Some Wake County schools are seeing noticeable changes in their percentages of low-income students because of the student assignment changes adopted by the school board in February.

For instance, Davis Drive Elementary's percentage of students receiving federally subsidized lunches fell from 18.9 percent last year to 6.6 percenet this year. For Reedy Creek Elementary, it rose from 41.4 percent last year to 53.3 percent this year.

This came after the board moved what was projected to be 175 students from Davis Drive to to Reedy Creek, Combs and Smith elementary schools. The moves were supposed to to be proximity related so students would attend a closer school.

Could the development of feeder patterns be more of a hold-up on the new Wake County student assignment plan than coming to an agreement on achievement-choice schools?

As noted in today's article, staff's update on the student assignment plan included discussion on achievement schools and a presentation on sample feeder patterns. During the meeting, board members said zilch on the achievement schools but went into detail on the feeder patterns.

"We know this is contentious," Superintendent Tony Tata said to board members in response to the feeder pattern concerns. "This is high stakes. We want your feedback to make this right."

The issue of whether siblings could be accommodated on Track 4 decided which Wake County year-round schools would make the move to a single track for the next two school years.

Click here for this handout that shows how the 14 underutilized year-round schools were evaluated by staff. Inability to accommodate siblings was cited for eight of the nine schools as to why a move to a single-track year-round calendar wasn't considered feasible.

Laura Evans, senior director for Growth and Planning, said inability to accommodate siblings reflected challenges caused by moving multi-track year-round schools to a single-track calendar.

More details to come later but Wake County Superintendent Tony Tata is recommending today that Alston Ridge, Highcroft, Lake Myra, Rand Road and Timber Drive elementary schools make the change to single-track year-round.

Tata said the schools would make the move as part of a two-year pilot that he estimated could save Wake $400,000. The schools are expected to all move to track 4.

Tata says they'll take steps like making allowances for families who would have been on tracks 1, 2 and 3 who had already planned to be in school in July. Track 4 starts in late July so they'll provide a trackout program.

UPDATE

The changes to all five schools were unanimously approved.

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.

More details to come later but there's now a proposal on the table to collapse 14 multi-track Wake County year-round schools to a single track.

Superintendent Tony Tata proposed today giving flexibility to principals at under-enrolled year-round schools the flexibility to go to a single track for the 2011-12 school year. He said the principals would pick the track.

The schools identified by Tata are those that are at under 100 percent of what would be their single-track capacity: Alston Ridge, Ballentine, Banks Road, East Garner, Harris Creek, Highcroft, Lake Myra, Rand Road, River Bend, Timber Drive, Wakefield and West Lake elementary schools; and East Cary and Holly Grove middle schools.

UPDATE

Tata says he'll come back in May with a specific list of schools to recommend. While he didn't specify a number, it will likely not be all of the 14 year-round schools that are below 100 percent of single-track capacity.

Are you ready for another battle over converting some Wake County year-round schools to a traditional calendar?

As noted in today's article, Superintendent Tony Tata said he's looking at whether to recommend converting some year-round schools to a traditional calendar as part of his 2011-12 budget. It stemmed from his review on how to efficiently utilize space throughout the district.

"We can’t have 140 percent enrollment in one school and 50 percent in another school," Tata said about why he was looking at spending $900,000 to help provide teachers at 19 underenrolled traditional-calendar elementary schools. "So this an effort to make all of our schools desirable."

Next year's Wake County student reassignment plan is a work in progress with everything approved by the old school board under review with new suggestions coming in all the time.

During Tuesday's work session, Laura Evans, senior director of growth and planning, laid out to the board an explanation of the assignments being considered and the direction they're leaning toward. It will help to have your copy of the handout present.

The ensuing discussion showed how the thinking has changed to reflect the new student assignment policy. Multiple times, Evans talked about bringing students home, having them attend their neighborhood schools and moving the least number possible for stability.