'There's got to be a better solution': School reassignment plan rankles Wake families once again

Moving students to different schools is a regular part of the school experience in fast-growing Wake County. Many parents object to a new plan that could affect thousands of students. School system officials say their hands are tied.

Sana Hadley’s corner of Wake County is a part of Garner, just north of the Johnston County border. It’s a once-rural offshoot of N.C. Highway 50.

Older houses that once sat alone on large lots on a narrow road are now surrounded by subdivisions packed with white, gray and blue houses on yards dotted with tiny, new trees.

The strain of growth

It’s not unusual for a school system to move kids around. It happens everywhere there’s growth.

More people move in, schools crowd, new schools open, and the new schools need students.

But in Wake County, more factors are often at play. Students are sometimes reassigned without new schools opening, just to relieve crowding or the struggling bus transportation system. Rapid, sizable growth puts a strain on planning for new buildings and renovating old ones, leaving two dozen schools “capped” to new enrollees, even if families move into the schools’ attendance zones.

And a tricky real estate market complicates things. The pace of homebuilding hasn’t kept up with the county’s growth. The median sale price of a home has far outpaced inflation and income growth, leaving people with fewer options to buy in established parts of the county. And when they do buy, they do so without the certainty that their children will go to the closest school, or be able to stay there.

Even the school system, funded by tax dollars rather than private capital, can’t always buy where it wants to. Then, when a school opens, new development often pops up around it, forcing original families out.

Caught in the annual tumult of student reassignment in Wake County are a fraction of the 160,000 students that make up the state’s biggest school system. But it’s still several thousand students – and their families — who have to adjust work and commute schedules to accommodate new school assignments.

Some families welcome the change, especially when they’re reassigned to a school closer to home. But many don’t want to change, having invested time and emotional energy into their current schools.

Susan Nguyen, who lives in Providence Place in Morrisville, would be forced to send her children to Pleasant Grove Elementary instead of their current school, Parkside Elementary. The current school is about three miles from Nguyen’s home. The new school is more than five miles away — through a busy corridor near the airport and Research Triangle Park, where thousands of employees commute each day.

Nguyen said she and a group of parents surveyed more than 200 of their neighbors who would be forced to send their children to Pleasant Grove Elementary. They wanted to know how many people would prefer Pleasant Grove to their current school, Parkside Elementary.

Their answer? “Just one,” she said. “We know they don’t want to move.”

Nguyen plans to apply to keep her kids, who will be a fourth grader and a fifth grader, at Parkside, because she loves the school. But her kids wouldn’t get to ride the school bus, like they do now, if they stay. Instead, Nguyen would be driving her kids and other neighborhood kids to school. In traffic and drop-off lines, the three-mile trip is a 30-minute to 40-minute round-trip drive, twice each day — time that she currently spends working.

“There's got to be a better solution for handling the growth,” said Ashley Arnold, a parent of two Parkside Elementary students. “And I feel like, because we've been here so long…. We deserve to stay at the same school. Especially after COVID, It's hard to build a community feeling or feel like you're really home somewhere.”

Despite objections from some parents, school system officials this month declined to make revisions to the plans to reassign families for the next school year. But they did say they would consider making changes to school calendars to prevent affected families from having to change calendars when they change schools, such as from a traditional calendar school year to a year-round school, or vice versa.

‘Data changes every year’

The Wake County Board of Education weighs four main goals when considering student reassignment: Student achievement, stability, proximity and operational efficiency.

But system officials’ impetus for making changes aren’t necessarily the same as those goals.

New schools, overcrowding and busing needs are the primary instigators for proposed changes each year, said Glenn Carrozza, the system’s assistant superintendent for school choice, planning and assignment.

School system officials told WRAL News they choose to fix crowding situations that are at their breaking points and where there are seats at nearby schools that can take students. They say they reshape assignment zones to be as connected as possible, getting rid of any pockets that are not neighboring the rest of the assignment zone.

