School board finalizes 2011-12 student reassigment plan

The 2011-12 Wake County student reassignment plan is now officially in the books.

The school board agreed today to reassign 136 additional students. When combined with the 3,500 moved on Feb. 1, you've got more than 3,600 kids on the move for this fall.

Among the moves approved today was to send 15 students from school board member John Tedesco's neighborhood from Creech Road Elementary to Aversboro Elementary.

The initial proposal from Tedesco was to send his whole node, 504.0. Tedesco argued that it would help fill Aversboro Elementary while reducing enrollment at Creech, which he said would help fit with efforts to reduce class sizes there as part of the new Renaissance model.

Staff later split apart Node 504 to create 504.1 that includes Tedesco's address.

Laura Evans, senior director of growth and planning, explained that the families who live in the northern side of Node 504 leave the subdivision by traveling on the road to the east. She said those who live in the southern section, the new 504.1, leave by taking a road to the west.

Evans said that the people in 504.1 asked that they be able to travel to the school on their west, which is Aversboro. It's also closer than Creech Road.

But critics have accused Tedesco of trying to get his neighborhood into a lower-poverty school.