Student Assignment Proposal Timeline Released
Sept. 30, 2011 - Superintendent Tony Tata today outlined the timeline for bringing the student assignment proposal to the Wake County Board of Education for action.
This follows seven months of work by the Student Assignment Task Force, which developed the plan and its details.
“As a point of reference, those seven months are nearly four times the amount of time taken by former Wake County superintendent Dr. Walter Marks when he introduced and got approved 28 new, relatively unproven magnet programs in his Schools of Choice program between Jan 15, 1982 and the Board vote on March 11, 1982," Tata said. "We believe our plan is equally visionary and has undergone substantial rigor."
The timeline enters its eighth month on Oct. 4 when Tata presents the plan as an information item to the Board of Education. The board will hold a public hearing on the proposal at Broughton High School on Oct. 13 at 5 p.m., and then vote on the proposal on Oct. 18.
The Board vote follows 21 public information sessions, a test run that included more than 21,000 participants and the review of more than 2,700 online comments from parents and citizens.
At Wake County's current growth rate, in ten years WCPSS will approach enrollment of 200,000 students in approximately 195 schools. Based on average reassignment and transfer request rates over the previous five years, retaining the previous student assignment model could lead to another 70,000 reassignments and 60,000 transfer requests over the next ten years.
“The previous node system was unable to absorb the tremendous growth in Wake County which caused significant yearly student re-assignments,” Tata said. “This proposal is elastic and can accommodate growth, which provides stability. At the same time, this plan also gives parents choice. Stability and choice are what parents are asking for.”
Parents are encouraged to read the 12-point Student Assignment Proposal Highlights for important points about the plan.
You can also read more about the Student Assignment Task Force’s work and details of the plan here.