High Demand Leads to Enrollment Cap for Walnut Creek Elementary
November 22, 2011 - To ensure that Walnut Creek Elementary continues to effectively serve children and families despite a higher student population than initially projected, the Wake County Board of Education today approved halting the enrollment of additional students during the 2011-12 school year. After today, any new students enrolling from Walnut Creek Elementary's base assignment area will be assigned to the overflow school approved by the school board, Creech Road Elementary.
The Wake County Public School System opened Walnut Creek Elementary in August 2011 following an extensive planning effort in collaboration with its community. To ensure that the school would be in high demand and to address concerns that the school would be under-enrolled, the school system designated extensive resources including:
- eight additional teachers beyond standard staffing formulas at the start of the school year, plus additional funding for intervention, counselors, a psychologist, and an additional school nurse;
- innovative technology implementation, including fully-equipped computer labs and widespread iPads, iPod Touches, interactive clicker systems, SmartBoards and teacher laptops;
- a universal breakfast and lunch program, with an additional supper program serving 170 meals for students staying for after-school tutorial sessions, which are sponsored by the Alexander Family YMCA and the school;
- an extended instructional day, including 45 minutes of CLIMB Time, a period set aside for uninterrupted remediation/acceleration each day;
- community engagement opportunities, including volunteer tutor support from Meredith College and Southeast Raleigh Magnet High;
- extensive nationwide teacher recruitment;
- an experienced teaching staff, with 37 of 66 teachers holding five years or more of experience and another 11 with three or four years; and
- thorough professional development in technology, reading intervention and formative assessment.
"We recognize that principal Corey Moore and his staff are building a powerful program at Walnut Creek Elementary, one that families are flocking to," said Superintendent Tony Tata. "We also recognize that to maintain the strength of the programs we have put in place there, we need to avoid further crowding at that school."
Creech Road Elementary has approximately 117 available seats and is an average 4.1 miles from homes in Walnut Creek Elementary's base assignment area. Bus transportation will be provided to Creech Road Elementary.
New families in the Walnut Creek Elementary base assignment area may also submit a transfer request to apply for their year-round calendar option school, East Garner Elementary. If there is a seat available, the WCPSS student assignment staff will approve this request with bus transportation provided.
Board Policy 6204, "Temporary Membership Capping," and its Regulations and Procedures give the details of the capping process. The school board waived the policy in order to permit capping enrollment during the school year.
Walnut Creek Elementary opened this year with 795 students. On Nov. 16, the school had grown to serve 929 students. Enrollment increased as new students moved into the school's attendance area as required under the student assignment process in place for this school year. New enrollment beyond a school's capacity limits for a given grade is not allowed under the new choice student assignment plan adopted for the 2012-13 school year.
In response to the higher enrollment, the school consolidated some classrooms and created others including two combined-grade classes. An additional science specialist teacher was hired. One of the factors principal Moore weighed was that kindergarten and first-grade classrooms are required by law to be on the first floor. To accommodate that, Moore created one kindergarten and two first-grade classes of 30 students, each taught by two teachers to maintain a low student-to-teacher ratio.
Tata said the system shall provide further additional staff, including extra teachers slated to begin next week to help reduce class sizes and an additional assistant principal. He will also seek funding to add Walnut Creek Elementary to the Renaissance Schools program that provides staff hiring bonuses and merit pay, and to add modular classrooms for the 2012-13 school year.
Walnut Creek Elementary is among the ten WCPSS schools with the highest percentages of students receiving free or reduced-price lunch. The school is one of the system's top five over-enrolled campuses.