Some Wake County schools are seeing noticeable changes in their percentages of low-income students because of the student assignment changes adopted by the school board in February.
For instance, Davis Drive Elementary's percentage of students receiving federally subsidized lunches fell from 18.9 percent last year to 6.6 percent this year. For Reedy Creek Elementary, it rose from 41.4 percent last year to 53.3 percent this year.
This came after the board moved what was projected to be 175 students from Davis Drive to to Reedy Creek, Combs and Smith elementary schools. The moves were supposed to to be proximity related so students would attend a closer school.
Green Hope Elementary, which also sent students to Reedy Creek, saw its F&R percentage fall from 22.2 percent to 15.4 percent.
The proximity-based reassignment of what was expected to be 128 students from Sycamore Creek Elementary to Green Elementary also had an impact. Sycamore Creek's F&R percentage dropped from 12.9 percent to 5.1 percent. It rose at Green from 49.6 percent to 58.9 percent.
Wildwood Forest Elementary saw a spike in its F&R numbers from 38.7 percent to 49.7 percent. This came after the board had reassigned more than 100 students from a high F&R node to ease overcrowding at Forest Pines Elementary.
The original plan had been to send Node 246.1 from Forest Pines to Fox Road Elementary. The board changed it to Wildwood because Fox Road has 20 trailers.
The reassignment of students to Walnut Creek Elementary, along with associated feeder pattern moves to Southeast Raleigh High, also had an impact on the F&R rates at several schools.
Hilburn Drive Elementary's F&R rate fell from 48 percent to 35.5 percent.
At Jeffreys Grove Elementary, the F&R rate fell from 40.3 percent to 33.6 percent.
Root Elementary's F&R rate fell from 40 percent to 26.7 percent.
Timber Drive Elementary's F&R rate fell from 47.9 percent to 39.3 percent.
Hilburn, Jeffreys Grove, Root and Timber all sent students to Walnut creek.
Southeast Raleigh High's F&R rate rose from 40.2 percent to 49.6 percent.
Walnut Creek Elementary's F&R rate, as of the 20th-day of classes, was 67.2 percent. You might hear about numbers at Walnut Creek being over 70 percent F&R.
The percentages of students receiving subsidized lunches at a school changes daily. For consistency sake, I'm comparing the 20th-day figures from different years.
Overall, 33.3 percent of Wake's students are receiving subsidized lunches. That's up from 32.4 percent in the 2010-11 school year. It's part of a continuing trend upward from 20.3 percent in the 2000-01 school year.
There are 65 Wake schools with F&R rates above 40 percent, five more than the prior year.
One question going forward is how much impact the new choice-based student assignment plan will have on F&R rates at individual schools.
Click here to view the 2011-12 F&R numbers. Click here to read Wake's analysis of F&R trends over time.
Click here to view projected 2011-12 F&R numbers done by staff in February.
Click here for the 2010-11 F&R totals.
Click here for a site showing past year's F&R data.
