http:\/\/assignment.wcpss.net<\/a>) and make choices under a mock assignment process.<\/p>\nOnly about 7,000 families have done so.<\/p>\n
\u201cAbout 85 percent of the district\u2019s nodes have responded in some fashion,\u201d Tata said.<\/p>\n
To encourage more parents to engage in the trial run, Tata has scheduled community outreach events where school staff can educate them on the importance of the test drive and give them Internet access to complete their choices on the spot.<\/p>\n
He has also sent out additional public notices to principals of schools in areas with low participation.<\/p>\n
Tata made a direct appeal to parents at a press briefing Friday.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you haven\u2019t participated in the test drive, please do so,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you have, ask your friends and neighbors to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although Tata\u2019s student assignment task force has not been keeping track of the socioeconomic status or race of those who have already participated, the areas with low participation generally have higher concentrations of low-income and minority households.<\/p>\n
Tata will still present a student assignment work plan to the Board of Education Tuesday. The work plan will include a timeline through next March designating deadlines for key steps in the creation of what will eventually be called the Wake Plan.<\/p>\n
The Wake Plan will merge aspects of the Blue and Green Plans.<\/p>\n
Although the Blue Plan has seen the strongest community support, Tata said he is paying attention to Green Plan proponents.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a strong desire for feeder patterns,\u201d he said. \u201cMany of the people who indicate a preference for the Green Plan do so because of the comfort of feeder patterns, so they know where their child will go to school for X period of time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Final feeder patterns have not been established for the Blue Plan.<\/p>\n
Tata\u2019s team must also still decide what to do when parents make no school selection for their children. The district could place such students in their nearest school or their achievement school, a nearby school with high-performing teachers and students.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s having a balance between the needs of parents with the needs of the system,\u201d Tata said. \u201cFirst and foremost, I would never take away a parent\u2019s right to select where he or she wants their child to go to school.\u201d<\/p>\n
State Budget Could Impact Non-Instructional Services<\/strong><\/p>\nThe state budget finally enacted Wednesday will likely mean cuts to transportation, custodial and central services positions in the Wake County Public School System.<\/p>\n
The $12.4 million in cuts would require firing or shrinking contracts over and above the central services, clerical and assistant principal reductions already made.<\/p>\n
On the brighter side, the state budget restores funding for teacher assistants and provides additional funding for teachers in grades one through three.<\/p>\n
The $1 million in transportation cuts come even as the General Assembly increased the number of school days per year from 180 to 185.<\/p>\n
Since transportation in the district costs about $100,000 per day, five extra school days means an additional $500,000 expense.<\/p>\n
To accommodate the extra school days, five teacher workdays will be eliminated.<\/p>\n
For some overcrowded year-round schools that cannot accommodate five extra days without going over capacity, the district will apply for a waiver. The legislation allows some flexibility as long as students are in school 1,025 hours during the year.<\/p>\n
\u201cDespite these challenges our work continues,\u201d Tata said. \u201cWe\u2019re always in the business of education.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis budget we\u2019re going to make work for Wake County,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ll find a way to give the best possible instruction to support students.\u201d<\/p>\n
Blue Plan Outreach Events <\/strong><\/p>\nSunday, June 19<\/strong>
\nFirst Baptist Church – 101 South Wilmington St. (Following 8 a.m. and 11 a.m. services)<\/p>\nMonday June 20<\/strong>
\nWendell Elementary School (8-10 a.m.)
\nSoutheast Raleigh High School (8-10 a.m.)
\nFuller Elementary School (8-10 a.m.)
\nWakelon Elementary School (8-10 a.m.)
\nLigon Middle School (8-10 a.m.)
\nZebulon Elementary School (10:30 a.m. -12:30 p.m.)
\nHodge Road Elementary School (10:30 a.m. -12:30 p.m.)
\nBoys Club and Girls Club, 605 N. Raleigh Blvd. (10:30 a.m. -12:30 p.m.)<\/p>\nbleclaire@raleighpublicrecord.org<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WCPSS has extended the “test drive” of what’s called The Blue Plan — part of a new student assignment plan. The deadline to participate in the mock trial is now Friday, June 24. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24030,"featured_media":7557,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15,55],"tags":[132,268,202,63,301,123],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7519"}],"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\/24030"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7519"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7519\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}