Wake County magnet school application totals appear to have declined from last year

(1) I'd be happy to break the district up into smaller systems.  But, it's not a fight worth picking since any break-up would have to be approved by the General Assembly, and their trend has been to consolidate school systems, not break them apart.  

(2) As to under-capacity buses, have you considered that every school bus has to be under capacity for most of its route?  The ideal bus route is only fully at capacity at its last stop, at which point it exits the neighborhoods and goes straight to school.  For half of its route, it's only 1/2 full.  That could easily be the part you're seeing.  What you should do, instead, is go to the schools and count students getting off.  (But, don't do it at magnet schools, because some of the students may stay on the bus, waiting to get off at a different school).

(3) There is probably some waste in WCPSS -- it's in any organization, private or public. But, at some point, the cost of rooting out the waste exceeds the amount of the waste itself.  I suspect WCPSS is at, or very close, to that point.  Heck, the Broad Academy audit found that Central Office was perhaps too lean.

(4) There are other places that the county could cut to find money for the schools-- that 2% pay increase it doled out last year could have instead gone to the school district, for example.  An increase in school funding, even if it came from a tax increase, would have long-term economic benefits, albeit at the expense of those families you refer to who seem to be perpetually "struggling to put food on the table."  If they can't afford to live here, perhaps they should move.

Yes, Snordone, we have avoided some of the mess, but not all of it. And, its catching up with us, as you have pointed out.

So that you all understand -  Baileywick (Snordone's main reference school) got hit from multiple sides - a school underenrolled in recent years, reducing its' months of employment, coupled with the challenges of attracting a declining number of students due to aging out of base neighborhoods, and, because of magnets,  proximity of good charters and private schools,  it suffered a little "bright flight", not to mention a system wide reduction (or should I say increase) in the LEP/teacher ratio due to funding.  It used to be 60-65 students = 2 teachers. Now its double that, with twice as much paperwork per child, thanks to the Feds. This is not just Baileywick's problem, it simply hits them harder (and other schools just like Baileywick due to multiplicity of issues.  I believe Tata gave Baileywick more money this year, which is what the full time art, music, etc Snordone is referencing purchased. Lucky Baileywick had you to advocate for it for such, when there are other schools in need as well.  I wonder if they are blasting your school's good fortune, as you in turn are blasting the magnets?  

This will not be "fixed" with tearing down magnets.  It will only be fixed when we as a county demand proper funding for our schools, funding to meet our expectations of offerings especially at the small, traditional campuses that suffer because of the months of employment ratios, leaving the principal with less flexibility in staffing.  (What a jewel Hartenstine is to jump in and teach AG). We need a baseline of offerings at every campus, and the corresponding funding, which by virtue of fewer students will indeed cost more at some smaller schools than the larger ones.  How many of you have spoken at a Board of Commissioners meeting lately?  Called your Republican State legislator?  Snordone, get back to us with their responses.

They ended up splitting the feeder patter for Joyner so that base students feed to their proximate schools and magnet students feed to the magnet MS and HS to continue the magnet program they applied for if that's want they want to do.