February 20, 2009

Top News

Magnet Schools Earn Honors

Five WCPSS schools - Farmington Woods Elementary, Joyner Elementary, East Garner Middle, Ligon Middle and Enloe High - were among 53 Magnet Schools of America 2009 Schools of Excellence.

The five schools are in the running for the Simpson Distinguished Merit award, recognizing the top magnet school in the nation and providing a $5,000 cash award.

Eight WCPSS magnet schools were among the 74 MSA 2009 Schools of Distinction including Brooks Elementary, Bugg Elementary, Combs Elementary, Douglas Elementary, Fuller Elementary, Hunter Elementary, Powell Elementary, Underwood Elementary, Wiley Elementary, Carnage Middle, Centennial Campus Middle, East Millbrook Middle and Martin Middle,

The schools will be honored at the 27th Magnet Schools of America Conference in April in Charlotte, NC.

Students named Park Scholar Finalists

Nine Wake County Public School System students were among the 105 students North Carolina State University has named as finalists for 2009 Park Scholars. These prestigious awards are valued at about $59,000 for North Carolina residents.

The WCPSS students are Ryan Alexander Collinsworth of Middle Creek High, Tyler Andrew Confrey-Maloney of Broughton High, Adam Carswell Dunn of Holly Springs High, Alyse C. Flick of Athens Drive High, Ebunoluwa Ololade Olaleye of Wake Forest Rolesville High, Patrick Joseph Short of Sanderson High, Ashwin Paul Srikrishna of Enloe High, Gretchen Louise Stokes of Apex High and John Michael Turner of Middle Creek High.

The finalists will take part in a further screening process that will lead to the announcement of the Park Scholars in the coming weeks.

Issue:  WCPSS By the Numbers WCPSS Demographer Maja Vouk has published a 157-page report, School Statistics and Maps, 2008-09 describing the Wake County Public School System. The report is filled with maps, facts and figures. Here’s some of the information you would find in looking through the report. WCPSS moved past the San Diego Unified School District to become the nation's 18th largest school district. Enrollment on the 20th day of school for this year was 137,706. That’s 3,704 more than the 20th day of 2007-08. WCPSS remains the largest school district in the state. After WCPSS is Mecklenburg at 133,944, Guilford at 71,503, Cumberland at 53,130 and Forsyth at 51,810. Distribution By Place Of Residence New student distribution by their place of residence shows a slightly different pattern than last year's. This year, more people live within Raleigh city limits (40 percent), and less within Wake County unincorporated areas (17 percent). Cary is home to 17 percent newcomers, and about 6% live within Apex city limits. About 4% live in each Holly Springs and Wake Forest, while Morrisville, Fuquay- Varina, and Garner are each home to about 3% of student population. Finally, Knightdale, Rolesville, Wendell, and Zebulon are home to less than 1% each. New School Openings With this growth comes the need for more schools to accommodate the increase in enrollment. WCPSS opened three multi-track, year-round elementary schools: Sycamore Creek, Laurel Park and Mills Park. In addition, River Bend moved into its new permanent location from a temporary modular campus. Schools By Level and Calendar WCPSS has 99 elementary schools, 30 middle schools, 23 high schools and 4 special/optional schools for a total of 156 schools. The annual school campus capacity is 146,706 seats (including 1,171 mobile classrooms), resulting in an overall crowding of 93.9 percent. 101 schools operate on a traditional calendar (56 elementary schools, 20 middle schools, 21 high schools, and 4 special/optional schools) 49 schools operate on a year-round calendar (41 elementary schools and 8 middle schools) 5 schools operate on a modified calendar (2 elementary schools, 2 middle schools and 1 high school) 1 school operates on a calendar matching the community college calendar (Wake Early College of Health and Sciences) Public, Private, Charter and Home Schools For the last seven years, 83 percent of students in Wake County have attended the Wake County Public School System. In 2007-08, there were 160,966 students in Wake County with 134.002 in WCPSS and 26,964 in other schools. The 26,964 included 14,696 in private school, 7,059 in home school and 5,209 in charter school. You can investigate the full report here. Click on WCPSS School Statistics and Maps, 2008-09.

More News

Board Names New High School (H-6)

At its Feb. 17 meeting, the Board of Education named the new H-6 high school Forest Ridge High. The name was proposed because of the site’s topography, its long history as forested land, and its location along Forestville Road. The board acquired the 80.80 acre site in October 2008 for use as a high school in the H-6 target area, with a school originally scheduled to open in 2011. Recent capitol budget discussions may delay the school’s opening. In a joint meeting of the school board and county commissioners this week, Wake County Manager David Cook described the county capitol building picture. School administrators have told the board the difficult funding picture caused by the national economic slump could delay new schools Forest Ridge High, Rolesville Middle and Walnut Creek Elementary, as well as renovations to Wilburn Elementary and the purchase of property for future schools.

Booster Program Follow-Up

At its Feb. 17 meeting, the Board of Education got a first hand look at the power of the Booster Program as tears welled up and the voice began to quaver for one of the students speaking to the board about the program. She talked about not liking to mention her age and grade after she fell several years behind at school. Her words of praise for her school counselor brought on the emotional moment. The counselor who was at the meeting, stepped forward and put her arm around the teen. That calmed her so she was able to continue talking about the program helping her to move up a grade level per semester. Instead of dropping out of school, the three Booster Program students talked about how the program has helped them get back on track academically and has changed their plans for the future to include college. In congratulating the students, Superintendent Burns noted they had indicated interests in completing high school and going on to become an architect, attorney and accountant.

Board Approves Offsite Road Improvements

At its Feb. 17 meeting, the Board of Education approved up to $1.4 million to comply with the Town of Cary Adequate Public Facilities ordinance by constructing off-site improvements to NC Highway 55. The road construction work is a condition of approval from the Town of Cary for the site plan for installation of modular classroom units at Panther Creek High School.

Board Approves Policy 2334

At its Feb. 17 meeting, the Board of Education gave final approval to Policy 2334 on Registered Sex Offenders. This is a new policy that was written by Tharrington Smith in response to NC House Bill 933/ S.L. 2008-117, The Jessica Lunsford Act. The Jessica Lunsford Act was written to put greater legal obligations and restrictions on registered sex offenders. This policy is written to further support the Jessica Lunsford Act.

WCPSS Teacher Published

Read the article by Salem Middle School Teacher Bill Ferriter in this month’s Education Leadership Journal on "Technology making it easy for educators to embrace continual professional development."