Democrats in the new school board majority see potential long-term health problems in the new controlled-choice student assignment plan that could warrant significant changes, but say now is a time to wait and watch.<\/p>\n
Given the past two years of turbulence in school board politics and a fiercely divided public, Democratic members acknowledge changing the plan now would lead to a different kind of chaos that could hardly be justified.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne hundred and thirty thousand promises were made back in November,” said newly elected board member Jim Martin. \u201cWhile I\u2019m extremely frustrated in where we are at [with the plan,] I would be equally frustrated at breaking 130,000 promises.\u201d<\/p>\n
He believes the lame duck Republican majority should have never made the promises.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s an extremely frustrating situation,\u201d Martin told the Record.<\/p>\n
Martin has been the most vocal of critics about what he sees as long-term problems with the plan. Democratic Chair Kevin Hill has been a less vocal critic, but does see things that may become problematic. For instance, the 10 schools that are projected to have more than 70 percent of the student body receiving free-and-reduced lunch next year.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the commitment of this board that we do not want to create high-needs schools,\u201d said Hill. \u201cIf that seems to be an unintended consequence of this plan then I think we need to look at how to change that.\u201d<\/p>\n
[pullquote]\u201cIt\u2019s the commitment of this board that we do not want to create high-needs schools. If that seems to be an unintended consequence of this plan then I think we need to look at how to change that.\u201d ~Board Member Kevin Hill[\/pullquote]<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce the assignment process has had the chance to run its course\u2014this year,\u201d Hill emphasized, \u201cwe can get summative data, hard data.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hill says they\u2019ll look at any fallout from the plan and then start sitting down for brainstorming sessions about how it can be improved.<\/p>\n
Martin says he has taken a look at the F&R trends and they are troubling. Based on his evaluation, schools above the 33 percent county average of F&R tend to have a rising percentage of F&R students. Schools below the county average, tend to have a shrinking percentage.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want to put a magic number down. We\u2019re not talking quotas,\u201d Martin said. \u201cOur school with the lowest F&R is down around 5 and a half, 7 and a half percent free-and-reduced lunch and our highest is 83 percent. I can tell you that spread is too big.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cA successful assignment plan isn\u2019t going to say here is our magic target. I think we should work at having schools move toward the county average,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Hill acknowledges that one way to strive for equity\u2014as opposed to equality, he stresses\u2014is put extra funds and resources into higher needs schools, but he knows the dollars aren\u2019t there to be thrown.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you look at the budgetary times we\u2019re in, money is very scarce right now,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Like Hill and Martin, new board members Susan Evans and Christine Kushner believe by melding the lessons of the past with the current lessons on student assignment, they\u2019ll be able to bring together a plan that is best for Wake County.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think what we had before was perfect. I don\u2019t think what we\u2019re trying to do now is perfect,\u201d Evans said. \u201cWe\u2019ll be using the data that we\u2019re getting to try to forge something together that is more positive for the future.\u201d<\/p>\n
What each Democrat acknowledges is that such a strategy will take time.
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Democrats have shown clear frustration along the way, as the new controlled-choice assignment plan has gradually become a reality for Wake County. We take a look at how and when they envision changes playing out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24024,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15,23,55],"tags":[119,505,546,545,544],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10761"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24024"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10761"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10761\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}