{"id":10849,"date":"2012-04-02T09:44:06","date_gmt":"2012-04-02T13:44:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.raleighpublicrecord.org\/?p=10849"},"modified":"2012-04-02T09:44:06","modified_gmt":"2012-04-02T13:44:06","slug":"raleighs-disparity-in-growth-and-school-building","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/news\/2012\/04\/02\/raleighs-disparity-in-growth-and-school-building\/","title":{"rendered":"Raleigh&#8217;s Disparity in Growth and School Building"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A Record analysis of Wake County\u2019s school building program shows a disparity in Raleigh\u2019s growth and the number of new schools built in the capital city.<\/p>\n<p>Raleigh\u2019s school-aged population grew in total numbers by more than three times as much as the next closest municipality, Cary. In relation to growth, however, the number of schools built in Raleigh does not seem to line up.<\/p>\n<p>While Raleigh\u2019s school-age population grew in volume by three times more than Cary\u2019s, only two more schools were built in Raleigh than in Cary.<\/p>\n<p>Concerns about school capacity in Raleigh <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.newsobserver.com\/wakeed\/wake-county-still-waiting-to-place-225-students-at-schools\">have been raised by a number of families<\/a>, who, after participating in the choice process, were not assigned to any of their five regional schools due to a lack of capacity.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPeople are moving to the \u2018burbs and it\u2019s cheaper to build in the \u2018burbs, so of course they\u2019re not going to build in the center,\u201d said Ellen Nightingale, a Raleigh parent whose kindergartner did not receive an assignment in the first choice round. \u201cWe need the schools back. We\u2019ve got to get ahead of the curve here. We\u2019ve had a baby boom.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>To examine the claim that there aren\u2019t enough schools being built in Raleigh, the Record compared 2010 Census data against maps that show where new schools have been built and where they are planned for the future.<br \/>\n<center><strong>New school construction since 2000. Purple dots represent elementary schools, yellow represent middle and red represent high schools.<\/strong><\/center><br \/>\n<center><iframe width=\"500\" height=\"300\" scrolling=\"no\"  src=\"http:\/\/www.google.com\/fusiontables\/embedviz?viz=MAP&#038;q=select+col1+from+3398877+&#038;h=false&#038;lat=35.80819178496757&#038;lng=-78.61747600000001&#038;z=10&#038;t=1&#038;l=col1\"><\/iframe><\/center><\/p>\n<p>Federal Census data show that Raleigh gained more than 35,000 school-aged children between 2000 and 2010. Cary experienced the second biggest jump in numbers, adding more than 10,000 children under the age of 18.<\/p>\n<p>Using an average class size of 27 for K-12, that means Raleigh\u2019s school population grew by 1,320 classrooms. For Cary, growth measured in classrooms would be 372.<\/p>\n<p>When comparing the actual addresses of new schools during the past 12 years, Raleigh has gained more schools than any other municipality. The school system built nine schools in Raleigh, while Cary gained seven.<\/p>\n<p>However, looking at a map of the newly constructed schools in Wake County, the disparity becomes clearer. The trend of construction is clearly the heaviest outside of Raleigh or at its very edges.<\/p>\n<p>Of Raleigh\u2019s nine new schools, four are on the city\u2019s border. Two of those new schools with Raleigh addresses serve Wake Forest and Rolesville, which also experienced high growth during the past 10 years.<\/p>\n<p>(Note: The Record did not calculate the number of seats added to any school by renovation or the addition of mobile classrooms.)<\/p>\n<p>Wake schools\u2019 Chief of Operations Don Haydon acknowledges that suburban areas are where school construction has been heaviest.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve had a lot of growth and a lot of new schools built throughout the Western tier, Cary and then down the Southern tier. [We\u2019ve] had a few out in East and in the North, but I\u2019d say more so West and South,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Looking at percentage growth of school-aged children, Raleigh ranks fifth of the county\u2019s 12 municipalities. Ahead were Fuquay-Varina, Morrisville, Rolesville and Wake Forest \u2014 all places that experienced relatively heavy construction.<\/p>\n<p>Looking at the map for planned school construction, the trends stay the same. The majority of schools are set up to be outside of Raleigh.<br \/>\n<center><br \/>\n<strong>These maps show areas identified by WCPSS where new school construction should take place. <em>Click on an image to view full size.<\/em><\/strong><\/center><br \/>\n<img style=\"border: 0px initial initial;\" title=\"High schools\" src=\"http:\/\/www.raleighpublicrecord.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/school_land_acquisition_mapHS_thumb.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a> <img style=\"border: 0px initial initial;\" title=\"Middle Schools\" src=\"http:\/\/www.raleighpublicrecord.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/school_land_acquisition_mapMS_thumb.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a> <img style=\"border: 0px initial initial;\" title=\"Elementary schools\" src=\"http:\/\/www.raleighpublicrecord.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/school_land_acquisition_mapES_thumb.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>To create the current map of \u201ccircle areas,\u201d which identify where WCPSS believes new schools should be placed, Haydon said, his department used data \u201cback probably from the 2008-2009 timeframe.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>However, Haydon said his team will finalize the circle areas by gathering county and municipal growth information as well as what schools have been under and over-chosen in the choice process.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ll overlay those three things together and that\u2019ll tell us where we need to build schools,\u201d Haydon said.<\/p>\n<p>Haydon also noted that WCPSS hopes to set up three niche schools in the city. He said Wake\u2019s two single-sex leadership academies will definitely be located in central Raleigh and he also mentioned the possibility of an elementary-level science academy.<\/p>\n<p>In the meantime, Wake Superintendent Tony Tata, as well as members from the Growth and Planning and Student Assignment teams, will meet with Raleigh families like the Nightingales Monday to address the concerns about lack of capacity.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI saw recently that Raleigh was ranked the third best city to raise a child,\u201d Nightingale said. \u201cWe worked so hard for so long to make Raleigh and downtown an amazing place to live and work and raise a family. This is a critical failure.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. Trinity United Methodist Church, 824 N. Bloodworth St. Raleigh.<\/p>\n<p><center><iframe width='600' height='400' frameborder='0' src='https:\/\/docs.google.com\/spreadsheet\/pub?key=0AsGW71gujdNMdGF5SFBERVdOY1M4bVVkeTBheWFva0E&#038;single=true&#038;gid=0&#038;output=html&#038;widget=true'><\/iframe><\/center><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Record analysis of Census data compared to new school construction in Wake County shows a disparity in the number of schools built in Raleigh. We take an in-depth look at the numbers, as well as the plan for future schools, most of which are outside Raleigh\u2019s city limits. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24024,"featured_media":10850,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15,23,55],"tags":[118,573,12,67,123],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10849"}],"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=10849"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10849\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}