Friday, January 11, 2008

Time For Public Hearings

The most recent revision to the Student Assignment Draft was released this week, and next week the Public Hearings will begin for the 2008-09 Assignment Plan.  Parents are being given the opportunity to attend these Public Hearings, and if you have anything to say you will have 3 minutes to give feedback and/or suggestions that you would like to see made to this draft.  The feedback will be considered by the School Board in making any changes to the current draft, and the final proposal will be voted on by the School Board on February 5.  (you may attend all 3 meetings, but may only speak at 1) 

The dates of these Public Forums are January 15 at Sanderson High School, January 17 at Green Hope High School, and January 24 at Middle Creek High School.  All 3 meetings begin at 7:00 PM and run until 9:00 PM.  If you are planning to speak, online registration is recommended although they will be taking on-site signups at the meetings.

While we all await the Appeals Court’s decision regarding Judge Manning’s ruling, there continues to be a great deal of confusion, frustration, speculation, and anxiety regarding which schools our children will attend next year AND what calendar the schools will follow.

Something that has become very apparent to many of us during the past several months is that contrary to what we were told, the main reason that the Mandatory Year Round conversions were forced on 22 schools was NOT to help deal with “capacity” in the School System.  Instead, the conversions were actually made in the name of “diversity”.  Students were shuffled around the system in an attempt to make F&R percentages more similar, but the plan is severely flawed.  Instead of increasing F&R percentages at many of the MYR schools, many students opted-out in order to attend traditional schools, causing overcrowding and even higher F&R percentages at these traditional schools.  Many of the MYR schools actually have less students in attendance this year than they did when they followed the traditional calendar.

I feel confident that the majority of Wake County families believe that diversity in schools is a very good thing.  Unfortunately, the massive bussing that is going on in our system to play with the F&R percentages has gotten out of hand.  Not only is it extremely costly, it is unfair to force children to take extremely long bus rides, passing several schools in the process.  I have personally requested data (proof) that this massive busing is helping the kids of Wake County who are being moved around from year to year, but I still haven’t received anything conclusive.

I plan to attend all 3 Public Forums, and I look forward to hearing all of the comments and feedback from parents around the county.

Are you happy with the proposed changes in the Assignment draft?  Will you be attending the meetings?  What kinds of input will you offer to the School Board?  What changes will you ask for?