The crowding problem at Panther Creek High School these first few weeks of school has generated a good bit of media coverage.

The combination of rapid growth around the Northwest Cary school and the inability to get 22 modular classrooms set up before classes began has slammed Panther Creek. As was noted last week, students are using the media center and the auditorium until the modulars are installed.

The situation has raised questions about the process Wake uses to install modulars. It's also pointing to how high school students will likely be reassigned in 2009.

It's safe to say that growth is slowing down again in Wake.

As noted in today's article, both Wake and Johnston County are on pace for fewer new students than they've had in recent years. This slowdown will have some practical consequences.

For those who don't read to the end of the posts, click here for a spreadsheet showing school-by-school Day 5 numbers. It also includes the March and June projections and some other things you number crunchers would probably be interested in viewing.

Chuck Dulaney answered one question Tuesday about the multi-year assignment plan that, honestly, shouldn't have surprised people

School board member Beverley Clark asked Dulaney, assistant superintendent for growth and planning, how fixed the moves would be in the future years of the plan. She's raised concerns in the past about locking the district into the moves that are in the multi-year plan.

Dulaney said he would like to think that most of the assignments in the second and third years of the plan should stick. But he said it wouldn't preclude the board from making additional moves if circumstances change.

Would you rather have your children attend the closest middle school or go to a more distant one if it meant they'd be with their friends from elementary school?

The answer, according to Chuck Dulaney, assistant superintendent for growth and planning, seems to be keeping peer groups together. That's what he told school board members on Tuesday while discussing the development of the multi-year assignment plan.

Dulaney said the issue of what priority should be higher for filling middle schools came up during discussions with planning groups. These planning groups consist of teachers, parents and administrators in the areas most likely to be affected by the assignment plan.

The year-round/unconversion issue came up during Tuesday's presentation of the multi-year assignment plan.

As noted in today's article, school board member Ron Margiotta asked Chuck Dulaney, assistant superintendent for growth and planning, if he'd include reversing some of the conversions in the plan.

Dulaney said it's a question that he hears often. He said he can't go against the planning assumptions adopted by the school board and the county commissioners for year-round schools.

Aside from today's flap over sales tax reimbursement, a big chunk of the joint meeting was a Student Assignment 101 lesson for county commissioners.

Chuck Dulaney, assistant superintendent for growth and planning, told commissioners that student assignment was "perhaps the most overwhelming statutory authority that school districts have." He said it's difficult trying to balance all the different goals in the assignment policy.

"Providing as much stability as possible is good, but that's not easy," Dulaney said.