Thursday, June 21, 2007

Yeah for Year Round conversions

The Wake County school board has taken a lot of heat lately for their YR conversion plan.  And why not you say? Maybe they should get some of the blame
for the problem, but do they really deserve it.  I think not.  This area has been growing since the early 90’s with no end in site for the near future and all
those people coming here are predominantly of child bearing years and subsequently having children after they settle in.  Our Elementary Schools are

overloaded with children from grades K-5 and so are the middle schools grades 6-8.  These children are only going to get older and create a problem with

our High Schools in the near future.  Year round conversions are the only solution to this problem.  Why not use the schools we have in a more efficient

way while we plan on building more schools for our children.  Several bonds have been proposed in the last several years with one being turned down. 

One has to wonder that if that bond had passed if we would still be in this situation.  Hind sight is 20/20 they say.  Now the county commissioners want to

place a bond referendum on the ballot of a staggering amount of money this year.  I believe the amount is $1 BILLION.  These schools are needed but let’s

utilize the schools we already have before we start throwing money, OUR HARD EARNED MONEY, at the problem.  Utilization of what we have is key.  The

reason I voted for the last bond is because of the promise to utilize the schools in a better fashion.

Also, why do our children need to have 2 1/2 months off during the hottest part of the year.  Can’t go outside in the heat of the day so you stay inside,

watching TV, bored to tears after the first two weeks.  Used to be that children where out of school over the summer to work on the farm and help out the

family.  How much of that is actually still going on here in Wake County?  Others would argue that they need the time off to take vacations and to visit

family that live out of state.  I’m so glad that some of you are blessed enough to not have to work or are able to take 2 months off to visit family out of

state without the worry of how your going to pay your bills.  The other half are not that fortunate.  I’m sorry that your children won’t be forming any bonds

with their cousins but when you moved here maybe that was something that you should have given thought to.  We did when we moved here almost 10

years ago now.  Our children don’t have very close relationships with their cousins but the miles haven’t changed the fact that they are still family to us and

us to them.  My personal favorite was the comment that YR conversions would add to the child obesity problem.  WHAT?  Yeah, because children only

get exercise during summer vacation!  Along with a side of HEAT STROKE!  90+ degree days will do that to ya you know!  But seriously

lets get real.  My children are involved in activities all year long.  I would even suggest that 2 1/2 months worth of summer vacation might actually be

contributing to child obesity rates since they are bored to TEARS!  Oh, and afraid of HEAT STROKE!  I digress!

I’m just a working mother of three children affected by this conversion.  I am blogging so that you can get a first hand glimpse of how the conversion really

affects our family life from day to day.  I hope you enjoy and please give me some of your input!  Just as long as it’s NICE!  :)

The childhood obesity comment was made by me and was part of a statement made about summer swim teams. I personally know several families who have their children swim on summer swim teams to help the children control their weight. With more year round schools to deal with, I am concerned that the great abundance of summer swim teams we enjoy in this area will diminish. Year round schools will make it harder for some children to participate in weekday meets and practices, particularly middle schoolers. Middle schoolers can be more susecptible to gaining more weight than they should. Swimming is a sport that you can do your whole life and you can do it alone or in groups. It takes a lot of practice but with the resistance of the water it is great for your cardiovascular system. We are blessed to be in area that has historically had many summer swim teams. To lose those teams because of year round schools would be a great loss for our community.

As for your children being bored, give them some math facts to do. The schools don’t do thenm any more and you’ll see how fast they can find something to entertain themselves.

Actually I have heard that many of the swim teams in the area are looking to adjust their schedules to accomadate the year round programs.  Swimming is a very good cardiovascular sport but their are other sports that can acheive the same result. 

I don’t understand the comment about not being able to go to practices during the week.  My children’s practices are always during the week following school.  Never seemed to be a problem for us.  I do realize that most swim teams practice during the day when the year round kids would be in school but if they see that their enrollment is effected by this then they should adjust their practice times and meet schedules. 

