Judge Halts Wake Year-Round School Plan Posted: 46 minutes ago Updated: 14 minutes ago Raleigh — The Wake County school system cannot convert 22 schools from traditional calendars to year-round schedules this fall, a judge ruled Thursday. Superior Court Judge Howard Manning's decision throws the district's plans for the 2007-08 school year into chaos, with only three months to find classroom space for an expected 8,000 new students. District administrators were reviewing the decision Thursday morning and didn't have an immediate comment. The district approved moving 19 elementary schools and three middle schools to year-round schedules last fall, saying they needed the extra space provided by year-rounds to accommodate surging enrollments. But a group of parents, organized as WakeCARES, sued to block the move, contending that forcing them to switch schedules would be unfair to their children and would disrupt family life. The mayors of Apex and Garner backed the parents' group, saying their towns would suffer in year-round conversions and the district's decision deprives many parents of educational choices. "The Wake County Board of Education lacks the statutory authority to convert traditional-calendar schools to mandatory year-round. Thus, the board of education may not require the attendance of students at year-round calendar schools without informed parental consent," Manning ruled. About 20,000 families would have been be affected by the conversions. School district administrators said converting the schools is necessary to create enough seats for an expected 8,000 new students in the fall. Year-round schools can handle more students because students are separated into four groups with rotating schedules, with three in class and one on break at all times. Without the conversions, schools might have to run on split schedules, with some students attending early-morning classes and others going to school in the afternoon and evening, district officials have said. Manning's ruling opens the door to a possible legislative battle for the district, which could turn to lawmakers to obtain the statutory authority for the year-round conversions.
I feel sorry for the folks in Wake county! And this is the kind of stuff that will make people move out our way and add to our over-crowding!! :x
Don't you think they could have avoided some of those problems in Wake County if the School Board had just worked with the parents and addressed their concerns? Parents have legitimate concerns about year-round schools, and some of those concerns have reasonable, logical solutions. What they need is a commitment to work on those problems. For example, I cannot believe that it is impossible to make sure all the children in a household are on the same schedule. On the other hand, have the protesting parents offered any alternative solutions? They don't want to pay for building more capacity; they certainly don't want the craziness of a split schedule; do they propose to increase class size to 40 or 50 kids in a class? If they think they have discipline problems now, imagine what that would be like. Both sides need to listen to each other, consider what the problems are and what their goals are, and then work out strategies to achieve those goals. I sincerely hope that when we get to that point in Johnston County, we will be able to work together.
The Wake County School Board is used to getting Carte Blanche. They do not care to work with anyone. Their way or the highway. This should never have seen the court room, but yet given there track record was inevitable. The educational system is fundamentally broken. Wake county builds palaces for schools and pays employee's extremely well thinking that will mean better education. It is not up to the people to offer solutions as that is why we need leaders. More money and more schools are not the answer to what we need in Johnston County. How about restricted growth and enforcement of immigration laws.
