With the dynamic growth of Wake County, NC, providing seats in schools is a difficult task for the Wake County Public School System. WCPSS is subject to criticism because of the nature of the beast.
Too many kids are added faster than facilities can be provided.
This is compounded by a policy of attempting to achieve an economic balance in schools, that schools across the county have similar levels of Free and Reduced (F & R) Lunch recipients.
Magnet schools are historically desirable for the opportunities they offer, and this persuades some higher income families to apply for the lottery to get into the magnets. Magnet schools by definition are placed in areas with higher F&R populations and the inducement of a great school experience works, with more applications from outside the node than the schools can absorb.
To gain economic demographic balance, the board buses kids, mostly F& R kids, as much as one hour, one way, to schools with low numbers of F & R students.
And to gain this balance, some families see their kids moved from their nearest school to new schools, to fill the new facility, and also to make way for the F & R kids.
When a family has worked hard for years with multiple children, mom's and dad's supporting fund-raisers, PTA's, etc, this can be a real jolt. Older brother and sister going to one fine school with a well establisned volunteer base, while the youngest goes to a new school several miles away, with no volunteer base. And the F & R kids' folks are often unable to get to the schools to help with the volunteer community.
Emotions are high, particularly in Cary, where several hundred kids are being moved from mine and adjoining neighborhoods.
Some folks make a very logical case to protect the status quo.
Some folks are running only on emotion.
I don't have the answers. And I have never put a kid through school other than my neighbors' kids through my school taxes. It seems to me that kids are more resilient than parents allow for. It seems the school board turns a deaf ear to almost all input.
Frankly, I would like to see more magnet schools, leaning toward neighborhood schools, with significant financial and academic administration support to aggressively promote the success of kids in challenged areas of town.
Mike Jaquish Keller Williams Realty, Cary, NC
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Mike - you are right - it is an emotional and complex issue. We calculated that in the last 40 years someone from my immediate family has been in WCPSS each year except 6. I have some personal experience with WCPSS, and believe that it delivers a quality education.
One of the things that frustrates me is that we are using practices and policies put in place ten years ago to solve current problems. Our County and our County DOLLARS look much different today than they did in 2002 or 2005 for that matter.
The NY Times wrote an article about Wake County Public Schools in 2005 calling the Magnet Program a spectacular success at driving more diversity into the system. When someone from the Magnet School Program recently spoke at the Women's Council of Realtors - she agreed that even with the addition of more schools the magnet schools are maxed. The problem is that DIVERSITY does not mean DIVERSITY like it use to. Diversity for Wake County means how many students are getting Free Lunch. Because of the Diversity in some of the Cary Schools - a families culture will not permit them to apply for those programs. If you have a school where 46% of the students are Asian, Russian, Black, Hispanic - isn't that diverse???
My conclusion is similar to yours. The students are resilient... however, we are attacking a complex problem with outdated tools. Why not spend the extra GAS MONEY on additional teachers at the economically distressed schools? Why not look at something other than Free Lunch to do a reality check on which families are actually in a lower economic level... and finally, most importantly, WHY WOULD WE WANT ALL OF THE SCHOOLS TO BE AVERAGE (as a school board member recently suggested a goal to be)? Let's do what we can to have ABOVE average schools - for all students!
PS - thanks for helping me write out what I plan to say at the Board of Education Meeting tomorrow night!