Wake County Public Schools and growth

[dmccall]

How is it fair for schools like Cary, Athens, Millbrook, Sanderson to have abundant parking for their students? How is it fair for the City of Raleigh to take away almost 200 spaces for students via the Historic Commission's regulations and the parking on street regulations?

I take exception to the "snot-nosed brat" comment. When you get a chance, go look at the cars parked in other schools' lots.

If people were relegated to taking the bus during their 4 years, Broughton would not have after-school programs - including sports, drama, band, choral - some of these groups in recent history have been among the best in the nation.

[DPK]

Fair? I agree it's not fair, however nobody is ever entitled to anything. If they have limited parking, jack up the cost of permits or dig up the front lawn and build a double deck parking deck there. Then cover the deck with grass. Those who really want to park will fork over the money to park or seek alternative means.

Everyone always feels like they are entitled. Life's not fair, kids should learn that lesson early in life.

[RaleighRob]

Didn't the school board take away their magnet status? If so, then by theory at least their new population should soon become mostly local in the vicinity, thus lowering the need for parking. (When I lived in University Park last year, it seemed like the neighbors were breeding like rabbits so don't tell me there aren't alot of local kids.)

[ChiefJoJo]

Broughton students or parents should be embarrassed to complain about anything being unfair to them, if that's what they are in fact doing. Good grief, it's the most entitled school in best location Raleigh. Has anyone ever taken a look at it? It's basically a castle compared to most others. Rediculous.

As far as the parking goes, I don't feel that strongly about it. It is in an urban area with more limited acreage, so it's not an apples to apples comparison with say, Wakefield. I'm sure the students could care less about that fact though, but they enjoy the fruits of having their HS set on the most valuable location of any in the county, so I'm not going to shed too many tears for them. I took the bus or carpooled for most of my HS years and managed to participate in varsity sports and other after-school activities while maintaining good grades, so I'm not sure that is a good justification to build more parking. I'm not sure what they are going to charge for these new spaces, but I'm sure it won't be the full price of building & maintaining that pavement on that expensive land--in other words, whatever they are going to be charged, you can bet it will be heavily subsidized by the school system (taxpayers).

[Jones_]

Parking is not an automatic plug-in required to get an education, period. Millbrook, Sanderson et.al. are suburban schools, built in response to suburban growth and designed to accommodate suburban lifestyles. Broughton is being asked to to conform to suburban mindsets as well. "Fair" is not a fair element to bring into the discussion. You can't move next to an airport and then complain about the noise, and neither can you move into an urban school district and complain about the urban game plan.

[dmccall]

However you CAN discuss fairness when the city takes away spaces from your school while the county dumps more students in.

There is more to a school than just the books and the teachers. Part of what makes Broughton special is its after-school programs and its parental involvement. The "get over it" approach just leads to lackluster schools with no attachment to its students and alumni.

BHS has a great outer shell, but there are much nicer schools in the county. BHS has one of the worst auditoriums in the county, and one of the worst football stadiums in the state of North Carolina. People assume that the Jaycee Center is one of the nicest parks and rec facilities in Raleigh too, but that just goes to prove the ITB class-warfare jealousy that exists.

[ChiefJoJo]

However you CAN discuss fairness when the city takes away spaces from your school while the county dumps more students in.

[dmccall]

Fair enough . I really haven't paid a lot of attention to the details of issue as you likely have, so consider the above my gut reaction from a planning perspective. How is the city taking away spaces? I thought the council overwhelmingly approved the new lot up front.

[Jones_]

The Strip is Cameron Street. It used to punch through to St Mary's so the net gain there is a gift from the City. All I see is the County taking away its own parking places by expanding the school through almost the entire rear of the lot. The County should have thought about buying part of orphanage when that was for sale or else just suffering not having a 4A size school in the City Center.

[ChiefJoJo]

Here's an excellent read on the WCPSS diversity policy and how growth has affected it. I say the fact that the Raleigh chamber strongly supports the diversity policy should indicate that, beyond the incendiary politics of some in western Wake, the policy is viewed by many as an asset to the community, as it has helped maintain one of the best school systems in NC (w/Chapel Hill). Is it perfect? No, but as Bob Geary points out, many of the issues today are the result of unabated growth-related decisions that the school board has zero control over.

[ChiefJoJo]

Here's part 2. In my view, this should be required reading (both parts) for a solid understanding on how growth, governance and politics are intertwined in the future of the WCPSS.

[JeffC]

WAKEup Wake county sponsoring a forum at McKimmon Center this evening on the challenges facing the Wake County schools (and, candidly, as a response to the affluent parents in Western Wake who want all the poor kids to stay in their own schools).

more info here...

[ChiefJoJo]

The N&O covers the upcoming school board election, which seems to be a de-facto referendum on the system's diversity policy.

[ChiefJoJo]

The Wake County Chamber warns about the economic consequences of giving up the school diversity policy.

[Gard]

Perdue is now vowing to stop the school board's plan to go to neighborhood schools. According to ABC 11, Purdue stated that she will "make sure that doesn't happen." The article also notes that the possibility that Perdue could direct the state government to take over WCPSS, as the state has done with other school systems in the past for various reasons. Another route she could take, which isn't mentioned in the article, is pushing for legislation to mandate a state-wide diversity policy, or simply sign an executive order that prevents the school board from changing it.

http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?section=news/local&id=7348622