The Wake County school board passed the voluntary desegregation resolution it needs as part of it federal magnet grant application, but in the process it led to a discussion about achievement at magnets and the programming options at non-magnets.

At the last meeting on Feb. 5, the board considered this voluntary desegregation resolution. Approval was required as part of the $10 million in federal magnet dollars Wake will request to start up three new magnets and to revamp the themes at two schools.

School board member Deborah Prickett came to the discussion with a long list of notes to raise her concerns about approving the resolution.

Barring any last-minute changes next week, it looks like the new year-round calendar option for Lynn Road Elementary base families will be Wakefield Elementary.

But the discussion on the issue during Tuesday's Wake County school board student assignment work session raises issues about the role year-round calendar options should play in the district. Should Wake continue to not offer year-round options that are considered more attractive than the base school?

The discussion also raised the prospect that the school system may at some point convert Wakefield Elementary back to a traditional calendar.

What role should Montessori education continue to play in the Wake County school system?

As noted in today's article, school administrators say they still think that Wake should offer Montessori even though Poe Elementary School hasn't been able to attract enough magnet students.

But with Lynn Road Elementary School's PTA balking at receiving Montessori, Wake is back to determining who should become the new Montessori school. Options include finding an existing school which would support Montessori more or just opening a new school to offer that theme.

Fox Road Elementary School has replaced Lynn Road Elementary School as being recommended by Wake County school staff to receive a magnet program.

When staff presented the list of new magnets last week, some board members had questioned why Fox Road wasn't on the list. At the time, staff said they were concerned that magnetizing Fox Road would hurt Millbrook Elementary's magnet program.

But staff said today that Fox Road's magnet draw area could be created without hurting other nearby schools. Staff said today that they're still not recommending Barwell Road, Creech Road and Hodge Road elementary schools, despite the request from some board members, because they're concerned the draw area would hurt surrounding schools.

Staff is still recommending adding magnet programs to Green Elementary School and Carroll Middle School and overhauling the magnet themes at Poe Elementary and Moore Square Middle. A final decision on which schools to include in the federal magnet grant isn't expected until next month.

Student assignment and diversity seems to find its way into just about every topic that's discussed by the Wake County school board.

As noted in today's article, the discussion about which schools should get magnet programs spun into a discussion about diversity as a factor in the student assignment plan. At issue is what to do to reduce racial and minority isolation at schools, which is the main purpose of the new federal grant Wake will seek.

The goal of federal Magnet School Assistance Program grants is to "assist in the desegregation of public schools by supporting the elimination, reduction, and prevention of minority group isolation in elementary and secondary schools with substantial numbers of minority group students.

Wake County school staff will recommend today adding magnet programs to Green and Lynn Road elementary schools and Carroll Middle School.

All three North Raleigh schools are proposed for inclusion in the federal magnet school assistance grant that Wake will apply for later this year. Staff says magnetizing the schools will attract magnet applicants that reduce their high percentages of free-and-reduced price lunch students.

Also as part of the grant, Wake would seek funding to overhaul the magnet themes at Poe Elementary School and Moore Square Middle School. More details of the changes will be presented during the school board work session.

SEE UPDATE AT END OF POST

Wake County school board chairman Kevin Hill is pointing to the need to change the student assignment plan for diversity reasons and downplaying concerns the recent vote will negatively impact a looming school bond issue.

In this interview last Tuesday on the Bill LuMaye Show on WPTF, Hill said the reason for passing the student assignment directive was the data they had been receiving over the last month about school demographic trends from the new choice plan. Hill said they were concerned that they could add 10 new high-needs schools with high levels of poverty.

"I've heard the superintendent on record all spring basically say there's going to need to be some changes, there's going to be some tweaks," Hill said. "As a board we've been supportive of the choice plan through the spring, but I think this data was kind of alarming in terms of where enrollment was going at several schools. The superintendent again is on record as saying it's cheaper to keep a school from becoming high risk than to deal with a school once it is high risk."

Former Wake County school board member Beverley Clark wasn't the only speaker firing bombs at Tuesday's school board meeting.

As noted in today's article, critics of the new choice-based student assignment plan and supporters of magnet schools made up much of the turnout for public comment. Several speakers urged the board to make major changes to the new assignment plan.

Speakers also defended the magnet school program, downplaying the data indicating they have larger achievement gaps than non-magnet schools. They also denied that magnets were schools within a school as terms such as "social justice" and "diversity" were often mentioned.

The elimination of socioeconomic diversity in filling Wake County's magnet schools and year-round schools had immediate results this year.

As noted in today's article, the acceptance rates shot up for both magnet schools and year-round schools. You had 812 more people accepted into magnet schools as hundreds of seats that had previously been left vacant for diversity reasons were filled.

(There's a long list of links at the bottom of the post for numbers crunchers.)

CORRECTED BAD LINKS FOR THIS YEAR'S SCHOOL-BY-SCHOOL TOTALS

Here's a bit more discussion on how the Lost Colony deal came to an end at Tuesday's committee of the whole meeting.

Heading into the meeting, it looked like some school board members were all set to continue the relationship with Granville County schools to pay the $1,443 per student tuition for the Lost Colony students.

But things changed when the school board found out that bus service was already being provided to the Lost Colony area. This means service wouldn't have to be added if Wake kept the 51 students now going to Granville.