Wednesday, Dec. 23, 2009

School board steps back

Leesville Road campuses may stay on year-round schedule next year.

Leesville Road elementary and middle schools might keep their year-round calendars next year.

To allow time to survey parents by mail, Wake County's new school board is backing away from its plan to start phasing out mandatory year-round school calendars in 2010, including at the Leesville schools.

Some Leesville parents had hoped that both schools would stop operating on a year-round calendar in 2010 once new school board members followed up on their campaign pledges to end mandatory year-round schools.

But school board members at their meeting last week withdrew a resolution that said they'd begin ending mandatory year-round schools in the 2010-11 school year.

The problem, according to new board members, is that they're not expected to get back parental survey results in time to make decisions about changes next school year.

School board member Deborah Prickett, who campaigned on reversing the Leesville calendar conversions, said she wants to schedule a meeting after the holidays with Leesville parents to talk about the issue.

Prickett, whose district includes the Leesville area, said it will be harder now to convert the schools back to a traditional calendar next year.

"It will be close, but it still may be possible to do it next year," she said.

Lisa Boneham, who founded Concerned and Committed Leesville Parents, said she's not giving up hope that the school board will convert both Leesville schools in 2010.

"We still feel we'd be a great guinea pig for mandatory year-round reversal next year," Boneham said.

Divisive issue

The issues of assignment to year-round schools and calendar conversions have divided the Leesville community over the past three years.

Leesville Elementary was one of 22 schools the district converted to a year-round calendar in 2007 to help keep up with projected record growth. But the national economic recession has dramatically slowed student population growth.

Leesville Middle was converted to year-round last year to help accommodate future growth and to keep more families with children in elementary and middle schools on the same calendar. But because of slower growth, the school has fewer students this year than it did last year.

Voters elected four critics of mandatory year-round schools to the school board this fall, joining current school board member Ron Margiotta in forming a new majority on the board.

Seeking opinions

Board members agreed Dec. 1 to conduct a districtwide survey of parents. Last week, the board narrowed the survey to include only parents of elementary- and middle-school students.

The surveys are to be sent home with students in January or February.

Questions for parents will include whether they prefer a year-round or traditional calendar and whether they'd want their children to stay in their school if its schedule were changed.

Parents will be able to fill out the survey online, return it to their child's school or mail it in an envelope the district will pay postage for.

School board members had initially told staffers to report the survey results in February. But administrators said that would require an online-only survey that could result in fewer responses from low-income parents.

Board members agreed instead to allow surveys to be mailed back, delaying the results until April.

Based on the later time frame, board members withdrew last week's conversion resolution, although the survey will still go forward. Board member said the survey information would be useful for the 2011-12 school year.

Some are happy

Critics of the new school board welcomed the shift.

"I do think the new majority is realizing they might not know as much as they thought," said Maria Mauriello, a founder of BiggerPicture4Wake, a group that backs mandatory year-round schools. "They're not campaigning now. They're governing."

Mauriello estimated that half the Leesville Middle parents and a majority of the Leesville Elementary parents are happy with the year-round calendar.

But Boneham said strong support exists for converting back both Leesville schools.

"People at Leesville are making plans for next year that they'll be traditional and are happy about it," she said.

Gary Dismukes, a Leesville Road Elementary parent, was among several speakers who urged the school board at last week's meeting not to decide immediately on mandatory year-round.

He said he's prepared to keep lobbying the board to not change the calendar.

"My concern is that the only reason they slowed down is the public outcry," Dismukes said.

"We just need to keep on them."