Elementary schools are the most prone to reassignment and enrollment caps because of their smaller size and because of a 2018 law that limits the number of kids that can be in a class. When classes are poised to overpopulate, the school board has to move kids to where there’s space. Many frustrated families have questioned the extent to which school system officials are talking with local governments about development and thinking long-term.

In Garner, Hadley worries the school system isn’t seeing the new development coming or planning for it in a way that would be less disruptive for families.

“The school board says they cannot control what the Garner planning board does,” Hadley said.

Carrozza said officials meet with municipalities about developers’ plans and use data from them to make 10-year forecasts. Those forecasts guide building plans and each fall’s assignment plan.

“As that data changes over time, though, we may need to change our reassignment plans over time,” Carrozza said. The school system is limited in what it can build, Carrozza said.

Last year, voters approved a $530.7 million bond for schools for the next two years. But that’s not enough to satisfy all of the demands. About half of the bond would cover costs associated with new schools, and the rest is for renovations. In 2021, the school system reported to the state having $1.1 billion in unfunded facility needs through 2025 and $3 billion total in unfunded facility needs through 2030. Across the state in 2021, school systems reported $12.8 billion in unfunded facility needs through the next five years and $21.6 billion total in unfunded facility needs through the next 10 years.

Counties are constitutionally responsible for facilities, and they supply nearly all of the funding, often through property tax increases approved by voters, topping $1 billion statewide every year. But county spending actually mostly goes toward non-facility items. Counties spend more than $3 billion on educational needs, such as more teachers, when they think the state isn’t providing enough.

Moving for the school

Forcing some families to switch schools is unavoidable in a growing county. This year’s reassignment proposal includes a major reassignment of children in the Holly Springs area to a new elementary school, Woods Creek Elementary, and then redrawing some middle school boundaries to align with the elementary schools, affecting a few hundred students and their families.

It would involve a calendar change for families coming from two of the three schools that will lose students to Woods Creek, forcing frustrated parents to consider applying to transfer to an entirely new school altogether.

The reassignment proposal also makes a major change near the Durham County border, moving hundreds of students to and from different elementary schools to curb overcrowding and reduce bus routes.

All the way on the other side of Wake County, families in Garner face leaving a school they moved for and going to a school they say they wouldn’t move for.

No schools are planned for the area near Hadley’s neighborhood in southern Wake County, while the school system focuses on new schools in booming western Wake. But developers are building homes anyway.

“They look at environmental impact, but not school impact,” Hadley said.

Development in south Garner — Neighborhoods popping up in south Garner advertise proximity to attractions and other amenities. Hundreds of families are moving to the area, although no new schools are set to open in at least the next seven years. Emily Walkenhorst/WRAL News (© WRAL)

Without reassignment, Bryan Road Elementary School would be 21% above capacity next year, and 33% above capacity next year.

After reassignment, capacity could be as low as 78% and 82%, though it’s unlikely that would happen. Hadley and many other families plan to apply for stability transfers that would keep school capacity higher. And within a few years, new families will move into new subdivisions, causing another crunch.

A common frustration among parents such as Hadley is that families in established neighborhoods are often reassigned to make room at their schools for families who will be moving into closer, newer developments that sometimes pop up just because of the school.

But system officials have said sending new neighborhoods to schools farther away, and keeping older neighborhoods in schools they’re not as close to, is inefficient for their struggling transportation system. They call that type of assignment “hopscotching.”

But that’s what Hadley and others want. She’ll apply to keep her family in Bryan Road Elementary, but her preschool neighbor across the street won’t qualify. If the reassignment proposal is approved, they’d have to go to Aversboro Elementary, which is more than twice the distance away.

Meanwhile, Hadley’s built a relationship with Bryan Road, frequently visiting and volunteering at events. She moved to the neighborhood because of Bryan Road, not Aversboro.

What if it’s not the right fit for her child? she wonders.

