Did the Wake County school board make a mistake in 2010 by voting to open Mills Park Middle on a traditional calendar instead of as planned on the year-round calendar?
As noted in today's article, the answer was yes Tuesday from several Carpenter Elementary parents who blamed the decision to open Mills Park on a traditional calendar as a big reason why they're feeding into East Cary Middle in the new student assignment plan.
Without Middle Park as a year-round school, the plan gives the Carpenter families calendar continuity by sending them to East Cary. But parents said it's their seventh closest middle school located on the other side of Cary.
In the calendar survey, 63 percent of the future Mills Park Middle parents that responded said they'd prefer the traditional calendar.
Lori Potter, Carpenter's PTA president, accused the board of having made a "political move" in 2010 to "appease" Mills Park parents who complained about the year-round calendar.
"Whether you change Carpenter’s feeder pattern or not, you need to recognize a problem in West Cary – lack of sufficient middle school seats," added Carpenter parent Maria Reier. "The summer of 2010 some of you voted to change Mills Park Middle to a traditional calendar when it was planned to open as a year round. Right before it opened a group of its parents spoke out and did not want a year round calendar.
So you changed it - to give them their calendar preference - which also took away that school’s ability to hold 312 more students. That decision left West Cary with no year-round middle school and had a huge impact on our kids. They are now stuck being bused across town because there are not enough seats at our neighborhood middle schools."
Comments
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Wed, 12/21/2011 - 16:47 — SideburnsLast Fall, these same parents wanted to attend Davis Drive Middle, a tradt'l calendar school. Now, suddenly, the calendar of Mills Park is an issue? Uh, it's the same as DDMS.
I suspect
Wed, 12/21/2011 - 17:16 — Bob_SconceTheir preferences are: (1) DD, (2) MP, (5) EC. If MP had been year-round, they could probably have gone there instead.
Can't say I blame them. After all, people disliked the old plan in part because it required people to drive past nearby schools to get to the school to which they're assigned.
I think the problem is to do
Thu, 12/22/2011 - 13:45 — finalfrontierI think the problem is to do with the reputations of ECMS and WCMS vs. MPMS and DDMS.
please explain
Wed, 12/21/2011 - 12:43 — EBDarcyHow were future Mills Park parents surveyed? As I recall you could only comment on the schools your children were attending at that time. Parents of rising k, 6th and 9th graders were not ask to comment on the calender of the school their children were slated to attend next.
Didn't it just open? If
Wed, 12/21/2011 - 12:47 — jenmanDidn't it just open? If so, they could have asked parents of kids who were about to be assigned there. Otherwise, I've got nothin'.
OT: Blue Diamond?
Wed, 12/21/2011 - 11:13 — Bob_SconceWhat happened with Blue Diamond last night? Was there any discussion, or was it just approved 5-4? For some reason, WRAL didn't live-blog it like they usually do.
WRAL
Wed, 12/21/2011 - 16:38 — loriacI sent a comment to the WRAL.com folks asking that they continue to provide the live stream of the BOE meetings. I'll post here if they respond. Hopefully others are sending in comments as well. It was strange to all of a sudden stop doing this with no comment. (or not)
At staff's request, it was
Wed, 12/21/2011 - 11:33 — KeungHui (author)At staff's request, it was tabled so they coudl get additional backup info. Since I'm taking next week off I'm holding back some stuff to use over the next week or so.
If the new board changes
Wed, 12/21/2011 - 10:10 — jenmanIf the new board changes MPMS back to year round or gives Carpenter families a closer middle school that can't handle the capacity then they will be accused of making political moves to appease Carpenter parents. That's how it always goes in these situations.
MPMS
Wed, 12/21/2011 - 10:31 — EBDarcyWhy wasn't MPMS open on a year-round calender as planned? I don't remember the details. Was this another short-sighted political move to appease supporters?
When Mills Park opened, it
Wed, 12/21/2011 - 17:55 — jeffrey1When Mills Park opened, it drew much of its enrollment from Salem Middle. Since Salem was already year round, the board wanted to give parents in that area a choice between traditional and YR.
In that general area, there are two year round middle schools (Salem and Lufkin) and two traditional middle schools (Apex and Mills Park).
Unfortunately, most of the
Wed, 12/21/2011 - 10:16 — finalfrontierUnfortunately, most of the people in green shirts yesterday came across as whiners. They could have made their case without threats of not being involved in school, expressing facetious concern for the environment, and accusations of political appeasement. This seems like a common playbook.
Two years in
Wed, 12/21/2011 - 08:58 — valsparTwo years in, and the R board members are finding out its not as easy as it seemed from the peanut gallery. Their mistakes and misteps in their first two years are starting to surface. Just wait until you see the difference in cost of West Apex High and Rolesville High. Keung - I hope you tally up RonJon/Malone/Eagles boondoggle soon.
From Carpenter, MPMS is 5 mi
Wed, 12/21/2011 - 10:03 — finalfrontierFrom Carpenter, MPMS is 5 mi away and ECMS is 8 mi away. While I see a case for converting MPMS to YR, given the growth west of Hwy 55, I still don't see what the big deal is about an extra 3 mi in a public school system.
Use Google maps...
Wed, 12/21/2011 - 16:28 — sachivalayCarpenter vilage to MPMS is 4 miles
Carpenter village to ECMS is 7.7 miles
It Can Make A Difference In Regards
Wed, 12/21/2011 - 10:56 — JanisTangoto feeder patterns. There is a MS that is 8 miles from us. I would be perfectly happy going there, but then we would have to go 15 miles to high school versus the high school that is 4 miles from our house. I don't know if this sceanrio applys in this case, but it can make a big difference in regards to where you go to high school!
In this case it doesn't.
Wed, 12/21/2011 - 19:58 — kbrooks500In this case it doesn't. Their feeder pattern is Carpenter - E. Cary - Panther Creek.
This is another reason why feeder patterns don't make sense in a choice plan. This feeder pattern violates the rule of proximity, in order to provide calendar continuity. Parents should be able to make the choice whether they prefer proximity or calendar when moving to the next grade span. It would be nice if eveyone could have both their desired calendar and proximity, but we are no where near achieving that.
As Kevin Hill said last night
Wed, 12/21/2011 - 09:17 — FSandYOUcan't make everybody happy.
Nor do they plan to try.