WakeEd

The WakeEd blog is devoted to discussing and answering questions about the major issues facing the Wake County school system. How much will the new Democratic majority on the school board do to undo the changes made by Republicans since 2009? Will the new student assignment plan be a hybrid of the last two models or primarily be a return to the use of busing for diversity? Who will replace Tony Tata as the new superintendent of the state's largest district? How will voters react to a likely request in 2013 to borrow potentially more than $1 billion to build and renovate schools?

WakeEd is maintained by The News & Observer's Wake schools reporter, T. Keung Hui. While Keung posts information and analysis on the issues, keep us posted on your suggestions, questions, tips and what you're doing to cope with the changes in Wake's schools.

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Falling 2,700 students short

Submitted by KeungHui on 10/01/2008 - 09:58
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The 20th day numbers are in and they're even further off than they were last year.

Wake says it had 137,706 students on the 20th day. That's 2,737 students below the projection that was used for this year's county budget, likely meaning commissioners will keep the $3 million that was withheld in case enrollment fell short.

It's the second year in a row that Wake has come in more than 2,000 students below projection. Enrollment was 2,084 students below projection last year.

This year's gain of 3,704 students is the smallest growth since 2002, when Wake picked up 3,030 kids.

In the district's press release, Wake says "the serious downturn in the national economy had an impact on WCPSS enrollment. Other large school systems in the state saw similar trends of slower growth."

Over in Charlotte-Mecklenburg, the school district came in 1,794 students below projection.

Wake school officials say that "the Wake County Planning Department and the WCPSS Growth and Planning Department who jointly develop the projections will review the data to see what they can learn from it and revise projections for the future. "

That's the exact same wording that was used in the 2007 press release after enrollment fell short.

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Maybe making parents angry,

Wed, 10/01/2008 - 21:57 — Anonymous (not verified)

Maybe making parents angry, the MYR mess, all of it is part of the master plan to just get parents to pull their kids out of the "under funded" "over burdened" system?

Oh wait, that's right, they need all those kids to up their EOG scores. Forgot. Oh well... too bad. Keep on pulling your kids out folks.

NO BOND!

I would say the econmy is

Wed, 10/01/2008 - 20:42 — Anonymous (not verified)

I would say the econmy is one small cuse for smaller growth.My husband lost his job here in 2006 and has worked out of Wake County ever since.Sometimes he has worked out of state,Durham,Chapel Hill and now Sanford.The only reason we stay here is our daughter will graduate this year coming year!Jobs have been hard to find around in the IT field long before the US got worse.

Revised vs original

Wed, 10/01/2008 - 14:30 — Sideburns

It would appear that WCPSS missed their revised projection -- 140,443 -- by 2700 students and their original projection for 08-09 was 142,799.
http://www.wcpss.net/demographics/reports/book07.pdf#page=127
BTW, the revised projections were released Nov 07.
http://www.wcpss.net/news/2007_enrollment_projections/

Rumor has it that Baucom has

Wed, 10/01/2008 - 13:55 — Anonymous (not verified)

Rumor has it that Baucom has 24 empty classrooms when track four is out , its MYR why?

I really want to know how

Wed, 10/01/2008 - 13:10 — NCBoyMommy

I really want to know how much of this is due to people finding alternatives to WCPSS. Any idea on the private school numbers for this year?

 

The 2700 is that pased on the original projection or revised?

alternatives?

Wed, 10/01/2008 - 20:26 — HJ2ss2

Not only private schools ....home school too.  I was aware of a number of parents who decided that the best alternative was to home school their children a couple years ago.  I suspect the numbers have grown since then.

As taxpayers, we pay the salary of those in the Wake County School System, yet it appears they are working for their own personal interest.  Nice job if you can get it.

Why do we put up with this?

 

 

 

 

Why you ask?

Wed, 10/01/2008 - 21:08 — g88ky07

Because IDIOTS with voter cards keep voting other IDIOTS into the big 17K salaray gig!

Take away their _amn voter cards!

Democrats the problem again

Thu, 10/02/2008 - 11:08 — Voice_of_Reason_

Thanks to the Democrats, who needs a voter card anyway?  All you need is the name, the party, and address of a registered  voter (available online for all to see) and show up -- that's it. NC is lower than 3rd world standards. BTW -In some states the Democrats even make no bones about getting the idiots to vote:

http://www2.facethestate.com/articles/demo cracy-alliance-memo-details-dem-plan-educate-idiots-and-target-minorities

Just ask yourself, if you take away Elitists, minorities, and Idiots .... what would be left of that party?

 

because we only get ONE vote

Wed, 10/01/2008 - 20:34 — bigwinnie

because we only get ONE vote in our district every four years....no adequate representation.  vote for at-large elections....we have to start the change somewhere!

change

Thu, 10/02/2008 - 05:08 — HJ2ss2

Change doesn't always have to start at the top.

  What has your experience been at the school level?  Have school administrators and / or faculty  been sympathetic to concerns about your children? 

 

Change.....

Thu, 10/02/2008 - 10:56 — Wuptdo

Short answer, NO.

Several years back, a VP at Enloe HS told me if I wasn't happy about the lack of security/gang problems I could always go back to the base school.  

Farther back, it took almost a act of God to pull my son out of advanced math class at Greeh Hope HS that he was not qualified for, nor met the pre-requesiste for, i.e., put him in there because there was "space."  

 

 

Customer Service

Fri, 10/03/2008 - 09:27 — HJ2ss2

A few years ago "customer service"was the buzz phrase within the system.  Obviously, that has been thrown by the wayside.

