Wake County school administrators are pointing to the link between student assignment and the number of new schools that are needed in the next school construction bond issue.

Joe Desormeaux, assistant superintendent for facilities, told school board members last week that revised projections show that 13 to 26 new schools are needed by the 2016-17 school year to keep up with growth.

If Wake sticks to its current practice of only partially filling new schools when they open, Desormeaux said they'll need closer to the high end of the 26 schools. If Wake opens the schools at full capacity and reduces grandfathering, it would reduce the number of new schools but not make families happy.

The 2013-14 student assignment plan is now becoming more real for Wake County families.

Between today and Monday, currently enrolled students will receive their initial notice of school assignment for the upcoming school year. This notice grandfathers students at their current schools with their current transportation unless they're reassigned to one of the three new schools — Richland Creek Elementary, Rolesville Middle and Rolesville High.

The notice will have rising sixth- and ninth-graders being assigned to their base schools. This means that magnet students will have to submit an application, whose approval will be guaranteed, to stay in the program, and that people who want the choice plan feeders will need to request it in the first transfer period.

For families who've been oblivious to the recent student assignment discussion, the notices could be a rude surprise.

The new grandfathering rules approved Tuesday by the Wake County school board provide more stability for families than historically has been the case.

It will become evident when the notice of initial school assignments for the 2013-14 school year go out to students between Jan. 2-7. Unless a student is being reassigned to one of the three new schools — Rolesville High, Rolesville Middle and Richland Creek Elementary — Wake is assuming you'll stay at your current school for the 2013-14 school year.

Let's follow the example of students who live in the nodes being reassigned  to an existing school, such as those who being moved to River Bend Elementary to free up spots for magnet applicants at Fox Road Elementary.

The controlled-choice plan bit the dust officially on Tuesday with the 5-4 vote by the Wake County school board to move back to an address-based plan for the 2013-14 school year.

As noted in today's article, Democratic board members argued that the choice plan was too expensive to maintain. They argued the new plan was a good hybrid of the choice plan and a base plan while incorporating long-sought concepts such as grandfathering for all students at their current school.

But Republican board members argued the choice plan wasn't given a fair chance to succeed and that changing assignment plans again promoted instability in the community.

Somewhat unexpectedly, the Wake County school system posted the full draft 2013-14 student assignment plan online in advance of Tuesday's school board presentation.

As noted in today's article, this document shows that the plan recommends reassigning 1,479 students, most of whom would go to three "new" schools: Richland Creek Elementary, Rolesville Middle and Rolesville High.

For the second year in a row, staff is recommending delaying the opening of  Abbotts Creek Elementary. The document doesn't say why, but some families have balked at the thought of going to a modular school whose funding isn't in place for the permanent building.

More to come later, but Wake County school staff proposed today a timeline that would have the school board adopt the 2013-14 assignment plan on Dec. 11.

This draft timeline would have the plan being presented Nov. 13 with public hearings in November and early December. The board would hold work sessions  Dec. 4 and Dec. 11 with the vote that day.

The board will vote on the timeline Oct. 30.  If the plan is adopted Dec. 11, the soft transition would immediately go into effect Dec. 12 with new families going to their base school instead of participating in the choice plan.

Along the way, you had board members arguing about scrapping the choice plan and what using the 11-12 maps mean. It was stressed that there would be few reassignments for next year and that all existing students can grandfather at their current school, including those who participated in the choice plan.

One issue that the Wake County school board will have to decide for the 2013-14 student assignment plan is what to do with the feeder patterns that were part of the choice plan.

Staff recommended, as part of the now discarded draft base maps, honoring the choice plan feeders for middle school and high school. The board's agreement last week to work with the 11-12 base maps means reconciling cases where the feeders are different from the choice plan.

The Democratic board members have been openly skeptical of the choice plan's premise that parents could be guaranteed a K-12 feeder pattern. But at last week's work session, board member Susan Evans offered what she called a "good compromise."

After a week of tearing into each other, Wake County school board members finally found something they could agree on Thursday night.

As noted in today's article, Republican and Democratic board members unanimously agreed to scrap the 2013-14 draft assignment maps in favor of going to the 2011-12 base maps. The fact they were agreeing drew several mentions and jokes at the board table.

The change occurred when board member Jim Martin interrupted the discussion of how the draft maps would affect the percentages of low-income students next year.

UPDATE

The 2011-12 base address lookup feature is still up. Click here to view.

If you don't remember what the pre-choice plan maps looked like in 2011-12, click here to refresh your memory. The link puts you on Wake's school directory page. Pick a school and then click on its assignment tab. Under the assignment tab you'll find a link to a PDF map for the 2011-12 base assignment area.

If you live near Rolesville High, Rolesville Middle, Richland Creek Elementary's permanent campus off US 1 in Wake Forest near the Franklin County line or Abbott Creek Elementary's permanent campus near the North Wake Landfill you can expect you might be added to their base areas.

Also, if you live in Panther Creek High's base look for change as you're reassigned to Green Hope High since they're not using a standalone ninth-grade center for PCHS.

The board agreed with the stay where you start rules proposed in the draft plan so you'd be able to grandfather if you're an existing student.

The Wake County school board will tackle the 2013-14 student assignment plan tonight looking at changes requested by the Democratic majority.

At Saturday's work session, which was only attended by Democratic board members, staff was asked to look at making changes to the draft plan, from elementary through high school. This could result in achievement-based changes and revisions to the middle school and high school feeder patterns.

At the same time, majority members said they don't want to move a lot of students next year and want to make changes over several years.

The draft summary of Wake County's new student assignment plan seems to promise a lot of things to different people.

As noted in today's article, the plan promotes proximity by noting that "base assignments will be made at one of their proximate schools to the extent possible." It also says that "residential areas and subdivisions proximate to schools and representative of the students already attending the schools" were used.

For those concerned about diversity, administrators say "in the establishment of the base school attendance area, student performance data was used when an overcrowded or under enrolled school was adjusted."