August 18, 2011

Top News

School Board Holds Last Meeting at North Raleigh Offices

The Board of Education held its last meeting Tuesday in the Central Services Building at 3600 Wake Forest Road. The board has met there since the 1970s.

The next meeting will be in the new boardroom at the Crossroads I Building, located at 5625 Dillard Drive in Cary.

The move consolidates most WCPSS administrative services in two buildings at one location. Central Services offices at 3600 Wake Forest Road, 2302 Noble Road, 4700 New Bern Avenue and the Magnet Resource Center on Millbrook Road in Raleigh are consolidated into the Crossroads I Building, and the existing school system offices in the Crossroads II Building at 110 Corning Road. The vacated properties will be repurposed or sold.

With the move, phone numbers changed. Callers dialing the old numbers will hear a message directing them to the new phone numbers for 30 days after the move. You can call the WCPSS Customer Service Center at their new phone number 431-7400.

Superintendent Tata and Task Force Update Board on New Student Assignment Plan

Superintendent Tony Tata and Student Assignment Task Force members provided an update on the task force’s work to develop a new student assignment process to the board at a August 16 work session.

The task force is developing a proposal that will provide families the choice to select the school their child will attend.

Tata and task force leader, James Overman, reviewed the data they collected from the community online test drive of an early draft proposal in June.

In the test drive, 21,283 participants responded from 13,805 individual addresses. The simulation had responses from 1,197 of the county’s total 1,329 nodes. Twenty-three of 1,329 nodes do not have registered students living in them.

“This proposal affords every student multiple, high-quality choices,” said Tata. “One of the results from the test drive is that parents overwhelmingly chose proximity over any other kind of choice.”

From the simulation, Overman said the task force confirmed that proximity and calendar were drivers for family decisions. He said families selected the closest schools to their homes and the traditional or year-round calendar that fit their needs. He said achievement schools did not play a statistically significant role in the simulation.

Tata and Overman discussed magnet schools and achievement schools. The task force recommends maintaining all current magnet schools. For application students to continue to attend magnet schools, the choice plan must provide options for some families that live near magnet schools to select other schools.

The task force proposal would identify achievement schools as an option for all families. The schools would be determined based on high-performing teachers, growth with level I-IV students and proficiency.

Overman said the test drive revealed school utilization rates across choice lists. Some schools appeared on too few choice lists while other schools appeared on too many lists. He said these can be resolved by fine-tuning the choice lists.

Task force member Susan Pullium discussed potential feeder patterns. The task force created one feeder pattern for each elementary school. The task force sought to adhere to existing feeder patterns where possible. Year-round elementary schools feed to year-round middle schools where possible. Magnet schools feed to schools on magnet pathways.

Overman said the task force would revise business rules based on modeling information, continue modeling choice proposals, simulate transportation and develop an outreach plan.

Board Gives Final Approval to Reduction in Force for Custodial Positions

The board gave final approval to a reduction in force for custodial staff. Reductions in state funding required the school system to cut another $5 million from the budget. The reduction in force cut 39 full and part-time jobs, cut hours or demoted another 26 and reduced outside custodial contracts by 35 percent. The board discussed the reduction in force at its meeting in July and earlier this month.

More News

Board Agrees to Sell Forestville Road Property

The board declared 80 acres of land on Forestville Road as surplus property and ordered its sale, in accordance with Board of Education policy. 

Board Discusses Building New Schools

The Board of Education continued its discussion on Tuesday on the need for new schools and options for constructing new schools with savings in the CIP 2006 capital improvement program.

Principal of the Year Finalists Named

The Wake County Public School System has named finalists for the 2011-12 Principal and Assistant Principal of the Year.

The Principal of the Year finalists are Gary Baird of Lead Mine Elementary, Pamela Kinsey-Barker of Brassfield Elementary, Kevin Biles of Pleasant Union Elementary, Wade Martin of Martin Magnet Middle and Drew Cook of Garner Magnet High.

The Assistant Principal of the Year finalists are Cheryl Fenner of Hilburn Drive Elementary, Ruth Ann Freeman of Bugg Magnet Elementary, Syreeta Smith of North Forest Pines Elementary, Richard Williams of Davis Drive Middle and Greg Welsh of Panther Creek High.

The finalists are nominated by the principals and assistant principals of the Wake County Public School System.

The Principal and Assistant Principal of the Year celebration is scheduled for Oct. 6 at 6 p.m. at Marbles Kids Museum in Raleigh.

Students Must Now Pay Fee to Take Driver Education Classes

Starting this school year, students in the Wake County Public School System who enroll in driver education will have to pay a $45 fee to take the course.

In the past, WCPSS offered driver education at no cost to all Wake County students between the ages of 14.5 and 18. However, this year a state budget shortfall prompted the NC General Assembly to cut approximately $5.2 million from the appropriation for driver education classes across the state.

To make up the gap in state funding, lawmakers agreed to allow local school districts to charge up to $45 for students to take the class. The Wake County Board of Education approved the $45 fee during its meeting on July 12. The fee goes into effect for all classes starting Aug. 25 or later. Students who have already completed the classroom phase of driver education prior to Aug. 25 will not have to pay the $45 fee for the behind-the-wheel portion of the training.

The NC Department of Motor Vehicles requires students to complete 30 hours of classroom instruction and six hours of behind the wheel training before they are eligible to apply for their learner’s permit. WCPSS contracts with Jordan Driving School to provide this service to students in Wake County. 

Students who would like to take the driver education course this school year should visit Jordan Driving School’s website at www.jordandriving.com to see a schedule of available classes. Students may obtain a registration from the website or from their high school. The $45 fee may be paid online, in person at the Jordan Driving School offices or by mail.

Parents may access the online payment system by visiting http://osp.osmsinc.com/wakenc/ and clicking “Driver’s Education.” Links to the online payment system can also be found on the WCPSS Driver Education website and the Jordan Driving School website. Once there, parents can pay the fee by personal credit card through a secure website. When payment is complete, the registration form should be submitted to the lead teacher for driver education at their child’s high school. 

Parents may also choose to pay the $45 fee by cash, money order or cashier's check at the Jordan Driving School office located at 3751 Junction Blvd. in Raleigh from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, or by mailing a money order or cashier’s check along with the completed registration form to Jordan Driving School, 3751 Junction Blvd, Raleigh, NC 27603. No personal checks will be accepted. 

WCPSS high schools are not able to collect this fee. As the contractor for all driver education services, Jordan Driving School is responsible for collecting all fees.

More detailed information on the registration and payment options can be found in this document, Process to Pay Fee, Register, and be Assigned to Driver Education Classes in 2011-12.

For additional information on WCPSS’s driver education program, please visit www.wcpss.net/drivers-ed or www.jordandriving.com.

Early College Students Work at WakeMed

Students from Wake Early College of Health and Sciences benefit from the school’s partnership with Wake Technical Community College and WakeMed Hospital.

Principal Teresa Pierrie says the school works to ready students for health care careers and the partnerships culminated in current students working at WakeMed this summer.

Click to listen to Early College Students Work at WakeMed

This is a 4.5-minute mp3 file.