As the largest school district in the state, in one of the fastest-growing counties in the country, the Wake County Public School System (WCPSS) is constantly trying to keep up with a growing number of students.
District officials are trying to balance the need for new schools with the interests of families already established in their communities.
It’s putting some families in a difficult position, especially those in the fast-growing portion of western Wake County near areas such as Apex and Cary. Many families voiced concerns Tuesday night at the WCPSS board meeting about how this plan pulls their children from their well-established and nearby schools, to place them in new schools farther from their homes and away from their friends and communities.
We’ll be on multiple, multiple calendars and we’re going to have to juggle that with two working parents, and it’s going to be a nightmare.
“We’ve worked so hard to build that community consistency, that network of parenthood, it would just be devastating,” Bailey Butler told ABC11. Butler’s kindergartener attends Olive Chapel Elementary, which is on a year-round calendar. When her now-3-year-old eventually enters the school system, if she isn’t granted an exception, Butler will have children on different schedules.