Staff Writer
Wake
County Public School System (WCPSS) families filing school transfers this
spring will have less of a chance of being approved. There are 155,000 students
in WCPSS and thousands of parents file for a transfer each year. In May and
June of 2014, 5,960 of 8,402 student transfers were approved. There were also
275 appeals by rejected transfers, 156 of these were approved. However, fewer
students will be accepted this year than in previous years, and most students
approved will be ones who were unable to apply for hardship reasons. “We would
like to try to honor as many requests as we can,” said Laura Evans, the
county’s senior director of student assignment, “But we want them done and in
earlier. We want our principals to know who’s coming and to be ready for them.”
Superintendent
Jim Merrill informed the Wake County Board of Commissioners the school board
will readdress allowing students in just because the school has more room. “When
it comes to student assignment and where students are enrolling, we are
starting to shift – telling our board we cannot just leave the door open for
folks to leave schools just because there may be seats somewhere else,” says
Merrill, “We need to be concerned about the balance and the stability at the
schools.”
To
prevent late applications, WCPSS encouraged families to apply after receiving
their assignments in January instead of in May, when the official placements
occur. Administrators worry that allowing a large number of spring transfers
hinders the ability of schools to prepare and plan for the new school year. “One
of our goals is that the student movement happen during the January, February
and March application process. If you want to change schools, we will certainly
look at them and handle as many as we can. But after that we want to stop.
Schools need to plan,” says Evans.
Former
school board members argue the topic needs to be discussed more. “It certainly
isn’t being responsive to parents,” said Ron Margiotta, who was a member of the
school board for eight years, “It’s just going to chase more parents out of the
school system.”
Christine
Kushner, school board chairwoman, has said that the board will be meeting on
the subject of transfers. The school board is attempting to balance school and
family needs. However, some critics feel the county should be more focused on
accommodating families when making the decision. John Tedesco, who served on
the school board from 2009 to 2013, says, “At the end of the day, for the
system to be successful, the system needs to be flexible for families. If we
care more about the needs of the system than the families, then the system is
going to have a problem.”
For
students who have already applied, 1,800 will be removed from waiting lists and
moved to the school of their choice for the upcoming school year. Yet, it’s
possible 100 to 200 students still on waiting lists may be placed in schools in
June. The results have been posted to the WCPSS website: http://www.wcpss.net/site/Default.aspx?PageID=276
