Track 4 Calendar Wake County

Student reassignment plan may affect over 20 schools in Wake County

RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) – Could your child be going to a new school next year? The Wake County School District presented its first draft of the 2024-25 enrollment plan to the school board Tuesday.

The district is proposing reassignments at 21 schools – 13 elementary schools, six middle schools and two high schools.

The district’s Assistant Superintendent for School Choice, Planning, and Assignment, Glenn Carrozza, said at this stage the district could not give an estimate of how many students the plan would impact, but that reassignment typically impacts about 1,500-4,500 students and they expect this year to be the same.

In past years, parents have pushed back against reassignments.

“Well, we’re trying to bring students closer to home in certain areas, trying to provide relief to overcrowded schools and also trying to reduce ride times for bus,” Carrozza said.

He said high growth areas like the southern and western parts of the county will see the most changes.

Woods Creek Elementary School in Holly Springs is set to open next year. Under the plan, students at two of the three schools helping to fill it would switch from traditional to year-round calendars.

The district’s Senior Director of Student Assignment, Susan W. Pullium, said in the past, only rising 5th graders were allowed to stay at their current school, but that is expected to change this time.

“With the level of growth that is projected in this particular base attendance area, we feel pretty confident that if families rising into 4th and 5th grade would like to stay at their current school, we could accommodate that and still have sufficient students at Woods Creek Elementary as those subdivisions build out,” Pullum said.

Siblings of the rising 4th and 5th graders who request not to go to Woods Creek can also stay in their current elementary school. Families have to provide their own transportation.

The same proposed stability rules apply to students being assigned to or from Pleasant Grove Elementary School.

For all other schools, any student, regardless of grade, can request to stay at the school until they graduate. The district will not provide transportation.

Carrozza said southeast Raleigh is an area where students can now go to school closer to home, something Board Member Tara Waters is happy to hear.

“I don’t know how many parents I have heard from in southeast Raleigh who say why does my child go so far when I pass 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 different schools that are much more proximate, and so feeling that they’ve been heard is really important,” Waters said.

Families can click here to see if their child has been reassigned under the proposal.

More information on the enrollment plan can be found here.

The district is encouraging parents to weigh in on the plan.

This feedback form is open until Oct. 6. There will be multiple virtual information sessions. People can also weigh in at a public hearing on Nov. 8.

The board will vote on a final version of the plan on Nov. 21.