FINAL REPORT

AND RECOMMENDATIONS

OF THE

MAYORS’ TASK FORCE

ON SCHOOL ASSIGNMENT

November 2003

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction...................................................................................................... 1

Community Involvement................................................................................. 2

Planning........................................................................................................... 4

Expanded Choice........................................................................................... 7

Appendices..................................................................................................... 9

Report from The McKenzie Group

Preliminary Key Findings of the Mayors’ Task Force

INTRODUCTION

Organized and co-chaired by the mayors of Apex, Cary , and Garner, the Mayors’ Task Force on School Assignment was a 33-member citizen group that began meeting monthly in November 2002 to articulate, prioritize, and work with the Wake County Public School System to positively and effectively resolve the most critical school assignment issues.

The Task Force’s eleven months of work was influenced in large measure by the research, presentations, and reports of Dr. Loretta Webb and Dr. Mary Helen Smith from the Washington DC area consulting firm The McKenzie Group. Hired by the Towns of Cary and Apex, the consultants were charged with bringing to the Task Force national best practices in school assignment, especially relating to communications/community involvement, planning, stability, and choice.

The work of the Task Force has culminated in this final report, which presents specific recommendations to expand upon, enhance the equality of, and maximize the effectiveness of the Wake County Public School System’s assignment program. The specific recommendation contained herein are supported by real world working examples detailed in The McKenzie Group’s report (see Appendix A).

Comprehensive information about the work of the Task Force--including audio files of meetings as well as minutes and reports—can be found under SCHOOL ISSUES at www.townofcary.org.

Effective internal and external communication with Wake County School Board stakeholder groups is of primary importance to build public support needed to improve public education. The school community, including parents, school board members, administrators, teachers, students, and business partners must work together to address the educational needs of the students.

A communications and community engagement school board policy would ensure an organized and systematic process for communicating information about major initiatives within each of the six geographic areas of the school district. The process should define the audience, methods of dissemination and include a process for feedback. A community engagement policy would acknowledge that all partners are equal in the education process and that communications is valued and is based on trust.

Through community engagement, issues related to student assignment, site selections, 5/10-year plans, finances, and other topics of interest and concern can be openly discussed with our education partners to generate creative and productive solutions with a supportive consensus.

The Task Force recommends the following structure for a school board policy on communications and community involvement.

1. Establish 10 fixed ‘Education Community Partnership’ meetings per year conducted at various locations throughout the county, one in each Wake County School Board member’s district. At least two school board members and appropriate WCPSS staff should attend each meeting with regard to topic and location. Each area assistant superintendent should attend every meeting in his/her area, and the superintendent of education should attend at least half of all meetings. The meetings are open to all interested stakeholders and will be videotaped and minutes taken for publication. Annual meeting topics should include:

2. Gather public feedback through scientific, representative surveys conducted by an independent organization. The results, which will be generalizable to the entire population because of the scientific nature of the survey (random sampling, etc…), will establish key benchmarks for yearly public grading as well as the community’s positions on current or critical issues to assist program or policy decisions. The company chosen to conduct the survey will be independent of Wake County shareholders and be changed periodically to minimize bias.

In addition to the annual scientific surveying, “On-Line Quick Polls” should be set up to monitor and gather feedback from the ‘Education Community Partnership’ meetings, and other important issues and ideas. While not scientific, such polls do offer important anecdotal evidence similar to that gained from attendees of public hearings. WCPSS should create a central location/office to collect feedback and responses generated via emails, mail, phone calls, and public comments at meetings to be forwarded to the responsible Board Member(s) and staff.

3. Wake County Public School System information must be publicly available and published on a timely basis. Minutes, comments, and responses from ‘Education Community Partnership’ meetings should be posted on the WCPSS Web site within three days of the event. The videotaped meeting should be aired through the local public information cable channel. Meeting summaries should be published through the local community newspapers, school mail outs, and the U.S. Mail and public libraries if needed to keep parents informed. The WCPSS Web site should be expanded to include more data on student assignment information for the whole county including maps, demographics, performances, bus routes, etc. If requested, it should be available on CD. Translate information into multiple languages as needed for our ESL families. The WCPSS staff should respond directly to major comments.

Both long and short-range planning is essential to develop and maintain a mutually productive relationship between our school system and community. With proper information gathering of demographic and student trends, early and ample meetings and hearings with our communities, and widely publicized communication of its process and recommendations, the school system will have a higher degree of community and parental acceptance of student assignments. A community which has knowledge of long range plans by having been a party in creating them is far more likely to support their required funding. WCPSS’ current planning cycle and process need to be enhanced to reflect the $850 million business it is.

The following Task Force planning recommendations, while varying in level of change, will provide a significant improvement in the process of student assignment and community involvement.

