{"id":11460,"date":"2012-04-19T13:45:54","date_gmt":"2012-04-19T17:45:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.raleighpublicrecord.org\/?p=11460"},"modified":"2012-04-19T13:46:48","modified_gmt":"2012-04-19T17:46:48","slug":"councilors-voice-doubts-about-raleighs-school-capacity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/news\/city-council\/2012\/04\/19\/councilors-voice-doubts-about-raleighs-school-capacity\/","title":{"rendered":"Councilors Voice Doubts About Raleigh\u2019s School Capacity"},"content":{"rendered":"

At Tuesday\u2019s meeting, Raleigh city councilors<\/a> expressed concerns about Raleigh\u2019s strained school capacity and worried whether or not the problem is being addressed by the Wake County school system.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we do not have adequate school facilities to meet growth demand\u2026 then we\u2019ve got a train wreck ahead,\u201d said Councilor Thomas Crowder, who referenced a recent Record story<\/a> which shows that Raleigh had only nine schools built since 2000 \u2014just two more than Cary \u2014 even though Cary\u2019s school-aged population grew three times less than Raleigh.<\/p>\n

The city\u2019s 2030 Comprehensive Plan<\/a> designates higher densities of growth in certain areas, which heightened some councilors concerns about Wake County schools\u2019 planning and future capacity.<\/p>\n

At a recent meeting with other Wake County mayors and the school board, Mayor Nancy McFarlane said she talked about one such high-density development near Leadmine Road.<\/p>\n

The development, she said, \u201cwould bring 50 new elementary students to the closest school, [which] is Brooks, which is at 114 percent capacity and so the question I asked was, \u2018how would this work with your plan?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf this school [Brooks] is overcapacity and the surrounding schools are also full, do you take students out? Do you move students? And (the school system) said, \u2018We don\u2019t know,\u2019\u201d said McFarlane.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are aware of demand and yes we would like to have more space,\u201d WCPSS Chief Operations Officer Don Haydon told the Record.<\/p>\n

He admits it\u2019s difficult to find the large parcels of land the school system traditionally uses\u2014generally 20 acres for an elementary school\u2014to build a school in Raleigh.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to think outside the box in the city,\u201d Haydon said. \u201cWe either have to build something smaller or use an older building that we can convert.\u201d<\/p>\n

In terms of finding appropriate school sites in the city, Crowder said, \u201cwe need to have this discussion sooner rather than later, because it\u2019s going to get very expensive for the school system.\u201d<\/p>\n

Currently, WCPSS has plans for two single-sex leadership academies in Raleigh, as well as a small elementary-level science academy. \u00a0The two leadership academies were planned to become part of the Peace College campus downtown, but that deal has since fallen through.<\/p>\n

The single-sex academies for high school students could be divided between the Governor\u2019s School for the Blind for and temporary classrooms at Millbrook High School.<\/p>\n

Haydon said his department is also considering refitting a former Coke factory.<\/p>\n

Haydon also referenced his former school district of Minneapolis, where elementary schools were traditionally built on six acres.<\/p>\n

Councilor Russ Stephenson suggested cementing the relationship between the city staff and school planners to ensure coordination between the two entities.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe there are some policy-level items that we might need to be discussing too in how we view the relationship with the school system and how to be coordinating with our own growth plans,\u201d Stephenson said.<\/p>\n

Haydon said the municipalities are already working with the school system through a consultancy group called the Institute for Transportation Research and Education<\/a>, which is part of North Carolina State University.<\/p>\n

Haydon said city and town planners alert ITRE to \u201cparcels\u201d of land with growing populations. ITRE combines this with other relevant data and gives it to the school system.<\/p>\n

In terms of where to put schools, \u201cthat gives us the basic data about what\u2019s going on,\u201d Haydon said. \u201cWe learn straight from the horse\u2019s mouth what projected development is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mike Miller is a project manager who works under ITRE\u2019s umbrella with the school system. He said the planning assumptions haven\u2019t changed since 2008. The city\u2019s Comprehensive Plan was passed in 2009.<\/p>\n

However, Miller said ITRE will be conducting a new study this summer and gathering data from all of Wake\u2019s municipalities to create new planning assumptions. Looking at the preliminary data, he said, he thinks they\u2019ll change significantly.<\/p>\n

Councilors instructed city planning staff to meet with school planners and come back with a report in four to six weeks detailing the school system\u2019s efforts to accommodate the city\u2019s growth and capacity issues.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur economic development is tied at the hip to the Wake County Public School System and we just need to have a full understanding and assurances,\u201d Crowder said.<\/p>\n

Share your comments: What do you think are some long-term solutions for school planning?<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Tuesday, Raleigh city council discussed whether the school system\u2019s plans for growth and school capacity align with the city\u2019s plans for higher density. Some councilors stressed the need for Wake to find capacity and emphasized the crucial relationship between city and schools.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24024,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4,15,23,55],"tags":[699,17,12,154,700,67,123],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11460"}],"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=11460"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11460\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}