The Mordecai families who attend Conn Elementary as their base school got what they wanted at tonight's Wake County student assignment meeting at Broughton High School.
Superintendent Tony Tata told the parents that he had made the decision today to recommend that Conn's base students not be placed in the new feeder pathway that will send the school's magnet students to Southeast Raleigh High. Instead, the base students will keep the historic feeder pattern that will let them stay at Broughton.
Tata is doing the same thing for the Conn base students as what he decided to do Monday for their peers at several other magnet schools.
Since Monday, the feeder pattern for Broughton has been adjusted for it to now include base students from Conn, Joyner, Underwood and Wiley elementary schools. How this impacts Broughton remains to be seen.
Comments
Multiple magnet paths in one family?
Wed, 09/14/2011 - 11:10 — croaswifeI have a middle school child that went to IB elementary and is now at AG middle school. Younger siblings are at IB elementary. Will they be guaranteed seats at AG middle since the older sibling will be there when they enter 6th grade? Or are they only guaranteed a seat at the IB feeder middle school?
middle school question
Wed, 09/14/2011 - 08:30 — turnerk1I have a question about middle schools that I don't see an answer to in the FAQs and wondered if anyone on the list knew the answer. Several middle schools feed into more than one high school (East Cary, Martin, Lufkin Road, Salem and maybe others). I assume that the high school a child attends would be determined by which elementary school they'd attended. But, what would they do about kids who didn't attended one of the feeder elementary schools because they'd moved into the county in middle school, switched feeder patterns, or been grandfathered into the school, etc. How would the system determine which high school the child in that situation would attend?
To give a concrete example in case my question wasn't clearly worded, Olive Grove and Oak Chapel both feed into Lufkin, but children from Olive Grove go to Apex High and Oak Chapel children feed into Athens Drive. What happens to the kids who didn't go to Olive Grove or Oak Chapel but end up at Lufkin in middle school?
...
Wed, 09/14/2011 - 09:56 — SideburnsOnce a student chooses a particular school, s/he may remain in that "feeder pattern" until graduation unless they choose to move to another school. Multiple feeder patterns will be available to each family.
http://assignment.wcpss.net/next/faq-2.html
In any of the cases you've stated (new to Wake, grandfathered, attending by choice), it seems the feeder pattern remains the same. Lufkin to Athens. Unless another choice is made, the feeder pattern is based on the currently attended school.
But the feeder pattern for
Wed, 09/14/2011 - 15:02 — mnordbergBut the feeder pattern for Lufkin is not always Athens (some students go to Apex) and has not always been Athens (some students there now are slated for Holly Springs HS). This is what makes a mess of the situation as there was no old feeder pattern, just an old node based logic.
I still think that getting rid of a full feeder pattern makes the most sense. Just one level to next and be done with it.
Oak Grove and Olive Chapel (just for clarity)
Wed, 09/14/2011 - 09:14 — nmoskalI can see how one could mix the names.
sorry
Wed, 09/14/2011 - 09:23 — turnerk1Thanks for catching my mistake -- no coffee :)
I haven't seen a good answer
Wed, 09/14/2011 - 08:49 — mnordbergI haven't seen a good answer to this one. It gets very ambiguous on what ultimate determines feeder patterns especially since they are violating their rules with middle schools being split to high school. I would say that they need to sever the elementary->middle->high school feeder patterns and make it more simple. X elementary school goes to Y middle school. And Y middle school goes to Z high school period. However, they are violating the policy in keeping sub-populations in middle school based on magnet/non-magnet and elementary school. Then they use that subpopulation market to split at the high school.
It could be those students that didn't go to elementary school will either pick up the feeder pattern in middle school and the parent chooses based on the parent choice options (isn't this a choice policy). (Not sure which wins, the 2 options from feeder or parent choice options based on address).
Also ambiguous is what happens to students going to Lufkin for instance that are assigned based on the current assignments. I would say the current assignments really didn't have a feeder pattern, just the assigned school. So do parents get to choose the high school in this ambiguous switch over time?
splits
Wed, 09/14/2011 - 09:35 — turnerk1It seems that the splits in population are not just based on magnet/non magnet though. It looks like many middle schools will have this same issue.
contradictions
Wed, 09/14/2011 - 09:33 — turnerk1Perhaps my question brings into focus one of the challenges that any assignment plan has to deal with. How does one maintain "rules" for the system while still building in some kind of flexibility? By their very nature rules have no flexibility, but in the real world that can be stifling and unrealistic. It seems initially they had in mind a clean feeder system, but then started fussing with it in response to parental complaints, but that muddies the clarity of their feeder sytem. I like your solution that feeders are only good from one level to the next and not through to 12th grade, but I have not heard that is an idea under consideration.
Good for them
Wed, 09/14/2011 - 07:43 — mnordbergGood for them. Now the question is will this become the basis of a new feeder philosophy that all base students in a magnet school will have one feeder pattern and magnet students at a magnet school will have a different feeder pattern. I would like to see them actually make this a standard if they are going to do it at one school.
However, it seems to me that it is counter to the concept of feeder patterns and undermines the concept behind it. The concept is to keep kids together for emotional and other benefits (so that is the theory) but this violates that premise. Of course you then have the other concept of proximity. So it would seem that proximity trumps the feeder pattern benefits.