As for my children getting “bored” thanks for the advice. But my school does math facts and my son is in AG for math. I also go to the home school store and get them materials to work on during their breaks so that they can get ahead but school work is not what they REALLY want to do.  If that’s all we did during vacations I might just as well home school them but I choose not to.  That’s what year round schools are for. ;)

Actually, the swim teams CANNOT adjust their meet schedules. The meet schedules are set by TSA and TSA has said they will not accomodate year round schools. Do you know what TSA is? And yes, of course if you only have children in elementary school where the burden of homework is minimal, the children could do all of their homework and still practice every day. However, when the children get to middle school they tend to have a lot more homework and they might have to get up at 5:30 in the morning to catch their bus. Can you see how it might be difficult to be at a meet until 10 or 11 o’clock on a Tuesday night? Also, practices for the older kids usually last an hour and the younger kids only a half hour. 

And by the way, just how much research have you done on the capacity WCPSS stands to gain from the conversions? Hundreds of other districts who tried multi track year round have abandoned it because of little gain in capacity relative to the increased costs. If you were really concerned about WCPSS using our money wisely, you would be trying to stop the conversions and the waste of money that will go along with them. Our conversions will be particularly wasteful because WCPSS must allow families to opt out.

The TSA, Tarheel Swim Association, is a private swim association that services those subdivisions lucky enough to meet their requirements.  Usually subdivisions with large I believe at least 4 lane pools.  I have spoken with a representative about their program and found that person to be very congenial and polite about the year round situation since children in his family are in year round and have no problem with swim team and YR schooling.  The TSA does set the schedule for meets and they seem to be on Tuesday evenings and some meets are on a Sunday.  The practice times are set by the individual subdivisions and it was them that didn’t want the meet times changed when the TSA asked them about it.  By in large Tues evenings are the least crowded at the pools and changing them to a weekend night or Friday night was not possible.  That being said he made a comment that struck me.  What was said was essential that as parents we sometimes need to make decisions between school and extracurricular activities.  If practice is getting in the way of homework then the kids do homework and miss practice that day. 

I understand your frustration with the system in which is in place but I still fail to see the relevance of it.  TSA is not the only swim association in the area and if swimming is that important to you and your family you could find something else that fits in with YR school better.  Step outside the box, or your subdivision, to see what is out there.  You might be surprised by what you find. 

As for the cost issue, I guess you really didn’t understand what I was saying.  I am not opposed to tax increases or bonds for that matter as long as the schools that we have now are utilized in a more efficient manner ie year round for everybody.  The billion dollar bond suggested by the county commissioners does not call for YR conversion.  It calls for massive building of schools.  Don’t get me wrong we also need more schools but to spend that kind of money on new schools when there is that option of YR to make what we already have go further is bad business.  The county commissioners enjoy pointing fingers at the school board and saying we are not going to give you the money that you need and then say but we need more money for schools.  It make s the school board look bad and the county commissioners look good because they are seemingly advocating for the school system itself. 

Also do you really believe that when the kids are out of school for 2 1/2 months that the schools are completely shut down with no A/C, no electricity and no staff.  These things all still run while the building is only 99.5% occupied.  In essence we are paying for empty buildings for 2 1/2 months.  Would you leave a summer homes A/C on, set at oh lets use 70 degrees while you weren’t there?  The bill would be coming but you would not be benefiting from it at all.  Seems like perfect sense to me to use what we are already paying for.  Just a thought.

Sorry forgot one thing.  Of those 30,000 students who were given a choice to opt out only about 2400 did and they are predominantly in the Garner area and it was done out of money concerns.  Lets not also forget who made the opt out part of this possible.  WAKECARES is responsible for that, and Judge Manning helped them do this.  So where should the school system send the bill for the added expense of opting out?  I have an idea! 

The county commissioners where also no help when they made the school board dip into their emergency monies to fund the YR conversions after they decided to illegally hold the funds that they had promised in December of 2006.  The vote was 4-3.  4 Republicans to 3 Democrats.  This had something to do with WAKECARES asking them to hold the money for the conversions in an attempt to put a hold on the conversions.  That money would have come from the $970 million bond approved by tax payers last fall.  In December Tony Gurley said “We cannot withhold funding to force a policy change on the school board,”  but by January he had changed his mind all together.  This falls under the category of things that make you go HMMMMMMMM!

