due to receive their assignment strips May 15 for the schools they will attend for 2008-09.However, the board made some adjustments to the process it established April 22 for some 32,000 students slated to attend year-round or modified calendar schools for 2008-09.
The NC Court of Appeals ruling overturned a Wake County Superior Court ruling about assigning students to schools and agreed the school board has the authority to assign students to schools and to create multi-track, year-round calendar schools.
After today’s word of the court ruling, the board asked that a new letter be sent to the homes of 7,400 families notifying them that they must notify the school system that they do not want to attend their assigned year-round school and prefer to attend the alternative traditional calendar school identified April 22 by the board. An earlier letter asked families to notify the school system of their plans by May 23, but the board extended the deadline for families to respond to June 1, or they will be assigned to their year-round base school.
The board members agreed to continue the process it approved April 22. That process began last week with the WCPSS Growth and Planning Department mailing more than 7,400 letters to families. The letters seek the family’s decision on sending their children to their assigned year-round or modified calendar school, or requesting assignment to the alternative traditional calendar school approved by the board.
The letters were sent to families who pre-registered students assigned as base students to year-round or modified calendar schools; families who have students assigned to a designated traditional calendar school for 2007-08 whose parents did not apply for a calendar option and who are now assigned to a year-round or modified calendar school for 2008-09; or families who have students in nodes reassigned to year-round schools from traditional calendar schools or are moving from a traditional calendar elementary school to a year-round middle school.
The schools are contacting families who have students assigned to a designated traditional calendar school for 2007-08 whose parents did not apply for a calendar option and who are now assigned to a year-round or modified calendar school for 2008-09; or families who have students in nodes reassigned to year-round schools form traditional calendar schools or are moving from a traditional calendar elementary school to a year-round middle school.
WCPSS Growth and Planning will deliver 27,000 information sheets to be sent home with student assignment strips in May. These information sheets will be sent to families who have students with a current base assignment to a year-round or modified-calendar school and gave consent during the 2007-08 school year for assignment to those schools. The information sheets will provide families with information about their options and encourage them to contact their schools or the WCPSS Growth and Planning Office if they want their students to attend the alternative traditional calendar school assignment.
These families of students currently attending year-round as their base school have until May 23 to notify their school or WCPSS Growth and Planning of their decision to attend the alternative traditional calendar school assignment.
Board members wanted to remind parents who have students at their traditional calendar school by consent that their assignment is only for one year. Parents who applied in February and were accepted by application to the traditional calendar school may stay for the span of the school, such as elementary students staying from kindergarten through fifth grade, or middle school students staying from sixth through eighth grade.
The board decided that any student registering for the first time for WCPSS after June 1 will be assigned to their base school.
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