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."

New data shows that Wake County's year-round schools have imbalanced tracks in terms of enrollment, but school administrators say they're working to ease the problem over time.

Handouts from today's Wake County school board facilities committee meeting show that track four is above capacity while tracks two and three are way below their capacity. For instance, track two is operating at 68 percent of capacity districtwide in elementary schools and 44.5 percent in the middle schools.

The capacity figures are based on ideal long-range capacity, which is designed to reduce the number of modulars and mobiles on each campus. The capacity percentages would likely be lower if you base it off annual campus capacity, which takes into account all the temporary classrooms in use.

UPDATE

Click here to view Wake's plan for balancing the tracks and the 2012-13 year-round school utlilization by track.

Updated to make it clearer that decisions about collapsing tracks are no longer solely the call of the principal. It's now supposed to be done in coordination with the new plan to balance out tracks over time.

The discussion of underenrollment at year-round schools and new school needs for the next bond issue are on the agenda at today's Wake County school board facilities committee meeting.

The board is scheduled to discuss utilization of year-round schools. Board member Susan Evans, whose Apex district has a number of year-round schools, asked the committee last month to discuss which underenrolled year-round schools might be considered for conversion to a traditional calendar.

Wake had converted 23 schools to a year-round calendar and opened a number of year-round elementary schools and middle schools as part of the 2006 bond issue and construction program. With growth slowing down due to the recession, several multi-track year-round schools have been moved to a traditional calendar or converted to a single-track year-round calendar.

Is the Wake County school system letting Knightdale's schools down?

As noted in today's article, speakers at Tuesday's school board meeting complained that the school system has not done enough over the years to help improve the academic situation in Knightdale. The words got both harsh and impassioned.

At the same time, school administrators and board members say they're trying to find ways to help schools in the town.

The Wake County school board will vote Tuesday on the calendars that will be used for the 2013-14 school year.

Staff presented this week this set of draft 2013-14 calendars for traditional, year-round and modified schools. The only change the board requested is that June 11 instead of Nov. 27 be used as a weather makeup day on the traditional calendar.

The change was requested because the evening of Nov. 27, 2013 is the start of Hanukkah. Another reason that Nov. 27 is scheduled as a a vacation day is that it's the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.

Patience is a virtue that newcomers to Wake County need as they register their children for school this fall.

As noted in today's article, the implementation of the new choice-based student assignment plan changed the way registration takes place in the Wake County school system. In the past, newcomers could come any time of the year to register at their child's base school.

But since June, newcomers have had to go to Central Office in Cary. Parents are told to expect to spend at least two hours as they go through the process of waiting to register their children and then making the school selection.

UPDATE

Nichols went to Salem on Wednesday. The school notified her today that her son would get track 2, putting him a month behind his new classmates.

Questions about student assignment and choice came up repeatedly during Tuesday's Wake County school board facilities committee discussion on the next school construction bond issue.

As noted in today's article, board members Jim Martin and Susan Evans were concerned by what they perceived as staff placing too much of a priority on parental choice in the proposed list of projects. Especially, they said, because providing choice requires a bigger bond and spending more money.

“We need to have an adult conversation about whether the community is willing to pay to provide choice,” Martin said.

The initial list of Wake County school construction needs is out for consideration in the next school capital improvement program and bond issue.

As noted in today's article, staff will lay out at today's school board facilities committee meeting that 24 new schools are needed over the next four years. That includes 14 new elementary schools, three middle schools, five regular high schools, the CTE high school and an alternative school.

They've also listed 12 whole campus renovations that will essentially mean rebuilding those schools, 16 partial campus school renovations, various life-cycle projects and assorted support and athletic facilities.

The debate about year-round schools vs. traditional-calendar schools is back in the media spotlight.

An article today by the Associated Press, includes the Wake County school system in a look at the debate whether year-round schools help with academics. The article also looks at how the year-round calendar is waning in popularity in some districts.

"Year-round schools, which once seemed like a panacea for everything from low test scores to overcrowding, have proven to be a mixed bag," according to the article. "And some places that once embraced them — including Las Vegas, Salt Lake City and parts of California — have returned to traditional calendars."

The reality of longer bus rides under Wake County's new school transportation plan is setting in now.

As noted in today's article, year-round students are seeing the effects of Wake putting fewer 25 buses on the road for the 2012-13 school year to cut costs. Some year-round students who live within two miles of school are seeing bus rides more than double their prior 20-minute ride times.

"If we're trying to fill up buses, we need to add more stops and add more time to the routes," said Robert Snidemiller, Wake's senior director of transportation. "That's the plan in a nut shell."