Superintendent Tata Assembles Team to Begin Work on Student Assignment Plan
March 8, 2011 – Superintendent Tony Tata has assembled a team of Central Services administrators to begin work on the development of a new student assignment plan for the Wake County Public School System.
Today, Tata announced the staff members that will be serving on the student assignment team:
- James Overman, senior director, Elementary Education (Task Force Leader)
- Brad McMillen, senior director, Evaluation and Research
- David Ansbacher, senior director, Magnet Programs
- Tamani Anderson Powell, director, Magnet Programs
- Susan Pullium, director, Growth and Planning
- Susan Andrews, senior administrator, Staff Development
In February, after the Wake Education Partnership and the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce presented their Wake School Choice plan, Tata asked the Board of Education for permission to take over the responsibility of developing a student assignment plan, which they unanimously agreed to do.
“I have developed a team of staff members who are going to be temporarily reassigned from their current position with the new responsibility to work 100 percent of the time on a student assignment plan that meets Policy 6200 and uses the input that I’m getting from the community,” he said. “We’re going to come up with the best plan that we can that satisfies the board and that satisfies the community.”
Tata said he and the student assignment team will take into consideration the ideas contained in the Wake School Choice plan, other previous proposals and information that he has gathered through his listening tour as they work to develop a new plan for WCPSS.
The team will begin work immediately and will be assisted, as needed, by staff and resources from other areas of the school system including Finance, Growth and Planning, Transportation, Special Education Services, English as a Second Language, and State and Federal Programs Departments.
Once the team has the core of a plan, the team hopes to begin sharing their work with key community stakeholder groups to discuss core concepts of the plan. The goal is to have a plan ready to present to the Board of Education by late spring.