Yes, I am very aware of WakeCares and am happy to say that I am a part of their lawsuit. It is only because of Wakecares that my family was given an opportunity to opt out of an unacceptable situation. Let’s not forget that many hundreds of other families would have taken the opportunity to circumvent YR schools had they known which traditional calendar schools their kids would attend. And please don’t forget that when the BOE tried to force families into year round schools THEY WERE BREAKING THE LAW! The BOE decided to continue with their year round scheme knowing the efficiencies would be reduced because of the ruling. They could have had a plan B but chose not to have one.
As for the County Commissioners, in particular Toni Gurley, they were mislead by the
BOE just as you have been. I challenge you to dig deeper as the County Commissioners did and get the facts about the true costs of YR schools. Once the County Commissioners got the facts, they voted the way they did. The school’s AC systems are on zones. During the summer months they only cool the parts of the buildings where office staff are working. The County Commissioners did not break the law by withholding the funds for the conversions. They were doing their job. They are charged with the task of spending taxpayer dollars wisely. When you look at all of the facts, YR schools do not use taxpayer dollars wisely!! And I would never set my AC on 70 degrees ever.

I do step outside the box whenever I need to. In fact, my rising kindergartner will skip public school this year so that she might have half a chance to stay connected to her sister and brother who are much older than she is. There is already nine years between my two daughters. I don’t want them on two different calendars too.

As for skipping practice to do homework, you missed my point. On a traditional calendar we wouldn’t have to make that choice. And I only mentioned summer swim teams. I know children on YR swim teams who currently practice from 6-8:30 am every morning and from 3:00-5pm three days per week during the summer months. To achieve success on the State level, attendance at practice is not optional. The YR school schedule will not allow YR swimmers the opportunity to be successful. I am hoping for my oldest child to get a college scholarship for swimming because of her hard work and dedication to the sport. Children in other parts of the county will have that opportunity. Why should only some children have to forgo their dreams?

So in your opinion because we moved to North Carolina we forfeited the opportunity for our children to spend time with their cousins. Should I extend that logic to their 81 year old grandmother who can no longer travel? Before we moved, I called WCPSS and they assured me that YR schools were only done by application on a voluntary basis. Had I known 5 years later that policy would change, we would not have come here. Using your argument, if you live in a subdivision that does not have a pool that meets TSA requirements and your children want to be a part of a summer TSA swim team, just move. Maybe you should have considered the pool in the neighborhood before you bought your house.

The something that should make you go HHMMMMM is the Apex land deal where Jim Goodnight, Ed Bonner and other so called “Friends of Wake” stand to make a fortune on the backs of the taxpayers. Have you read about in the NandO? Of course not. The N and O does not report the true scandals. They are too enthralled with WCPSS to be objective.

Please dig deeper and get the facts about YR. I promise you there is more out there than you will find in the N and O or through WCPSS.

OK!  I accept your challenge.  But you and I both know that with the Internet the information can be found the support both sides.  But I’ll get back to you when I’m done.

The county commissioners still are curious.  Funny that only the Republicans found that the BOE was misleading them and not the Democrats.  And what exactly was misleading about the BOE plan?  Did they invent the tremendous growth in this area or did they invent the fact that there are not enough schools here to support that growth.  I don’t really know where you are going with that one.  I have seen the growth here just in my area in the last 10 years and also in the surrounding areas.  You would have to be an idiot to not notice this.  Are you fundamentally opposed to YR or would you be willing to accept every school in Wake County going YR including High Schools?  If not than why are you so opposed to change?  The traditional school calendar has served its purpose but is now just a dinosaur.  The new traditional is the YR calendar.  I think its time you recognize that.  Especially here. 

Now as far as family goes.  When my husband and I decided to move here 10 years ago, we thought about it long and hard.  We thought about the fact that both of our parents are getting older and would soon not be able to travel the 1200+ mile trip to come and visit.  We also thought about how our children, who weren’t even a glimmer yet, were going to get to know their family back home.  We also thought about our relationship with our best friends, our own relationship with each other being that we would be the only support for each other here for at least a couple of months.  We moved knowing that all these things would be affected in some way.  I make sure everyday that my children know who their family is and where they come from.  YR would give us a chance to visit friends and family every 9 weeks or so.  All of our family members work during the summer so going home for 2 months would be fruitless as they would be too busy making a living to spend that time with us.  At least this way we can spend a week or two with family ever few weeks.  I will say that not all of them were understanding in the beginning but now they fully support us in our choice to live here for the betterment of OUR family. 

