Wake schools releases second draft of reassignment plan, hosts public comment

The Wake County Public Schools System has responded to parent concerns about its latest reassignment plan, though it's only making one change.

2025-10-21

The responses are posted in an online presentation. The school board hosted a public comment on the plan later Tuesday night. The board plans to vote Nov. 18 on the changes.

Many families in southern, western and eastern Wake would be moved to new schools next year, including schools that operate on other calendars. The changes are designed to alleviate overcrowding at some schools and to accommodate the opening of a new elementary school in Fuquay-Varina.

Some families could apply to stay at their current school, but would have to forfeit bus transportation.

Following feedback from the first draft release on Sept. 2, the district is only recommending a change for some White Oak Elementary families.

To address overcrowding -- the school is operating at more than 130% over capacity -- the district is proposing to move many White Oak families to Turner Creek Elementary. That move would force White Oak families to move from a traditional calendar to Turner Creek's year-round one. The change introduced Tuesday would allow those White Oak families to apply to attend the traditional calendar Baucom Elementary instead.

The district is not changing or adding to other proposals that would also force a family to change calendars. Some year-round schools are already associated with a traditional calendar school that families can apply to.

Feedback to the school system was largely concerned with stability -- with calendar, with community, and with commute -- though no issue drew higher ratings than another.

"The common response is, 'We just don't want to be reassigned, we just don't want change,' and I get that," said Susan Pulliam, the district's senior director of student assignment.

During the public hearing Tuesday, several Apex residents asked to be "grandfathered in" at White Oak Elementary or Mills Park Middle, saying they and their children had already established relationships with teachers and other students. Some said it wasn't practical to apply for a stability to transfer to stay at White Oak because they need busing to school.

Hooman Hooshiar said his Southerlyn neighborhood had been assigned to Turner Creek once, before being reassigned to White Oak and was now being reassigned back to Turner Creek. He said only 25 White Oak students live in Southerlyn, just a couple of percent of the overall student population.

"It's not a big enough number to make a big enough impact on the overall enorllment numbers at White Oak Elementary," Hooshiar said.

The district held three virtual information sessions and an in-person one at the new Hilltop Needmore Elementary School in Fuquay-Varina -- the district's only new school opening next year.

People can find out more information about the proposal and look up whether they are affected here.

Overall, the changes would affect 24 schools. A handful of those schools wouldn't lose any students but would gain them from other schools.

The changes would go into effect for the 2026-27 school year.

The proposed changes

Families would be reassigned out of Ballentine, Banks Road and West Lake elementary schools to fill Hilltop Needmore Elementary in Fuquay-Varina. Hilltop Needmore would open as a multi-track year-round school in July 2026, meaning it would have four groups of students track in and out of the school at different times of the year -- a tactic that increases a school's capacity and that is often used in the district's fastest-growing areas.

The reassignment for Hilltop Needmore will also have a trickle effect on other schools. Some students would move from Vance Elementary to fill the open seats at Banks Road Elementary. Students from Middle Creek Elementary would be moved into Oak Grove and West Lake elementary schools.

Other changes will reduce crowding.

Some students from Hebert Akins Road Middle and Dillard Drive Middle would move to West Lake Middle, primarily to reduce crowding at Herbert Akins Road. Dillard Drive Middle isn't overcrowded, officials said, but some of its students' elementary school siblings are on different calendars that would be more compatible with Herbert Akins Road Middle.

Some students from crowded Willow Spring High would move to Middle Creek High.

Several more changes will come to Apex and other western Wake schools.

Some students from Lufkin Road Middle and Salem Middle would move to Apex Middle, and some students would move from Apex Friendship High to Apex High -- both moves are an effort to make the feeder pattern to high schools consistent for Baucom Elementary families.
Some students would move from the overcrowded White Oak Elementary -- which is currently capped to new students -- to Turner Creek Elementary.

Some students from overcrowded Mills Park Elementary would move to Salem Elementary.

A few eastern Wake schools would also be affected.

Some students from crowded and growing Zebulon Magnet Elementary would move to Carver Elementary.

Some students from Zebulon Magnet Middle would move to Wendell Magnet Middle, an effort to make feeder patterns more consistent for the schools' elementary counterparts.