The vote is final – Nodes 383.3 & 384.4 stay at Apex

I just got a call from Barbara who is at the WCPSS BoE meeting this afternoon and the final vote has been cast for the 2009-10 reassignment plan.  Nodes 383.3 and 384.4 will remain at Apex High School!

Nodes 383.3 and 384.4 BoE Vote

After 45 minutes of debate at the January 26 work session, the Wake Board of Education voted to retain nodes 383.3 and 384.4 at Apex High.  Six board members voted to retain our nodes at Apex:  Eleanor Goettee, Ron Margiotta, An  McLaurin, Kevin Hill, Horace Tart and Lori Millberg.  Two board members voted to reassign our nodes to Athens:  Beverly Clark and Patti Head.  Rosa Gill did not vote as she serves as chair and can only vote as a tie breaker.  A big thank you goes out to Ms. Goettee, our school board representative, who introduced the change and led the discussion on our behalf.

This vote is ‘preliminary’ and will be officially recorded at the February 3rd Board of Education meeting.  We anticipate the vote will remain unchanged but plan to attend all public hearings until the official recording.  The public can comment on changes made to the reassignment plan at a public hearing on January 28 from 6-9 pm.  Another Board work session will be held Thursday, January 29 from 12-3pm to discuss high school reassignments in northern Wake County.  Both of these meetings will be held at 3600 Old Wake Forest Road in Raleigh.

Thank you for your continued support and involvement.

Nodes 383.3 and 384.4 are back at Apex High School!

Just got a text message from Barbara who attending the BoE reassignment working session.  Nodes 383.3 and 384.4 and been pulled from the reassignment plan and will remain at Apex High School.

More details will be available later today or this evening.

Decision Today

The BoE working session has started.  We should hear something in the next hour or two.  As soon as we know the outcome, it will be posted here on the blog.

Thanks go out to all of the concerned parents of Nodes 383.3 and 384.4 for all of your efforts to change the reassignment decision.

WRAL TV5’s coverage of the BoE 1/22 working session

Barbara Walsh was interviewed by NBC17 at yesterday’s Board of Education reassignment working session.

 

NBC17’s coverage of the BoE 1/22 working session

Barbara Walsh was interviewed by NBC17 at yesterday’s Board of Education reassignment working session.

No news from 1/22 BoE meeting

There was no news for Nodes 383.3 and 384.4 from the BoE meeting yesterday.  Chuck Dulaney opened the meeting with some adjustments to the reassignment plan (now posted as PDF on the N&O web site) before the school board began working through the schools one by one.  They started with the elementary schools and got as far as Lacy before calling it a day.  They will reconvene again today and pick up where they left off.  Barbara Walsh is attending the meeting on behalf of nodes 383.3 and 384.4.

Reassignment Comments are Closed

Public Comments on the Reassignment Proposal are now closed.  The links on the right hand side of the page are still valid and will drop you on the proposed Nodes In / Nodes Out detail for each school and node.

There is an article on WRAL.com which contains some of the comments submitted regarding the reassignment with the following disclosure:

The following are some of the comments received by the Wake County Board of Education regarding its 2008-09 student reassignment plan. We have removed the names and addresses of those residents who commented on the plan.

Good News!

On Friday, Mr. Dulaney released our 5-year enrollment data to School Board members and Del Burns (see his email below and referenced PDF documents).  This information proves the following to be true for our nodes:

• 19% decrease in total enrollment, from 295 to 238
• 5% decrease in high school enrollment, from 108 to 103
• 9% decrease in middle school enrollment, from 74 to 67
• 40% decrease in elementary school enrollment, from 113 to 68

Refer to the PDF document ‘Enrollment Summary’ for a graph and more details.  Ms. Goettee will reference this data when she speaks with the school board members.

Action Items – be polite and respectful

Remember we need 5 votes by 1/22/09!

1. Thank Ms. Goettee for getting this information and her support
2. Comment on-line to school board members at www.wcpss.net or on our website 
3. Focus on Dr. McLaurin who represents Athens: 850-8869
4. Also focus on:  Ron Margiotta, Horace Tart, Kevin Hill, Patty Head

Points to Make:

1. Proves growth management projections were wrong for our nodes
2. Supports retaining us at Apex High until H7 is built due to declining number of students 
3. Proves reassigning our nodes to Athens is not a long-term solution to balancing high need populations since our enrollment will continue to decline over time.
4. Actual vs. Estimated Low Income Percentages:  Is it appropriate to make high school reassignment decisions on estimates rather than actual data?  (refer to the Low Income Variance PDF document highlighting 5 high schools).

Thank you and get online today!!

E-mail from Chuck Dulaney to the Board of Education Members

To: BoardMembers@STAFF
From: Charles Dulaney/GrowthandPlanning/WCPSS
Date: 01/09/2009 01:36PM
cc: Adelphos Burns/Superintendent/WCPSS@Staff, Donald Macpherson Haydon/AuxiliarySvcs/WCPSS@Staff, Laura Evans/GrowthandPlanning/WCPSS@Staff, Dawn Baker/GrowthandPlanning/WCPSS@Staff, Laurene Madern/GrowthandPlanning/WCPSS@Staff, Carrie Keel/GrowthandPlanning/WCPSS@Staff, Susan Pullium/GrowthandPlanning/WCPSS@Staff, Sandra Chapman/GrowthandPlanning/WCPSS@STAFF
Subject: Data For Nodes 383.3 and 384.4

TO:  Board of Education Members

Ms. Goettee requested that I share some historical information regarding the two nodes that we have recommended be reassigned from Apex High to Athens High.  Attached are October enrollment by grade level for those two nodes (383.3 and 384.4) for the past five years.
The change from 2007 to 2008 is the base change used by the one-year change projection model shown on the profile pages printed for you from our growth management software.

As you can see from the attached documents, the projected change for node 384.4 is probably too high using the one year change model because it adds ten additional high school students each year for the next three years because the change from 2007 to 2008 was ten students (from 54 to 64).  Similarly the projected change for node 383.3 could be slightly low using the one year change model because it decreases high school enrollment by two students each year (the one year change was 41 to 39).

For these two nodes, the ITRE (housing-based) projection model is probably the more accurate of the two projection profiles provided on our website.  The net impact by 2011 of reassigning these two nodes is probably closer to 80-85 high school students students than the 104 students shown on the growth model profile page in your notebook (assuming that approximately 80% of the students in the nodes continue to attend their base high school assignment).

Chuck Dulaney
Assistant Superintendent for Growth and Planning
919-850-1900
cdulaney@wcpss.net

(See attached file: Node 384-4 History By GdLevel.pdf) (See attached file: Node 383-3 History By GdLevel.pdf)

The N&O’s Public Hearing Coverage

The N&O’s coverage of the Public Hearing last night at Apex High School which appeared in the paper this morning is also available on their web.  There is also a new entry in the N&O WakeEd blog on Cary Mayor Harold Weinbrecht’s decision to speak out last night.