The school budget, student assignment and bell schedules are among the items that the Wake County school board will deal with today.
During the work session, school transportation staff will present this list of 15 schools whose bell schedules are proposed for changes in the 2013-14 school year. The wild card is whether Deputy Superintendent Cathy Moore tells the board that any other schools need changes to meet the new state requirement of 1,025 instructional hours.
The board is then slotting more than an hour to discuss factors and goals to use in the new comprehensive 2014-15 plan. This handout is the result of the wide-ranging discussion held Feb. 7.
During the regular meeting, interim Superintendent Stephen Gainey will present his 2013-14 fiscal year budget proposal. We'll see how much of an increase he wants to request from county commissioners.
Comments
How long before this board
Tue, 03/05/2013 - 23:06 — jeffrey1How long before this board realizes that you CANNOT have Achievement, Proximity, and Stability in any assignment plan?
If you want to balance schools according to achievement, you cannot provide proximity and stability. Notgonnahappen.
My thoughts exactly. Nobody
Wed, 03/06/2013 - 00:06 — jenmanMy thoughts exactly. Nobody wants to officially prioritize any of the pillars but that's exactly what happens with each assignment decision that's made. They just don't have to tell anybody what they've prioritized. Or I should say, they don't have to be honest about it.
All of this "to the extent possible" and not wanting to prioritize is just going to be a continuation of the current 'depends who you are' policy. Certain areas of the county will continue to get preferential treatment, others will continue to get the shaft, and the rest of us will be expected to be thankful for mediocre offerings.
The problem is, none of the
Wed, 03/06/2013 - 10:03 — shearertwThe problem is, none of the "Goals" listed on the handout are really their goal(s). Their goal is to, as you said, provide preferential treatment to certain areas of the county and protect their goodies at the magnet schools.
No where on the handout did I find a "measure of success". With no measure of success, no one is accountable for not achieving the goals and no one can know if they were even achieved. Every one of the goals listed could have a target. Proximity - Maximum and average distance from home (in miles). Stability - Maximum # of reassignment children, average time (in years) between reassignments, etc. Achievement - Max % ED students at a school, minimum achievement level per school, etc. Of course, they don't want to place ANY limits on themselves so they will not attach any metrics to these "goals". As tax payers and citizens, however, we should demand that they do.
Also,
Tue, 03/05/2013 - 21:14 — louiselee44The 1,025 instructional hours is an option, not a flat-out "state requirement".
why?
Tue, 03/05/2013 - 20:26 — louiselee44Keung, do you know what the reasoning is behind the proposal to change the hours for those particular schools?
Thanks.
never mind...
Tue, 03/05/2013 - 21:12 — louiselee44I found out - bus efficiency.
...
Tue, 03/05/2013 - 19:17 — SideburnsBoth Davis Drive schools are on the bell schedule list again. Didn't they just change them last year?
one thought after watching
Tue, 03/05/2013 - 18:21 — jenmanone thought after watching the assignment discussion: have they ever defined "reasonable distance" in the proximity portion of the policy? All they've spelled out is that if you're in the walk zone you can go to that school.
So is busing kids past Wakefield High to go to Heritage still considered "reasonable distance"?
Ever find out aggregate magnet results
Tue, 03/05/2013 - 17:54 — morah_lKeung,
Did they ever release the overall magnet school statistics from this year? I didn't see it on here or on work session documents, but I may have missed it.
Thx.
Not yet.
Tue, 03/05/2013 - 19:49 — KeungHui (author)Not yet.