May 13, 2011

Top News

In his weekly news conference today, Superintendent Tony Tata discussed the Wake County Teacher of the Year celebration, the beginning of testing at the end of the school year, the school system budget and the work of the student assignment task force.

Wake County Teacher of the Year Named

Superintendent Tata offered his thanks to the entire community for supporting our teachers through the Wake County Teacher of the Year Banquet.

Listen to Superintendent Tata's May 13 news conference 20 minute mp3 file

“I congratulate Sanderson High School’s Stephanie Rhodes, the Wake County Teacher of the Year for 2011-12 and all the school nominees who were at the Embassy Suites last night,” said Tata. “I know Stephanie will represent all our schools well.”

Educators, community supporters and business leaders attend the annual banquet. The sponsor is Wachovia Bank.

You can read about 2011 Wake County Teacher of the Year Stephanie Rhodes here.

End of Year Testing Underway

End of year testing is underway and will continue through June 21. During this time, our schools, teachers and students focus their attention on End-of-Grade and End-of-Course testing.

“Conducting these tests is a massive, but necessary undertaking of course, and it’s how we hold ourselves accountable for student achievement,” said Tata.

The Central Services support for schools includes:

• securing, sorting and distributing thousands of pages of testing materials
• checking for irregularities, monitoring and helping schools with testing schedules
• providing, coordinating and arranging for proctors,
• providing turn-in dates and scanning services for all our schools at the Rock Quarry Road facility, and
• just generally making sure that students are receiving the support they need during what can be a stressful time.

You can find information on our website to support families during testing season. Click here.

At testing time, some schools need volunteers who can help in proctoring the tests. Any parents or community members who are already approved volunteers for a school – meaning they have gone through the required background checks – are welcome to contact their local school and see if there is a need.

Superintendent Tata said business communities in Wake County have stepped up.

“One example I am aware of is the State Employees Credit Union where 20 volunteers trained as proctors and are supporting Carroll Middle School,” said Tata. “Our schools thrive with the active volunteerism, and I want to thank everyone who gives their time for our students.”

Superintendent Discusses Budget

While the Board of Education has approved the school system budget, Superintendent Tata has continued to meet with the legislative delegation to share information with them about the severe impact of state budget cuts to K-12 education in Wake County.

“I am making the rounds, and I am delivering the message that 8.8 percent is too much,” said Tata. “And my desire is that these members listen to me, the leader of the largest school district in North Carolina and understand the impact of the proposed draconian cuts in education on our students and teachers.”

To date, Tata has spoken with Speaker of the House Tom Tillis, Education Chair Bryan Holloway, Tom Murry, Nelson Dollar, Rosa Gill, Jennifer Weiss, Paul Stam, Marilyn Avila, Darren Jackson, Debra Ross, State Senator Dan Blue, Josh Stein and Richard Stevens.

The school system based its budget on a 5 percent cut in state funding proposed in the Governor’s budget. The NC House approved a budget proposal that cuts state funding to the school system by 8.8 percent. The NC Senate is considering a proposal to reduce the school system budget by 10 percent.

“My negotiating position is that we started at 5 percent. That’s what the Governor said, and 8.8 is the extreme right edge of my zone of negotiation,” said Tata. “Now whether or not they listen to that, they certainly control the purse strings. All I can do is make sure they understand the impact on education in Wake County.”

More News

Superintendent Task Force on Student Assignment Continues Work

The Superintendent’s Task Force on Student Assignment continues to work on developing a new student assignment process. Superintendent Tata will recommend this month two courses of action the task force has developed.

“We’ve got SAS working on the algorithm for one of the two courses of action, and the intent is that Monday, May 23 is the date that the website will go live,” said Tata. “It will have all nine courses of action. It will have the seven that didn’t make it to the final round of two.”

The task force has investigated student assignment processes at 22 different school districts and considered nine different courses of action in assignment of students. The website will include data the task force has collected, the criteria they judged plans against and the facts used in making those decisions.

Tata said parents will be able to type in their address and see what their options are.

“Parents will go straight to how does this impact me and my children. They will look for:  can I keep my child where they are, can I choose something else? What happens when they matriculate to the next level?” said Tata. “We’re trying to make sure that we answer all that, and we know that words mean things, and we’re scrubbing every word and every document, and we’re making sure that all of this will answer questions as we roll it out.”

The website will provide the community a way to provide feedback in the development of the student assignment process.

“We’re making it so that you can provide a thousand or two thousand words of feedback,” said Tata. “You can upload a document if there is some research you want us to look at. The whole purpose is to get feedback and to allow the community to look at the two plans and to see how the plan would affect them personally. There are a lot of people who are interested in how the plan affects the county system wide. They will be able to look at all the research and all the facts.”

The task force will continue to refine and improve the two courses of action.

“The blue course of action that we are calling community-based choice is a plan that is rooted in the choice plans that you may see out there. It’s got some of the Alves’ plan in it,” said Tata. “The green plan is a shift off of the way we are doing business now. And student achievement weighs heavily in both of those and is a driver for some assignments.”

Superintendent Tata plans to bring student assignment recommendations to the school board in mid-June.

Students Receive 2011-12 Assignments

The school system gave students their official school assignments for the 2011-12 school year to take home today.

The WCPSS Growth and Planning Department delivered the student assignment forms to schools to be handed out to students.

State law requires the official notification of student assignment and provides for a transfer process where parents may request a transfer within 10 days of receiving their student’s school assignment. Board Policy 6203 explains the transfer process. A written request for transfer of a student to another school may be submitted by the parent within 10 days of receipt of the official school assignment on a form provided by the school system available at any school, central office, or the WCPSS website (www.wcpss.net). If the transfer request is denied, parents have a right to appeal to the Board of Education. The official transfer window is May 13 to June 1.

You can read more about the transfer process here.