It looks like Apex town leaders will come out in support of the new Wake County school board majority and its efforts to promote community-based schools.
Apex Mayor Keith Weatherly will ask the Town Council to pass a resolution tonight supporting the school board. Considering how the Town Council regularly voted in the past on resolutions backing neighborhood schools and opposing reassignment for socioeconomic diversity, you'd think the new resolution will pass.
The Apex resolution would come after resolutions passed last month by the Raleigh City Council and the Wake County commissioners expressing concerns that the school board majority's plans will lead to resegregation.
One interesting question is whether Wake's other municipalities will take a stand on the issue.
UPDATE
Click here to view the resolution.
Comments
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Tue, 05/04/2010 - 11:39 — SideburnsApex citizens bore the brunt of MYR conversions and we could only sit by and watch our community and schools torn apart.
Kudos to Mayor Weatherly who continues to fight for children, families and our community.
interesting resolution
Tue, 05/04/2010 - 12:06 — Athey01"... institute sound policies designed to correct significant deficiencies in the educational opportunities afforded students, particularly minority and economically disadvantaged students..."
The best part of the resolution, " Apex Town Council endorses Wake County Board of Education's efforts to provide greater opportunities for Wake County students to succeed, especially minority and economically disadvantaged students..."
Do you think the BOE agree with this resolution? Or would they delete the "especially minority and economically disadvantaged student" section?
I think they've already
Tue, 05/04/2010 - 12:13 — danofncI think they've already voted down several chances to include language very similar to this in their policies.
too true
Tue, 05/04/2010 - 12:16 — Dove314Seems like they use the very language the BoE rejects as "labelling children".
Was Weatherly the mayor when
Tue, 05/04/2010 - 12:03 — danofncWas Weatherly the mayor when Apex grew so fast that the school district was struggling to keep up?
From about 5000 people in 1990 to about 20,000 residents in 2000 to 35,000 in 2009.
Doesn't it make sense for high-growth areas to "bear the brunt" of situations brought on by unchecked growth?
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Tue, 05/04/2010 - 12:20 — SideburnsAnd Raleigh grew by 175,000 residents during that time period.
Do I really need to point
Tue, 05/04/2010 - 12:31 — danofncDo I really need to point out that Raleigh has a much larger area to sprinkle those people around?
Do I really need to point
Wed, 05/05/2010 - 00:27 — jeffrey1Do I really need to point out that Raleigh has a much larger area to sprinkle those people around?
Not sure what density has to do with the conversation. Apex grows by 30,000 and Raleigh grows by 137,000 and somehow you want to blame Apex for bearing the brunt of MYR.
And then WCPSS ignores economic climate and significantly overestimates growth, and those MYR schools are underutilized, and that's Apex' fault.
And then WCPSS buses kids from Raleigh to fill those empty MYR seats, and that's Apex' fault.
Interesting logic.
Interesting logic
Wed, 05/05/2010 - 08:31 — danofncThe density is a part of the issue because Raleigh didn't try to cram 137,000 people into 30 square miles and then wonder why their school assignments were unstable.
When you approve as much development as Apex approved, I don't think you really get to complain that the schools aren't built overnight.
With Raleigh's growth being spread around, I would think it was much easier to handle that growth. Plus, it's not like Raleigh schools weren't affected by MYR.
Nobody is "blaming" Apex, but at the same time if Apex residents only blame WCPSS without also acknowledging that their local leaders helped to create the problems then they are not being realistic.
Call it "blame," call it
Wed, 05/05/2010 - 08:49 — CaryCurmudgeonCall it "blame," call it accountability -- the commissioners and town councils rightly should share in it. A prime example is the Brier Creek area. Raleigh allowed BC to become a massive center of growth, yet there are no middle- or high schools in the area. The "if we build it, schools will come" mentality doesn't work. Where was the partnership between City of Raleigh and WCPSS to make this work?
Excellent commentary in this post! Read on....
Tue, 05/04/2010 - 13:56 — Bob_SconceThis is a dumb argument. Neither the Raleigh nor Apex leaders have any significant control over the growth in their respective jurisdicitons. Nearly all of that growth came through annexation -- if the property hadn't been annexed, then those homes would just be sitting on the same plots of land in the county. There's no reason to prefer that Raleigh annex the land instead of Apex -- the growth is exactly the same. And, it's silly to blame the Apex government for the growth -- the same land would have been annexed by Raleigh or by Cary.
Not Quite
Tue, 05/04/2010 - 15:09 — magnetParentThe town in question (whether its Apex, Cary, or some other) has total control on the excessive growth in their town. If the property was not annexed (ie. Wake County jurisdiction), the homes would have been built on 1-2 acre lots (or bigger). The first thing the towns do when annexing this land is rezone it to allow 1/4 acre (or smaller) lot sizes. This allows 3-4 times more homes to be built in an area, thus excessive growth.
(but yours was "excellent commentary"... now go back to "So..." and save some bandwidth ;-)
Every subdivision that gets
Tue, 05/04/2010 - 14:01 — danofncEvery subdivision that gets built is approved by some elected body somewhere.
Whether it's the county commissioners, city council, or whoever else, SOMEBODY approved it.