1. Using the community involvement recommendations detailed in this report, the Wake County Public Schools System should create a 10-year long-range and a 5‑year firm comprehensive plan for facility utilization and student assignment.

A. The creation of these plans will begin with analysis and community input to the school system via various public forums. Information from low-income families (who are typically under-represented in public comment) may be specifically solicited by parent liaisons. The objective is to have these plans created through community input, well publicized, supported with accurate demographics from WCPSS staff, and facilitated by the office of student assignment.

B. Base population projections should be based on information from county and municipality planning boards as well as school system and census data.

C. Update both long and short-range plans on a yearly rolling basis to account for updated information.

D. Every revision to the assignment process must include an executive summary from the school system clearly delineating the overall goals of the reassignment, the reassignment process rationale, and how these goals were met by the current revisions.

2. Redraw and realign base student assignment nodes/zones based upon the goals identified in the 10-year long-range and a 5-year firm comprehensive plan.

3. Base facilities decisions upon the goals delineated in the 5 and 10-year comprehensive plans by working with municipal and county planning staffs.

4. Improve efficiencies through consolidating facilities and student assignment under the same supervisor in order to better coordinate planning around student assignment and facility utilization.

The Task Force recommends the following steps to be completed in the next three years:

1. Using the community involvement portion of this report, commence creation of the 10-year long-range and the 5-year firm comprehensive plan.

3. Complete realignment of Facilities and Student Assignment functions in the Central Office.

The Mayor’s Task Force on Student Assignment recognizes that the Wake County Public School System currently offers a choice model as a component of its assignment policy, with the ability to apply for a magnet school or schools other than the student’s assigned base. However, we believe that current policy significantly limits choice and, thus, presents inequities since many can apply, but only a select few will actually receive the assignment for which they have applied. This disenfranchises segments of our community who are denied the ability to demand the school assignment that is in the best interest of their children. In addition, if a voluntary assignment transfer is successful, WCPSS assignment policy only guarantees the assignment for 1 year. Therefore, we recommend increasing the equity of existing managed choice through the expansion of choice as follows:

1. Establish citizen committees comprised of registered voters from each district during the 2004-05 school year. For broader representation, there could be a subcommittee in each district, with a representative chosen by the subcommittee to participate in the core committee. The core committee would work directly with WCPSS representatives, in a collaborative structure where interactive dialog is encouraged. Board members could choose to interact with their respective district subcommittees as well. These committees would:

A. Review current attendance zones and recommend changes and/or modifications. Allocate resources based on need rather than on a per capita bases.

C. Review magnet and year-round school assignment policies and modify as necessary to expand choice options.

D. Review current allocation of resource, including personnel and programs, and recommend changes and/or modifications to ensure adequate resources are available to all schools. Allocation would be based on the needs of the individual student communities, with specific programs that best address each unique student population.

These committee efforts should be in parallel with and preceded by the development and implementation of the countywide community engagement process and the 10-year long-range and the 5‑year firm comprehensive plan, all detailed earlier in this report.

2. Benchmark and Collaborate on Expansion of Choice. By joint effort of the WCPSS staff and the citizen committee on expansion of choice, select several of the school districts listed in The McKenzie Group report. Invite these districts to collaborate with WCPSS to better understand their history with expanding choice. Review their recommendations in implementing a successful program, and document their implementation process. The MTFSA has already received invitations from other districts indicating they would be interested in traveling to Wake to facilitate this type of collaboration, with an invitation to visit them as well. This collaboration should be initiated/implemented during the 2004-05 school year.

3. Develop a Choice Expansion Plan with community Input. In cooperation with the citizen committee on expansion of choice in WCPSS, develop a plan prototype to be presented to the community. This prototype should be presented to the public through a series of on-site and online reviews, with ample opportunity for feedback. The plan should be managed as a “living document,” open to revision and modification based on community input. This should be initiated/implemented during the 2004-05 school year, and completed prior to the completion of the 2005-06 school year.

4. Establish a Comprehensive and Flexible School Resource Plan. In conjunction with the citizen committee on resource allocation, develop a resource allocation policy that allows the WCPSS to assign program and personnel resources to address the varying needs of individual student communities. This could mean adjusting the teacher to student ratio on a given campus, providing incentives for teachers and administrators who accept positions on high-needs campuses, programs targeted to augment community efforts, collaboration with local business communities, etc. For example, just as dollars are allocated to provide a magnet program with special electives, programs and resource should be deployed that specifically target student communities with higher F&RL ratios, language issues, etc. Current programs should be reevaluated and open for modification, revision, expansion or removal. This plan should be presented to the community for input and review, and remain open to necessary revisions or modifications. This should be initiated/implemented during the 2004-05 school year, and completed prior to the completion of the 2005-06 school year.