If so, then many of the choices of feeder patterns do not make sense as the feeder patterns send students further away than a more logical school choice if splitting is ok.
Keung, do they plan to release projections
Wed, 09/14/2011 - 00:45 — raleighlaurathat would anticipate Broughton's utilization/capacity with all of the additional elementary students under the latest feeder pattern draft? And did they address what happens to the kids in the feeder pattern schools if the high school runs out of seats? Could you be in the identified feeder pattern for a high school, and under the blue choice plan NOT get into that school if other, more proximate, students who are also in the same feeder plan fill the school?
They have been updating the
Wed, 09/14/2011 - 10:02 — KeungHui (author)They have been updating the high school seating shortfall numbers after most updates. Before Monday, they had projected a 33-seat shortfall at Broughton. With the changes posted Monday, they went to a 293-seat shortfall. They haven't yet posted what it would be now with the inclusion of the Conn base students. At the minimum, they should have it out no later than Tuesday when they give the next update to the school board.
As Duval mentioned, in theory you're guaranteed a high school seats if you stay within your feeder pattern. The question though will be what happens if there are more students than seats available. They're supposed to control for that when the develop the feeder pasterns but that will be put back to the test when growth picks up.
Feeder Question
Wed, 09/14/2011 - 17:24 — sam123456Keung,
I am trying to get clarity on what school my son would feed into from middle to high school and I am hoping that you can help. In our case Brassfield was previously assigned to Wakefield schools but that changed suddenly on Monday and we are now assigned to Millbrook schools (which will hopefully change). I have one child at WHS, one at WMS (7th grade), and one at Brassfield. I called WCPSS today and they told me that my 7th grader would follow his elementary feeder pattern which means that he would go to Millbrook High School while his brother would be at WHS. Based on what you are hearing would this be the feeder situation?
You may not know, but this
Wed, 09/14/2011 - 19:26 — Carolina_lemurYou may not know, but this is history repeating itself. Many of the Brassfield base nodes used to go to Wakefield HS, then the board changed the feeder patterns and made it Millbrook. Transfer requests were denied. Many families in our neighborhood had an older child at Wakefield and a younger child at Millbrook. That's why I was so surprised when the original feeder draft had Brassfield feeding to Wakefield. Many people I had spoken to were shocked by this--apparently they protested to WCPSS (Kevin Hill????).
Will your older child still
Wed, 09/14/2011 - 17:40 — KeungHui (author)Will your older child still be at Wakefield High by the time your younger one enters ninth-grade? If yes, then sibling grandfathering will cover you to go to Wakefield. But if your older child has already graduated, as things now stand you'd go to Millbrook. You could enter the application lottery to apply to go to Wakefield but your ability to get in will depend on how many seats are available for people outside the school's feeder pattern.
Thank You
Thu, 09/15/2011 - 10:28 — sam123456Keung,
Thank you very much for the input!
Tim
Last night
Wed, 09/14/2011 - 07:03 — duvalIt was explained that once you choose a feeder pattern you are guaranteed a seat throughout. No one new coming into the area can bump you.
If someone decides to take a magnet seat they are guaranteed a seat at that feeder pattern.
If you choose a magnet elementary but want to change to a new feeder pattern based on proximity for middle and high you get into the choice plan sign up again, but have no guarantees except with the magnet feeder pattern you would like to leave.
In the beginning years all schools are allowing grandfathering of any students who wish to stay and guaranteed the feeder pattern for their school.
Only the Kindergarten class will be well balanced through the choice plan, so it will take a number of years before you see the overcrowding/undercapacity issues resolved.
They are full of it if they
Wed, 09/14/2011 - 15:08 — mnordbergThey are full of it if they think that the feeder pattern when starting K makes sense when students get to 6th grade many years later and then 9th grade. As a school system, they are asking for trouble due to crowding and growth if they think that all those guaranteed spots are going to be there for schools and that they don't build in some "forced" decisions by parents along the way at the middle and high school decision points.
They have to have a solid and defendable plan that they communicate to people how crowding, new school, and growth comes into play and how that will mean forcing people out of their feeder pattern that was decided at K. Financially they have to with respect to opening new schools and filling it in a way that doesn't require starting at K and waiting years to fill up grades. They have to do that to show they have thought about it because that is what reassignment was doing in the old plan. Most reassignments were due to growth and school capacity (I am not talking about the fact that students were bused, I am talking about most reassignments)
So when homes can be sold here again
Wed, 09/14/2011 - 11:53 — FSandYOUand people move across the county to be in a better district, how will that be handled, Will your new address not mean anything as to where your kids go to school? Obviously if you move all the way across the county you won't be going to school where you did in previous years, or based on that feeder pattern, so how will that be handled, get in line for a seat?
Get in line for a seat
Wed, 09/14/2011 - 21:56 — Solon77Exactly. And if the empty nesters next door decide to move and a new family comes in that now become your kids best friends - they could be going to a different school. And if you are not happy, just ring up Tony and he will fix it for you. After all there is no transparency in the choice model so no one will ever know.