A total change in western Wake County

A focal point for this year’s reassignment debate has been booming western Wake, where many families are facing the same dilemma as Susan Nguyen.

The proposal in Morrisville, Cary and North Raleigh — along the Durham County line — would almost completely change the assignment zone for Pleasant Grove Elementary. It would reassign the vast majority of Pleasant Grove families to Brier Creek, Leesville Road, York and Stough elementary schools. The remaining families would be joined by the families from Kitts Creek and Providence Place neighborhoods, whose children currently attend Alston Ridge and Parkside Elementary schools, respectively. For some, it means moving to a closer school. For others, it means moving to a school farther away and on a different calendar.

Some neighborhoods in Morrisville have been reassigned already in the past decade and would be moved again under the Wake County school system’s proposal.

It’s such a fast-growing area that Parkside Elementary, which opened in 2019, is already over capacity. Mark Dixon’s family was moved from Carpenter Elementary in Cary to Parkside in 2019. It was actually a closer move for his family, but he still considered it jarring. Dixon was president of Carpenter’s Parent-Teacher Association but couldn’t be involved anymore. His daughter was too young to be allowed to stay at the school.

“That was a big hit, especially for me,” Dixon said.

So he made the most of the experience and started a new PTA that resembled his old one. His daughter found a large rock that she liked, and they picked it up and moved it to their new school. Every year, the school’s fifth graders dip their hands in bright paint and leave their mark on the rock, Spirit Rock. She did that this year, finally a fifth grader.

The school system is proposing reassignment just as the last set of kids who had to change schools to Parkside — including Dixon’s daughter — are set to matriculate into middle school. They won’t be affected a second time, though their parents, if they have multiple children of a wide enough range of ages, could be affected again.

While expecting change next year, the neighborhoods are also expecting changes to their children’s middle school assignment. Parkside Middle School is scheduled to open in three years.

The school system should be mindful of the disruptions, as it proposes to move some families to schools farther away from them, Dixon said. In his time as a PTA leader, he’s learned parent involvement in their children’s education is often about convenience and not just the desire to be involved.

“If you want parents to be involved, proximity is a big deal,” Dixon said.

What you can do if your student is reassigned

The typical reassignment plan each fall affects about 2% to 3% of the school system’s students, according to system officials. That’s about 3,200 students to 4,800 students of the typical 160,000 students enrolled. If you’re family is reassigned, here are your options:

Apply for a stability transfer.A stability transfer allows a student to continue to attend their current school through the school’s last grade. Not every child is eligible every year. This is available to most families. Eligible families can apply later this year during a window that has not been set yet. Children with a stability transfer don’t receive busing. Families are automatically granted the transfer if they apply during the application window. They only need to apply once, not every year.

Next year, ineligible families would include some families who would be transferred to Woods Creek Elementary, to Pleasant Grove Elementary, or from Pleasant Grove Elementary. Only rising fourth and fifth graders, and their younger siblings who would start school no later than next year, would be eligible.

Apply for a hardship transfer. A hardship transfer allows a student to attend a new school for a number of reasons, including a desire to be on a different calendar. Students who receive hardship transfers don’t receive busing to their new school. The hardship transfer application window will be open March 4-15. Unlike the stability transfer, families are not automatically granted the transfer if they apply during the hardship window.

Apply for a calendar transfer. These are for students assigned to a non-traditional calendar wishing to transfer to a traditional-calendar school. These are not guaranteed and do not necessarily provide transportation. Families can find out if their base school has an option for a calendar transfer by looking up their address on the school system’s website. The school system has begun eliminating many of these options to reduce bus routes officials said were inefficient and hampering other busing services. But families who want a different school calendar can still apply through the hardship transfer process. The calendar transfer application window will be open March 4-15.

The school system’s website has more information on its frequently-asked-questions page and its transfer page.

CORRECTION: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated details about the transfer process. No timetable has been set for the stability transfer. Bullying is not a reason families can transfer, and calendar transfers are not guaranteed.