RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) — The Wake County Board of Education held a meeting Tuesday night about school redistricting.
For many of the parents, the meeting was one last chance to change a plan that will impact the lives of their children. Some parents say it’s a plan they say doesn’t even make sense.
On one map, families living across the street from Mills Park Elementary in West Cary would go to a school farther away.
Growth in Wake County has school administrators trying to figure out where to move students.
Brad Hall’s family would be affected, with his sons slated to move from Mills Park Elementary in Cary to the new Hortons Creek school.
“We have dumped a lot of time, energy and money into Mills Park. We’ve paid for a lot of things in that school,” said father Brad Hall.
Parent Julea Danielson also lives nearby and wonders why neighbors who live closer to Hortons Creek aren’t being assigned there.
“Think about it. Right across from a two-way street,” Danielson said.
“We’re closer to the school. We’re entrenched in the school with the teachers and with the principal. It does not make sense,” Hall said.
But, Wake School administrators say Mills Park is at about 150 percent of its capacity.
Meanwhile, Hortons Creek is one of three new schools opening next year as part of a long-term plan to alleviate crowding.
“Our staff have crunched the numbers and looked at balancing the needs of the district with the concerns of the parents. That’s always the balancing act,” said Matt Dees of Wake County Schools.
Danielson says she and other parents in the high-growth area of West Cary keep finding themselves back at meetings.
They’re hoping Tuesday’s meeting was the last time.
“Come up with a plan because we’re all confused,” Danielson said.
The board did approve a change that would prevent some fourth-graders from ending up at four different schools over the course of four years by allowing them to be grandfathered in for a year.
The board is going to look at the assignment plan again at the end of November with the goal of taking a final vote in early December.