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.

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."

Today marks the start of a new calendar era for several Wake County schools.

Leesville Road elementary and middle schools will open back on a traditional calendar after having operated as year-round schools. Mills Park Elementary will make the switch to the traditional calendar after opening as a year-round school in 2009.

Today's opening of Mills Park Middle School reflects the first break with the prior board's policy of opening all new middle schools and elementary schools on a year-round calendar.

Will there be any money saved from school transportation costs if the Wake County school system abandons the socioeconomic diversity policy?

As noted in today's article by Thomas Goldsmith, supporters of scrapping the policy are predicting that going to community-based schools will lead to savings. But supporters of the diversity policy are skeptical about savings and warn that it could cost more to have transportation under community-based schools.

Wake says $45 million of its $56 million transportation budget comes from the state.

Details are still being worked out on how to accommodate the families who still want to stay on the year-round calendar now that the Wake County school board has changed schedules for four schools for the 2010-11 school year.

The school board unanimously agreed Tuesday to convert Leesville Road elementary and middle schools and Mills Park Elementary to a traditional calendar and to open Mills Park MIddle on that same calendar.

The plan is to allow families at those four schools to apply to a year-round calendar if they don't want to stay after conversion. But the mechanism for allowing families to apply still is being worked out.

The four community engagement meetings on Wake County school calendars aren't being held exactly where school board chairman Ron Margiotta had planned.

The meetings will be held at Holly Springs High, Heritage High in Wake Forest, Leesville Road High in Raleigh and Panther Creek High in Cary. Margiotta said he had picked those locations after some other sites had fallen through.

Margiotta said he had originally planned to hold meetings at Apex and Garner high schools. But he said that Garner High fell through because of scheduling conflicts at the school.

The four new schools opening next year now have principals and two other schools are getting new leaders.

The school board announced tonight that Mark Savage will become the principal of the new Heritage High in Wake Forest. Savage has been principal of Wakefield HIgh since 2006.

Savage will receive a salary of $100,720.

CORRECTED TO SAY THAT NANCY ALLEN WORKS FOR CARTERET COUNTY SCHOOLS. UPDATED TO INCLUDE BIO SHEETS AT END OF POST

School administrators are still weighing whether to recommend delaying the opening of two new elementary schools.

Chuck Dulaney, assistant superintendent for growth and planning, told school board members on Tuesday that Herbert Akins Road Elementary in Fuquay-Varina and Alston Road Elementary in Cary might open in 2010 instead of 2009.

It all depends on whether both schools are needed more for middle school students as part of the multi-year assignment plan.