FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE September 28, 2000

CARY, NC – Efforts to get money into schools serving Cary kids are underway, this after Wake Education Partnership signed a services agreement to help the Town of Cary in its quest to improve economic development potential through increased educational opportunities. According to the September 18^th contract, WEP will perform more than a dozen services that include drafting procedures for public schools to apply for funds, reviewing these applications and recommending which ones should be funded, and assessing the effectiveness of the funds expended at the end of this fiscal year. Having already assigned a project administrator to serve as overall project coordinator, WEP has a process schedule in place that should get funds to the schools before Thanksgiving.

"Wake Education Partnership’s involvement in this project has been invaluable," said Cary Town Manager Bill Coleman. "They’ve developed and are sticking to an aggressive schedule to help implement the Town Council’s goals." There are about 20,500 Cary school children in Wake County. About 18,500, or 90 percent, of these attend public schools.

With the public education process rolling along, Cary officials can move forward more quickly on analyzing options and making decisions on evaluating and funding non-public school education needs. Part of this effort includes determining exactly how many Cary students are involved in non-public education, a surprising challenge as no one entity seems to keeps track of these figures. Currently it appears that about eight percent of Cary kids attend private schools (religious and non-religious). The rest are thought to be enrolled at one of Cary’s 200+ reported home schools.

This "first of its kind in the State economic development through education" initiative is part of this year’s Town of Cary operating budget in which Council appropriated $3.7 million—or, or about $200 per child--for its 2000-2001 Fiscal Year to enhance educational opportunities for school students who reside in the Town. Under the plan, schools that serve at least 30 Cary children are eligible to apply for funding. For its role in handling the public schools portion of the plan, Cary will pay WEP four installments totaling $215,000 by June 30, 2001.

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