Wednesday, Mar. 10, 2010

2 Leesville schools go traditional

But Wakefield Elementary stays year-round. Parents now have some decisions to make.

The calendar conversion fight is over for three North Raleigh schools, but the details of how to carry out the changes are still being worked out.

Last week, the Wake County school board agreed to convert Leesville Road elementary and middle schools to a traditional calendar for this fall while leaving Wakefield Elementary School on a year-round calendar.

Now school administrators and board members are exploring how to oversee the transition at the Leesville schools while accommodating families who want to leave the two schools and those who want to return.

"People are asking what will happen next," said Rhonda Curtright, a leader of BiggerPicture4Wake, a parents' group that backed leaving the Leesville schools on the year-round calendar. "Many people are asking what they need to do."

Administrators are working out how to let Leesville families apply to attend other year-round schools if they don't want the traditional calendar. Plans call for allowing Leesville families to apply to Sycamore Creek Elementary School and Durant Road Middle School.

Details also are being worked out to allow a return to Leesville for families who had left because they didn't like the year-round calendar.

Time is running short because year-round schools begin the 2010-11 school year in early July.

Last week's school board vote drew mixed reactions.

For Leesville parents who've fought the year-round calendar for the past few years, it was a long-sought victory. Leesville Elementary was converted to a year-round calendar in 2007. Leesville Middle was converted in July.

"It's a wonderful victory for our community to finally all be back one on calendar," saidLisa Boneham, founder of Concerned and Committed Leesville Parents, a group that fought to convert the schools back to a traditional calendar.

One of the arguments for converting the elementary and middle schools was that Leesville Road High School, which is on the same campus, is on the traditional calendar.

But the conversion back to a traditional calendar was met with tears by some Leesville parents, especially those who've known only the year-round calendar.

Although 60 percent of Leesville Middle parents who responded to a recent calendar survey said they'd prefer the traditional calendar, 63 percent of the respondents at Leesville Elementary said they prefer the year-round calendar.

"They disregarded what the parents wanted," said Shannon Vogel, a Leesville Elementary parent who wanted to keep the year-round calendar. "It seems awfully rushed."

District by district

The difference between the votes at Leesville and Wakefield came down to the board members in both districts. Board members had agreed last week to defer to the wishes of the individual board members whether to change a school's calendar.

Board member Deborah Prickett had campaigned on converting the Leesville schools back to a traditional calendar. "I did something that will help the community," Prickett said.

Prickett said the year-round students who will leave to attend Sycamore Creek Elementary will help fill the underpopulated school.

Administrators warned that converting Leesville Middle would cost the equivalent of $8.2 million in lost student capacity. They said converging Leesville Elementary would cost $5.9 million in lost capacity.

Year-round schools hold more students than traditional-calendar schools by keeping buildings in constant use.

Prickett said the school board might also be able to relieve potential overcrowding problems at Leesville Middle by accommodating the request of families in the Brier Creek section of northwest Raleigh to be reassigned to the new Mills Park Middle School in Cary. That change, which the school board is expected to discuss March 23, could be made for as soon as this fall.

Wakefield stays as-is

While Prickett backed the Leesville conversions, board member Kevin Hill opposed the conversion of Wakefield Elementary, which has been on the year-round calendar since 2007.

Hill said he was concerned that neighboring elementary schools are crowded and that converting Wakefield Elementary would lead to the loss off 278 seats that could be needed when the economy improves and student enrollment growth picks up.

"I'm comfortable with my decision," Hill said.

But Hill's refusal to back Wakefield Elementary's conversion back to a traditional calendar angers some parents who vow to oppose him if he runs for re-election in 2011.

The supporters of conversion note that 57 percent of the parents who responded to the survey said they prefer the traditional calendar.

"We as his constituents let him know our wishes through the survey," said Cathy Thompson, a Wakefield Elementary parent who prefers the traditional calendar. "Yet he says he's having a problem giving people what they want."