Will they leave western Wake to go to East Garner Middle School?
That's one of the questions that the school system will find out during next year's magnet application period. School administrators say the magnet draw area for East Garner will be enlarged to include Cary and Apex.
Now that it's official that Daniels Middle School is losing its magnet program, East Garner could get an even larger share than planned.
Daniels has been offering the International Baccalaureate program, just like East Garner and East Millbrook middle schools.
But East Garner hasn't been able to get as many applicants as hoped. This year, the school got 47 applicants. Daniels had 123 applicants.
The lack of applicants has helped keep East Garner from reducing its high F&R rate. This year, it's at 56 percent. It's 31 percent at Daniels.
At Monday's board meeting, the western Wake magnet parents from Daniels said the distance to East Garner or East Millbrook was too far.
Parents also said that East Garner was too crowded to take more magnet applicants as it's at 122 percent of capacity. But the school district could deal with that by moving base kids out.
If Daniels had kept its IB program, staff said they'd have recommended moving 200 to 250 base students out to raise its magnet percentage to 40 percent of the enrollment. But they said that increase would have negatively impacted the health of East Garner and East Millbrook.
Comments
Let’s see East Garner
Wed, 11/05/2008 - 16:57 — vsheehanLet’s see East Garner middle had 26 acts of crime or violence last year double the Wake average. Oh and East Garner had almost double the number of short term suspensions then the average Wake school. Gee why wouldn’t people send their kids to this school?
Who knows maybe my Daughter will have a better chance of getting into East Cary then her brother not likely unless we move to Preston. I bet the BOE punishes Cary for not going to East Garner by making our base traditional MS even more overcrowded.
Not this family
Wed, 11/05/2008 - 11:50 — gunfamI am not putting my children on an hour long bus ride to go to school - no matter what that school is offering. Why can't we take all the transportation money and give it to the schools to help them have real AG programs? Let's spend our money on education, not some social experiment.
Its all so tiring....
Western Wake County
Wed, 11/05/2008 - 11:38 — Forget_not_the_...Yup....let's give Western Wake County the majority of MYR schools, a lack of magnets and then expect the parents to bus their children hours away to get competitive middle school and high school programs.
Inequity for all far from the beltline!!!
Yes
Wed, 11/05/2008 - 11:37 — JSB (not verified)It will be very interesting to see what the outcome of the cirriculum audit / student achievement committee meetings is in terms of actual TASKS to be ACCOMPLISHED. Not just a bunch of talk and theory - but what do they actually define as goals, and how will they measure success?
I 110% agree that *most* magnet programs are probably not serving their original intended need. Some are very much needed - don't get me wrong - but many, many could be analyzed and scaled back freeing up money and resources for many other schools and students that deserve the choices and options too.
I do not subscribe to the all or none theories in place today. There is a middle. One of the biggest problems in Wake County is that "magnet" status opens the doors to ALL the choices in the world, while "base" status limits the entire student community to basic courses of study. It would be great if most of our schools were just "school" status, and blended a healthy dose of basics with some meaningful choices! Let's get rid of the labels.
Education is not just about teaching the "underprivledged" populations. Public Education in particular is for EVERYONE. Every child needs choices and challenges, to feel that sense of belonging and accomplisment. It's about pride - it's being engaged and inspired at every level. Somehow the current policies and their advocates have to realize that there are ways for all children to succeed in healthy schools that offer great cirriculum choices and teachers for every child...
Homey don't think so........
Wed, 11/05/2008 - 11:13 — WuptdoI don't think parents in Western Wake will tolerate long bus rides for their middle schooler. What about elitist ITB kids? What about the kids in East Wake or North Raleigh? Why can't they move out to Garner MS?
That said, in this day and age, and base populations growing, I don't see a reason to keep any magnet programs at all in Wake County. And what about the actually cost? Transportation, bureaucracy, and actual value. This also creates another system of "have's" and "have nots," and is the truly fair?
My 2 cents: Phase-out all magnet programs over the next 2-3 years. Take the savings from getting rid of all these programs, and use the money to increase "gift & talented" programs though all the schools. This would be "fair & equal" way to distribute the money.