Is a K-8 school conversion the answer to Hilburn Drive Elementary's underenrollment and the lack of capacity for northwest Raleigh middle schools?

As noted in today's article by Chelsea Kellner, Wake Count Superintendent Tony Tata will present a plan to the school board on Tuesday to convert Hilburn to a K-8 campus for the 2012-13 school year. It would be the first combined elementary and middle school in Wake since before the 1976 merger.

“This is an idea that would save money and be very value-added to this community,” Tata told Hilburn parents at a meeting at the school on Wednesday.

SEE UPDATE AT END OF POST

With no firm date set for the next bond issue, Wake County school administrators want to use their savings to get a head start on some construction projects.

As noted in today's article, administrators want to use most of the $91.3 million in savings from the 2006 bond issue to add more high school seats. But the money could also be used to get work done on the long-discussed middle school near Leesville Church and Strickland roads in northwest Raleigh.

Click here for a handout of the presentation that staff gave the school board last week.

Wake County Superintendent Tony Tata announced today the names of eight of the 10 schools that will get special academic programs for the 2011-12 school year to make them more attractive to parents.

Tata said that Hilburn Drive, York and Aversboro elementary schools, Carroll Middle School and Knightdale High School will receive STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) programs.

Tata announced that Timber Drive, Jeffreys Grove and Stough elementary schools will receive Global Schools programs that will include things such as greater emphasis on teaching foreign languages.

UPDATE

In case I didn't make it clear in my budget post, Tata said today that he has no plans to cut back on the new STEM schools and Global Schools even in the face of deeper than projected state funding cuts.

Were the student reassignments approved by the Wake County school board this year part of a "pattern of racially motivated moves of Black and Hispanic students?"

That's the contention made by the UNC School of Law's Center for Civil Rights in a memo it filed last month to the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights. The memo focuses on the 2011-12 moves to help buttress the arguments of racial animus made in the civil rights complaint filed by the NAACP against Wake.

(Thank you to the Wake Education Partnership for providing this link to this report.)

Wake County Superintendent Tony Tata is recommending two vastly differently approaches to deal with under-enrolled schools.

As noted in today's article, one approach had the school board voting Tuesday to set aside $896,000 to provide additional teachers to five small underutilized elementary schools. The article also noted how when it comes to underutilized multi-track year-round schools, Tata wants to pursue the option of letting them switch to a single track.

Let's start with the small elementary schools discussion.

SEE UPDATE AT END OF POST FOR LINKS TO HANDOUTS

More details to come later but there's been a change in which five under-enrolled Wake County traditional-calendar elementary schools would get additional staffing for the 2011-12 school year.

Wake Superintendent Tony Tata said today that Baileywick Elementary School is on the list because its enrollment has been declining sharply. He said that York Elementary is no longer in the running because new data shows the school's enrollment is projected to increase.

The other schools getting additional teachers are still the same as previously mentioned. They are Aversboro, Hilburn Drive, Jeffreys Grove and Root elementary schools.

The school board will vote today on allocating the $896,000 for the extra positions at those schools. Tata said he wanted the vote now to have the info out before they hold the teacher transfer fair.

Wake County Superintendent Tony Tata's budget proposal will dominate much of the discussion at Tuesday's school board meeting.

The agenda for the committee of the whole meeting that starts at 1 p.m. includes a board budget work session. Another COW topic is Tata's proposal to set aside $900,000 to provide additional staffing at "small elementary schools" such as Aversboro, Hilburn Drive, Jeffreys Grove, Root and York who are dealing with enrollment issues.

The public will have its say at 6:15 p.m. during the public hearing on the budget proposal.

There's some good news, bad news and some assumptions being made in the new 2011-12 budget proposed today by Wake County Schools Superintendent Tony Tata.

Starting with the good news, Tata said his focus was to develop a budget that protects teachers and the classroom while setting conditions to make schools in high demand.

In terms of protecting teachers and the classrooms:

What steps can and should the Wake County school system take to help under-enrolled schools?

As noted in today's article by Chelsea Kellner, parents and staff at Hilburn Drive and York elementary schools and Carroll Middle School are pleading for the school system to provide equal resources that they hope will help their under-filled schools. Among the ideas being proposed by all three schools is to get magnet status.

"This is really an opportunity for leadership where there hasn't been any," Hilburn Principal Greg Ford said. "The time is right now to fix this."

Wake County Superintendent Tony Tata will meet with Hilburn Elementary School parents tonight as part of his efforts to assure them he's concerned about the situation at underenrolled schools.

The school board asked staff to help draw up recommendations to help underutilized schools. Staff was supposed to give an update on Tuesday but Tata pulled it from the work session agenda because he wants to address capacity utilization and the magnet school review as elements of the long-term student assignment plan he'll present by late spring.

Parents at Hilburn, York Elementary and Carroll Middle were the most vocal during this year's student reassignment process in lobbying for help to fill their underutilized schools. York and Carroll parents specifically asked for magnet programs.