Sorry about your experience.  I found that certain high schools don't tell parents about a person who can really help them navigate the system. If that person is sought out by students and parents, the system has the nasty habit of harrassing them, as well as , making serious accusations (without a witness) in an attempt to ruin their reputation and career. Their final card is to blacklist the employee.

change

Fri, 10/03/2008 - 06:00 — Anonymous (not verified)

I hate to see students and parents treated in that manner.  It just reinforces what I have learned about the system.

Non-public schools growing faster

Wed, 10/01/2008 - 12:24 — Kent Misegades (not verified)

Part of the explanation for slower growth in public schools can be seen in the continued growth of non-traditional schools, i.e. private, parochial and home schools. Charters can't grow much as they remain capped at 100 by our brilliant General Assembly. Keung, a story on strong growth in non-public schools would be the perfect addendum to this article and should be easy to obtain. Just call around to the various schools, or hire a home-schooler to do this for you.

YAWN ................

Wed, 10/01/2008 - 11:55 — g88ky07

I need coffee to get me through this one.
It's the lie that NEVER ends!

How about that Horace! A lie, something you know well!
Guess we really didn't need the liars 22 conversions after all huh! How's your NoDoze holding out Horace???

He is a builder, what do you expect.......

Wed, 10/01/2008 - 13:06 — Wuptdo

Never forget, Horace is a builder/developer.  Ask the people who live in his homes/communities; " Did Horace Tart ever lie to you?"

Even the folks I know in Fuquay-Varina that think Horace has sold them out to Raleigh elitist.  He is toast if he decides to run again.  However, the problem with his district, is they tend to vote for left-wing moonbats who hide their "moonbatiness" with a wad of "chew" in their mouth.   Think Hillary Clinton doing her "Southern" accent thing when campaigning in the South.  

 

oh he's a liar all

Wed, 10/01/2008 - 16:49 — bigwinnie

oh he's a liar all right;

http://blogs.newsobserver.com/wakeed/index.php?p=16726&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1#more16726Horace Tart, chairman of the school board’s facilities committee, argued at the joint meeting that it’s a misconception that the goal was to gain 3,000 seats from the conversions this school year. He’s responding to those who’ve criticized the conversions because those schools haven’t seen the enrollment gains that had been originally projected.[More:]Tart said that the 3,000 seats were to be gained by the 2008-09 school year. He has previously said at a facilities committee meeting that they didn’t need the capacity gains at once but decided that phasing in the conversions over two years would have been more disruptive.

http://www.wcpss.net/growth/downloads/final_cip_2007_09.pdf

Why convert traditional single-track elementary schools to multi-track year-roundcalendars?Conversion of some elementary schools to multi-track calendars will be done to generate animmediate capacity gain of approximately 3,000 seats for the 2007-08 school year. The 18 newelementary schools opening in the next five years will all open as multi-track year-round schools.Over the next 25 years, the utilization of the multi-track elementary calendar will reduce thenumber of new elementary schools needed from 101 to 72, saving over one billion dollars inschool construction costs. Delivery of instruction in elementary schools will not be negativelyimpacted by conversion to a multi-track calendar.

 

 

Burned Toast!

Wed, 10/01/2008 - 14:49 — g88ky07

He certainly is toast, BURNED TOAST, should the old man decide to run again.  He can go back to lying to the poor souls buying into his lies and trailers full time!

The folks with a chaw going can step aside because the day of ignorant rednecks with voting cards IS OVER!

The Economy?

Wed, 10/01/2008 - 10:35 — For Crying Out Loud (not verified)

These projections were made long before the "serious downturn in the national economy". Goodness, what do they take us for? (Don't answer! It's a rhetorical question!)

Only projections revised?

Wed, 10/01/2008 - 10:33 — Sideburns

How about revising your growth plan when you revise your projections? WCPSS is almost 5,000 students short over the past 2 years and yet we plug along with MYR -- a totally unnecessary waste of taxpayer money.

myr a big failure

Wed, 10/01/2008 - 13:37 — Anonymous (not verified)

i was in leesville elementary pta meeting when 98% of the room (which was packed wall to wall) raised there hand to oppose myr. patty head who was sitting there and really didn't care what the parents thought, responded with "well it's too late, it's done till atleast 2010".

now the school continues to be under enrolled because everybody left including many many great teachers. you walk through the school now and the spirit is broken. it is sad to see sooooo many families unhappy.

 

"That's the exact same

Wed, 10/01/2008 - 10:28 — shank56

"That's the exact same wording that was used in the 2007 press release after enrollment fell short. "

Keung,

What is your implication in the above statement ?

Wording

Wed, 10/01/2008 - 10:44 — KeungHui (author)

Compare the 2007 and 2008 press releases. The exact same sentence was used in each one about how school and county planners will look into it and see what can be done to revise the projections.

i.e.

Wed, 10/01/2008 - 10:52 — shearertw

i.e., What did they do in 2007 to revise the projections?

  My guess is they (1) didn't really look into it and (2) didn't "do" anything about the way the project for 2008 and, if history repeats itself, (3) they won't look into it again and won't do anything different moving forward.

So why do  you think the

Wed, 10/01/2008 - 13:28 — shank56

So why do  you think the Wake County Planners agreed with the planning numbers?   Are any of the County Commissioners calling their  County Planners to the carpet?   It was their numbers too....

Not sure what Keung's

Wed, 10/01/2008 - 10:34 — shearertw

Not sure what Keung's implication is but here's mine....

Its not what they are saying (again), its what they're not saying (again).  What they should say is,

"Between last year and this years underenrollment, it appears that all 22 conversions to MYR were unnecessary."

it's also called "pass the

Wed, 10/01/2008 - 16:45 — bigwinnie

it's also called "pass the buck" and "no accountability"  I had the "pleasure" of watching Patti Head speak at a BAC meeting, and there was more spin and then fluffing over MYR so fast my hair ruffled in the breeze.

 

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About the blogger

T. Keung Hui covers Wake schools.
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