By the way, we do not live in a subdivision that has a pool by choice.  We have our own pool and enjoy just having fun in the back yard.  We live conservatively compared to some in this area and are perfectly happy doing so!

PS I personally don’t think you step outside the box as much as you think you do.  If you did, this would be a non issue.

A neighbor of mine attended a recent board meeting.  Is it true that the year round conversion only created 500 seats at a cost of $6 million plus? If this is true, those created seats are way too costly.  I support year round because it works for us.  I salute WAKECARES, though I’m not a member, because they have stood firm for what they believe.  As parents, we fight for what believe is good for our children.

Vilma, yes it is true and offers proof that our tax money is being wasted and children were needlessly converted to year-round schedules. My family attends year-round but we chose it voluntarily. There is a HUGE difference between choosing this schedule and being forced onto it. At our school, Turner Creek, 68 percent of the students were moved to converted year-rounds in the Apex/Cary area. They did not want to leave, and now we are starting all over again. (Our school was only 3 years old when this happened.)

I’m sorry but your wrong.  I’m also sorry Vilma that I didn’t respond to you directly but I did a recent post that answered that question since it was such a loaded one.  True, the conversions cost approx. $6 million. False that it only created 500 seats.  Let’s for the sake of argument say that is what it did.  OK?  On average it costs approx $22-30 million dollars to build ONE Elementary school that has a capacity from 500-800 students.  Spend $6 million or at the least $22 million?  Hhmmm?  I’ll take the $6 million and save the $16 million for something else truly needed.  We are still to early into this to be absolutely sure how many seats have been actually been created.  The 3000 seats is a projected number based on the last 10 years of growth and the increased enrollment from those years.  Believe me when I tell you that the BOE planned, RECENTLY, accordingly.  The COUNTY is largely to blame for the uncontrolled growth and the lack of funding for school buildings.  I hold the County Commissioners of the past and present for not giving the schools that we need.  The bond passed largely because people felt that the BOE was doing what it needed to utilize the schools we have now.  The BOE doesn’t think that we need a new bond now but the County Commissioners want to shove a $1 billion bond on us this year.  Thank goodness the BOE has to request the bonds.  If the County Commissioners had it their way we would be paying for things we don’t necessarily need following the conversions.

Sheryl, you can hold whomever you want responsible. Fact is the WCPSS BOE never took into account the possibility that they might get sued and be forced to come up with a plan B. They SHOULD have made a plan B from the start but they arrogantly chose not to. Now they can’t force anyone to go year-round who does not want to so that will greatly reduce year-round capacity, don’t ya think??

Also, if the county is to blame for uncontrolled growth, why not break up the district so the towns can be in charge of their own growth? Apex limits its growth to 3 percent annually and would have no problem finding seats for its kids if WCPSS would stay out of its business.

The BOE had a plan B and it was unacceptable to me.  Having split shifts at schools was a non starter for me.  What would you have thought to be the MAGIC cure for this.  The BOE was prepared to get sued they just never thought they would lose.  And I know a ton of people that thought the same thing.  We were all thrown for a loop thanks to that.  I wouldn’t be surprised that the appeals process shows a different result. Sure not forcing someone to do YR does affect the capacity numbers at YR but then it increases the capacity numbers at the traditional schools forcing more possible conversions.  Let’s use our head.

I agree with you, towns should control their own areas and have their own school districts.  Apex Central School District, Holly Springs Central School District and so forth.  But there are to many people that want control here and aren’t will to let it go.  It would be fun to watch play out though.

All of our family members work during the summer too, so going home for 2 months would be fruitless as they would be too busy making a living to spend that time with us. That is my personal opinion.

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I don’t understand the annotate about not existence competent to go to practices during the week.  My children’s practices are always during the period masses down.  Never seemed to be a difficulty for us.  I do actualize that most swim teams effectuation during the day when the year orbiculate kids would be in cultivate but if they see that their incoming is established by this then they should conform their training times and deal schedules.