Sending the student assignment policy changes to committee

Brier Creek is interesting because it is designated as a high growth area in Raleigh's master plan, yet no schools are planned here.  So - they start getting sent all over the place, or forcing massive displacements of people who want their neighborhood school (like Leesville).

 No one was happy when Brier Creek showed up in the first round of assignments at Leesville - it's a huge number of students, so displaced a lot of kids east to fill up all the schools they are building there. 

the facilities themselves are not real conducive to "community schools".

When I think of "community schools", I think of schools where kids within half a mile can certainly walk, where there are entrances close to the street, and where the outside facilities, playgrounds, tracks, tennis courts,  can be used by the neighborhood.

Our base is at Reedy Creek and I haven't tracked it out formally, but I wouldn't be surprised if the distance from the road to the elementary school is 1/4 mile long, then the kids' playground is sequestered in the back. Secondly, kids have to be bussed and driven there no matter where they live because Reedy Creek is a very unsafe street for adults to cross and walk along, let alone children. 

Also, the construction of the Reedy Creek site itself is more geared toward bussing and transportation than for student use, hence the long driveways the big parking lots, and the very small playground. I've heard that was the only way they could adequately use the site, but it sure falls in line with a mass bussing plan, especially when I see maps from the BOE with big arrows pointing from downtown to Reedy Creek.  It would take me awhile to find that map, but I am not kidding when I say I have seen it.  

But that's just Reedy Creek.  Here's are two other schools that freaked me out when I saw them.  Two other schools that I have seen that are disturbing when looked at through the "community schools" lens are Washington and Carnage.  Both are well made, excellent schools, magnet schools, but the "community" surrounding them is unable to support truly community-minded people.  When my husband and I checked out Washington, what we saw was a nice building in the middle of a very depressed post industrial area with no grocery stores, pharmacies, gas stations, or restaurants that make up a viable "community".  Same thing when I checked out Carnage.  So these are great buldings in areas where vibrant communities have very little chance of growing.  

What's kind of sad to me is that the magnet concept was partially designed to eliminate this sort of community inequity.  We're from Michigan, so I don't know how things were when this started, but I would bet that Wiley, probably Olds, and some of the key downtown schools were falling apart because people were leaving the neighborhood for the "suburbs".  So the magnet system came in, revamped a whole lot of the schools, and the NC State connection along with appropriate family housing near the school were able to rebuild the community along with the property values.  Maybe the community structure around Washington and Carnage has improved too, but I shudder to think what it was like before in that area, because even I, a person that loves cities, would not want to live there.  And I don't consider those areas around Washington and Carnage "communities", because they don't have any of the things we all take for granted in "communities", like convenient grocery stores and drugstores, restaurants, gas stations, etc.  

I'm not saying that Neighborhood Schools won't work, but to make them work will take a whole lot of time, a lot of effort, and also money.  Thank goodness things were slowed down a bit at that board meeting, especially for those newly elected board members.  I hope this new board will be willing to do the required work and find the money to do it because the amount of uproar that the old school board saw is going to seem like peanuts if parents have to take their kids from schools they like and have gotten used to and put them either in over crowded, poorly designed schools, or else in under crowded, poorly supported schools.

Diversity will seem like peanuts.  Don't think that every parent is unhappy with the way things are, and don't underestimate what a large group of really mad parents can do.  Keep that in mind when you talk about reassigning 30 thousand students.  Most of them are probably happy with their school, I have met very few parents unhappy with their school. Not that I've met huge amounts, but quite a few from different schools, both magnet and non.  I'd say that I've talked to maybe 50 parents from different schools over the course of the last year.  

I'm just sayin.  Don't shoot the messenger here.   I realize this is a fightin' take-no-prisoners-ya-hafta-break-a-few-eggs crowd on this blog, and I am hesitant even to post comments here after all the vitriol I have been reading. But there you go.

I live in an area that is a spot node that the houses range from 400,000-700,000 and have been a spot node for over 5 years.  We have been reassigned several times over the last 5 years.  We will not be aligned with the rest of the neighborhood which surrounds us on all sides for at least two more years.  My children are on different calendars and my oldest bussed 17 miles away from my home.  FYI - we are moving at the end of the school year back to where we are from simply to gain some sanity in our lives again and maybe reconnect as a family.  Unfortunately as much as I would like it to change and have worked hard for it, change will not happen soon enough for us!