You can add Knightdale to the list of critics of the Wake County school board redistricting proposal.
As noted in today's article, Knightdale community leaders are lobbying the school board to change a proposal that would put the town into three different board districts. They're currently now in District 1 but the plan would send part of the town to Districts 2 and 4.
"The ability for us to have any influence on the board is certainly diluted," said Knightdale Mayor Russell Killen.
Because The N&O also prints the Eastern Wake News, readers of the main N&O sometimes miss some Wake County school news out of the east. There were two stories last week in the Eastern Wake News that seemed worth sharing, in the interest of keeping readers informed on what's happening all over our big ol' county.
In the first story (read it here), "Wake County school board member Chris Malone is working behind the scenes to try to bring a STEM school to Knightdale High School."
In the second (read it here), The Knightdale 100 (check them out at http://knightdale100.blogspot.com/ ) is continuing its mission toward improving schools in Eastern Wake County by offering educational forums to residents.
Knightdale’s top elected officials met with the Wake County School Board chairman Ron Margiotta recently to discuss programs aimed at boosting academics at Knightdale High School.
The discussion comes as Knightdale 100, an organization designed to promote academic excellence in schools in eastern Wake County, has turned its emphasis away from magnet schools to other innovative programs designed to promote academic excellence.
“We met to bring him up to date on the efforts of Knightdale 100 and to encourage his leadership and the board’s continued interest infinding solutions to academics in eastern Wake County, particularly at Knightdale schools,” said Joe Bryan, a Wake County commissioner who lives in Knightdale.
Bryan said he Margiotta, Knightdale Mayor Russell Killen met at Cinelli’s Restaurant in North Hills mall in Raleigh on June 29.
“He’s very supportive,” Bryan said. “He said he’d be willing to take the lead between the school board and Knightdale 100.”
Bryan noted four board members and Acting Superintendent Donna Hargens attendance at recent Knightdale 100 forums.
Knightdale and East Wake High School lag behind other high schools in the county on SATs and end of course testing. Knightdale 100, a grass-roots movement of parents and educators, wants to change that.
Knightdale 100’s Catherine Dameron said after a recent forum on magnets, members of the organization began to shift their view on just how tenable a magnet would be for Knightdale High School.
“Chris Malone, (Wake County School board district one representative) had originally asked us to identify what type of magnet we would like there,” said Dameron. “Our purpose is to educate the community on the type of magnets and if they would like a magnet at all.”
Dameron said after Wake County magnet coordinator Dr. David Ansbacher spoke at a Knightdale 100 forum on magnets, thinking began to shift. Before the forum, the organization had put up a petition on its web site and received more than 100 signatures calling for a magnet school at Knightdale High, Dameron said.
Dameron said the goal is attract the 540 students in Knightdale attendance nodes who attend magnets back to Knightdale High School. Knightdale High School has more students in its attendance district attending magnets than any other high school in Wake County.
“Magnets pull from a large range,” Dameron said. “Once we get our base kids back, there’s no where else to pull from. Broughton lost their magnet for that very reason that the base wanted to go there. I don’t know if a magnet’s the right way to go. We want a specialized program there.”
Knightdale Mayor Russell Killen also said a magnet would not work at Knightdale High School. He said Wake County’s “academy” model with a math, science, or bio-science academy that could reach as few as 20 students and as many as 50 is an idea that he, Bryan, and Margiotta discussed as a possibilty.
Wake-Forest Rolesville High School has a construction academy. Apex High School has a computer technology academy, Sanderson, a finance academy and Southeast Raleigh High, an engineering academy.
Other ideas include a leadership academy, and an in-school suspension program, Killen said. Dameron said one idea being discussed is participating in a science, technology and math program through some type of partnership between Wake County Schools and N.C. State.
"We all agree that eastern Wake County got the short end of the stick, and we need to address that,” said Malone. "We want to do the right thing. “We don’t want to sit on it. We can’t let this languish. We’ve got to act on it.”
A group of Knightdale parents met last week with Wake school board members Chris Malone (who represents Knightdale) and John Tedesco and with David Ansbacher, the system's senior director for magnet programs.
The group, called Knightdale 100, formed last year with the mission to make the schools in Eastern Wake County better and to push for more equitable programs. My daughter's best neighborhood friend, for example, was unable to take the AP classes he wanted at Knightdale High School this year because they simply weren't offered. He had to take them at N.C. State.
The focus of last week's meeting was to explore the possibility of making Knightdale High School a magnet school. I didn't attend the meeting, and there was no coverage I could find of it in The N&O or on the WakeEd blog. So in the interest of trying to keep all Wake residents informed about as much of the schools goings-on as we can, I point you to the Knightdale 100 blog for information about what's going on in that other part of the county.
Ann Denlinger and budget issues will be on the agenda of today's joint meeting of the Wake County school board and county commissioners.
Denlinger, president of the Wake Education Partnership, will give an abbreviated version of the January presentation about Knightdale High School she had made to the Knightdale 100. It had so impressed County Commissioner Joe Bryan that he wants both boards to hear it.
The school board will then discuss the budget it adopted Tuesday, especially the request for $313.5 million from commissioners. It's the same amount as was requested last year.
UPDATE
School board chairman Ron Margiotta opened today's joint meeting by saying that he recognizes that the commissioners' resolution can be in conflict with the school board's new assignment plans. He said they'll meet to discuss it later but need to focus today on the agenda topics.
You can probably add Ann Denlinger, president of the Wake Education Partnership, to the list of people who will be invited to speak at a meeting of the county commissioners.
The request is coming from Commissioner Joe Bryan, who was impressed by a presentation Denlinger made at a Tuesday forum sponsored by the Knightdale 100, a new grassroots group that wants to improve education in Eastern Wake.
Denlinger noted how Knightdale High had 11 Advanced Placement courses while Enloe High had 28 of them. Denlinger told the crowd about the need to offer more AP classes.
Knightdale 100 is gearing up and has the promise of being a very effective organization in Eastern Wake County.
I use the term "organization" even though Shannon Hardy who moderated Tuesday's forum the group sponsored refers to it as a movement for quality education in Knightdale. The group wants to be for everyone in Knightdale, Hardy said.
Knightdale 100 has plans to hold another forum at Knightdale Town Hall Feb. 23 at 7 p.m.
The group already has a presence on the web and can be followed by going to knightdale100.blogspot.com.
A striking feature of Knightdale 100 is how it started in the first place. It had its birth in PTA meetings, at neighborhood swim clubs meets, during visits with friends. If indeed a movement, it's certainly a grass roots movement.
There are 494 students assigned to attend Knightdale High School who opt to go to magnet schools in Raleigh. Scholastic Aptitude test scores and end of grade test scores at Knightdale High School lag behind others in Wake County. And it is plagued by low graduation rates.
These parents and education supporters know it doesn't have to be this way and they are out to change it.
