Big First Day for Choice Selection Round
Jan. 18, 2012 - Parents and guardians flocked to the Wake County Public School System's student assignment website on the first day of a six-week school choice selection period.
More info for parents and guardians:
Top 10 (+1) Tips for the Choice Selection Process
As of 5 p.m. today, 7,385 students had at least one school choice registered, 3,589 of them rising kindergartners.
"Parents and guardians have been waiting for this opportunity, and they've responded," said Superintendent Tony Tata. "However, we will continue working with our partners to aggressively reach out to areas of Wake County that need more information and access to opportunities to choose."
The first round of choice selection began yesterday, Jan. 17, and continues through Feb. 24. Parents and guardians can make or change selections for their children at any point during those six weeks.
"With the considerable interest and participation, the system has held up pretty well despite some initial slowness and an issue with some information not displaying appropriately," said James Overman, leader of the task force that developed and oversees the student assignment plan. "There were some middle schools with split feeder patterns that were not displaying both high school paths. This issue has been resolved."
No feeder patterns have been changed since the student assignment plan was adopted on Oct. 18.
Parents will be able to log in to the system throughout the choice selection period to review their list of schools and see a running total of families selecting each as first choices. Capacity numbers -- the amount of seats available at each grade level -- were set after the magnet selection results were calculated, and will not change during the choice selection period.
"We set those capacity numbers based on every child staying in their pre-assigned school or following their pre-assigned feeder pattern," said Overman. "We know, however, that some parents will request changes, so there may be more opportunities to enter schools that seem to be at capacity today."
In anticipation of the high-volume of calls, the district put into place additional temporary support resources. To assist parents, a sampling of some of the frequently asked questions we’ve received in the first day has been put together.
The district recommends parents with questions either email studentassignment@wcpss.net or call 919-431-7333 and leave a single message. This will assist administrators in expeditiously responding to messages.