Can the Wake County school system sell the public on the merits of the bell schedule changes for this fall?

As noted in today's article, school staff said the proposal would help Wake avoid $10 million in costs and revenue losses this fall. But school board members said it would take community outreach to explain it to parents why they're being asked to make changes of more than an hour in some cases.

"If we don't (do community outreach), we’re going to get thousands of calls and emails about this," said school board member John Tedesco.

UPDATE

Click here for the handout from the board meeting. It lists the proposed bell schedules.

Wake has fixed some errors with the individual school times from yesterday's handout. I've replaced the link with the new one. Wake made more corrections Thursday.

How much is it worth, in terms of dollars and potential negative impact on the magnet school program, to reduce bus ride times in Wake County?

Bob Snidemiller, senior director of transportation, told school board members last week that they could reduce more bus ride times for non-magnet students to 45 minutes or less. But it would require buying more buses.

The number of new buses needed would depend on whether all magnet routes were switched to express runs, something the new majority would likely not back.

The spinning is going on about how much transportation costs will be impacted by Wake County's new student assignment plan.

School administrators said Tuesday that it could could cost five to 25 additional buses because of the grandfathering that will be employed over the next few years as the plan is phased in. Administrators said they expect costs to drop below current levels once the grandfathering of current students ends.

In a blog post Wednesday, Matt Ellinwood of the liberal N.C. Policy Watch cited the transportation analysis to mock critics of the old diversity policy.

CORRECTION

The blog post was written by Matt Ellinwood.

How much of an impact would going to express busing only for Wake County magnet schools have on the program?

As noted in today's article, Superintendent Tony Tata and school board vice chairman John Tedesco don't think the potential change would have too much of an impact. Tata pointed to the recent online test drive in which more than 70 percent of participants said only having express busing wouldn't discourage them from attending magnet schools.

Tedesco pointed to how the magnet school program still turns away a few thousand students each year. Even if fewer applications come in, he said he doesn't expect the use of express busing will cause them to have fewer applicants than seats.

SEE UPDATE AT END OF POST

Some Wake County school employees are expected to lose their cell phones as part of a cost-cutting measure.

During last week's school board work session, Chief Business Officer David Neter said staff is reviewing which employees need to keep their district-issued devices and which ones will be switched to cheaper ones. Currently, some get a traditional cell phone while others might get a Blackberry or a Direct Connect device.

Handouts presented last week show that Wake is paying for nearly 2,500 cell devices. (As was explained last week, don't interpret the Blackberry page to mean those people are getting both a Blackberry and a cell.)

Could Wake County teachers be meeting in the mornings this fall instead of in the afternoons for their professional learning community time?

That's an idea being explored by school board member John Tedesco. In that scenario, teachers would meet in the mornings with the possibility of delaying the start of classes.

Whether that option will be doable this fall is a question.

UPDATE

See end of post for links to three of the school PLT presentations.

Would you be wiling to send Wake County elementary students to the bus stop before 7 a.m. in order to flip schedules around to start high schools later in the day?

School transportation officials presented a model last week of what things could look like if high schools were to start after 9 a.m. But the model would involve flipping around the three-tier bus system so that some elementary schools start at 7:25 a.m.

It's not an option that most school board members are considering, at least for this fall. Whether there's interest down the road remains to be seen.

Rumors are swirling around Wake County's magnet school community about the possible loss or reduction in school bus service.

Magnet parents probably don't have to worry about that kind of a drastic change in bus service for this fall. But you might want to be on the lookout for down the road.

The issue came up during Tuesday's committee of the whole discussion as school board members and staff brainstormed about ways to avoid having most elementary schools run from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. this fall.

Will there be any money saved from school transportation costs if the Wake County school system abandons the socioeconomic diversity policy?

As noted in today's article by Thomas Goldsmith, supporters of scrapping the policy are predicting that going to community-based schools will lead to savings. But supporters of the diversity policy are skeptical about savings and warn that it could cost more to have transportation under community-based schools.

Wake says $45 million of its $56 million transportation budget comes from the state.

The question of who has the longest bus rides was also on the minds of school board members on Tuesday.

As noted in today's article, staff stressed that voluntary magnet kids account for a majority of the longest bus rides in the district. But students who are bused for diversity also are in the group with the longest rides.

Bob Snidemiller, senior director for transportation, explained that the longest 5 percent of bus ride times have an average one-way ride of 64 minutes.