For example, a group right now is trying to build a HUGE development in Apex. Do you know whether or not Apex is consulting with WCPSS in planning for this growth?
The people who approved all of the growth need to stand up and accept their share of the blame for the current state of the school system. The school system has to react to growth since they aren't part of the planning process.
I was involved - maybe 6
Tue, 05/04/2010 - 15:24 — JSBinNCI was involved - maybe 6 years ago now - when Highland Oaks in Cary (I think it's called that...) was going through it's development phases. (It backed up to where we used to live) I saw the documents and stuff that they had to give to the town of Cary - and it did include school information... I want to say it was ES, MS and HS kids, and there were also numbers for private school. It was all estimates. I also seem to recall wondering - I think it was 90 homes in there, and the ES impact (to Weatherstone) was estimated at 20 kids. I thought at the time it seemed really low - I have no idea though. I might still have those files archived...
Totally, 10000000% agree though - on the people who approved the growth needing to accept some of the responsibliity for the mess things are in today. Maybe they could re-deploy some of those highly paid supervisory roles in WCPSS as liason officers with all of the different permitting bodies across Wake County. (Not neccesarily the same people... ;)
Keep Reading! This post will be excellent.
Tue, 05/04/2010 - 14:33 — Bob_SconceI'm with you on the school system needing to be more involved in the planning process -- it's always in the position of playing catch-up. My impression, though, is that they've made great strides in finding out what's coming. IIRC, Keung had an article here a few years ago that talked about how the WCPSS planning folks used to go out driving, looking for new subdivisions. The same article mentioned how the district was starting to work with the municipalities to get better information.
Personally, I'd like to see counties able to impose impact fees on new development, but that would take an act of the General Assembly who, unfortunately, has been bought and paid for by the construction industry.
That said, if the district wanted to play hard-ball, I think it could get some
concessions from developers. For example, it could just threaten to take (by eminent domain) the prime land in the middle of a development for a school bus stop. Or, it could threaten to assign a new development to schools literally on the other side of the district.
I love your new heading!
Tue, 05/04/2010 - 18:04 — duvalBob,
We don't always agreee, but I do love your new headings!!
Bob, I'm with you on the
Tue, 05/04/2010 - 14:52 — CaryCurmudgeonBob,
I'm with you on the APFO / impact fee. Unfortunately, it seems like most politicians have been funded by developers, including both political parties, so I don't hold high hopes of it happening.
And ultimately, I do think the Wake County Commissioners and Mayors have some accountability in this. It would have been nice to see a schools APFO on the joint mayors legislative agenda. Handing out building permits by the hundreds while trying to absolve oneself of any responsibility for school capacity issues doesn't work so well, just ask Ernie McAlister.
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Tue, 05/04/2010 - 12:46 — SideburnsAre you saying previous Boards didn't build enough schools for some areas? I agree.
Ok..you're obviously not
Tue, 05/04/2010 - 13:17 — danofncOk..you're obviously not willing to have an honest conversation.
It's the board's job to provide enough seats for students, not provide what parents deem "enough schools". MYR provided enough seats, and now that more schools have been built I believe your area has much better calendar choice (and I think that was true even before the elections).
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Tue, 05/04/2010 - 13:37 — SideburnsHonest? What don't you believe?
The MYR conversions created seats and then the previous Board bussed in kids from other areas to fill them. So much for that growth in Apex argument, huh?
Responsibility. Interesting
Tue, 05/04/2010 - 12:19 — red_balloonResponsibility. Interesting concept.
Moving into a high-growth
Tue, 05/04/2010 - 12:36 — danofncMoving into a high-growth area to capitalize on all the benefits that come from being in a high-growth area (property values, new schools, etc) while at the same time demanding that the growth not inconvenience you seems odd to me.
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Tue, 05/04/2010 - 12:22 — Dove314An underutilized concept.
And forgotten by some.
Tue, 05/04/2010 - 12:23 — red_balloonAnd forgotten by some.
Didn't you mean ...
Tue, 05/04/2010 - 11:44 — user12345Who is on the ALL team?
Tue, 05/04/2010 - 11:55 — red_balloonWho is on the ALL team?
Is Mayor Weathly also on the
Tue, 05/04/2010 - 21:36 — user12345Is Mayor Weathly also on the board of Thale like Ron and all the other school detractors?
How did you know?
Tue, 05/04/2010 - 22:18 — Dove314Thales doesn't have that info on their website BUT did find this elsewhere:
Trustees are Kent Misegades (left), Apex businessman (Chairman); Keith Weatherly, Mayor of Apex; Ron Margiotta, member of the Wake County School Board; Chloe Gossage, Apex parent and Senior Policy Analyst with the Civitas Institute; Kathleen Brennan, Cary parent and founder of Wake Cares; Cory Johnson, Apex parent and local businesswoman; Robert Luddy, President of CaptiveAire of Raleigh and founder of the Franklin, St.Thomas More and Thales Academies; and Marilyn Avila, Project Manager for Thales Academy Apex and member of the North Carolina House, representing District 40 of North Raleigh.
Thanks ... it was a guess
Wed, 05/05/2010 - 06:59 — user12345Thanks ... it was a guess ... but they all seem like they are from the same mold ... I really do not see how the leadership of one private school can spend so much time engaged and undermining the public schools system.