Tell about schools in Raleigh

jlb7640

Possibly moving to NC.  I am hearing mixed reviews about Wake County schools.  I have two kids and we are really hoping to send them to public school.  If Wake is not good; what is?  Is there a part of the county is better than other?  Our number one priority on where live will be because of schools.

jlb7640

*Tell me--haha I guess I need to go back to school.

 

Mrs Sandytoes

From what I understand about Wake County Schools, they are not neighborhood/town based, they are county based. So where your children go to school doesn't depend on where you live. There is a big debate going on right now because the school board wants to make them neighborhood schools but this has caused much debate because according to some people (including the NAACP and the US Secretary of Education) this would cause segregation among the schools. Find Wake County Public Schools on Wikipedia to read more about the debate, it will provide you with other sources as well.

I currently rent an apartment in Cary but will hopefully be purchasing in Holly Springs by the end of the year. Cary is a very affluent town (way too expensive for us to purchase in) and I can tell you that my Church has to sponsor the school down the street from me because most of the children are from very poor households, while some of the under priviledged children are from Cary, most are bussed in from other areas. Another issue with this is that obviously if your child isn't assigned to a school near your neighborhood they could be on a bus for prolonged periods of time each day. Also, some of the schools in Wake County have year round calendars, another thing you'll want to look into.

Johnston County is the only other school system near here, if you mvoed to certain parts of Garner, Clayton your children would go to school there. I haven't looked into Johnston County too much, Garner and Clayton are a little too far out for us to live. I know that my boss already has her child on the list for Wake County Christian because she refuses to send her to Wake County schools. At this point I would just try to get in touch with someone at the schools to determine how they choose which school your child goes to and go from there. Where I grew up we had neighborhood schools so you picked a house in the town where you wanted your kids to go to school, wish it was that easy to tell you.

jlb7640

Thank you for explaining that to me.  I have an old classmate that lives there but doesn't have kids.  She was not able to explain to me the mixed reviews on Wake County.  No I do not like the idea of the kids being bused.  One of the reasons we would like to move is we do not want to have to send the kids to private school.

Mrs Sandytoes

We don't have kids yet either but because we are looking to buy by the end of the year and hopefully starting to try shortly after it is something I had to take into account. Plus it is such a controversy you really can't turn on the news here without reading about it. It's even been featured on the Colbert Report and the Washington Post because it is just such a mess. We have decided to buy in Wake County for now because obviously we have another 6 or 7 years before we have kids that will be ready to go to school so if the mess isn't figured out by then we could possibly sell. Like I said, I don't know how the decision is made which school your child goes to, and I don't know if it changes each year or if once your child starts a school it will stay that way or how it works so it would definitely be worth trying to contact the district to figure that out. It may be way overblown and only a small percentage of children are bussed all over the place.

thebennerhalf

I teach in Wake County and in my opinion, it's no worse off than any other district in the country right now - as in, they're all pretty messed up and hanging on the edge of reform, major changes in administration, and funding is never guaranteed.

They did make most schools neighborhood-based this year, with the exception of year-round vs. traditional calendar - if your zone is assigned a year-round school, and you prefer traditional calendar (Aug-May), or vice versa, you are allowed to change, but there's only one or two options, instead of the whole county as it was in years past.

Now, I'm bias , but the teachers do their absolute best to make the most of their resources and give the students the best possible education, no matter what's going on in the business-end of things. As in any district, some schools perform better than others, and some have more/different resources, but your children will not lack an exceptional education if they attend Wake County schools.

Mrs Sandytoes

I'm really glad to hear that they did make them neighborhood based schools. I remember taking the bus to school and lots of bad things can happen especially if you're on there for an extended period of time lol.

 I agree with you, no matter the school some of the teachers that I know do their best. I also know that, unfortunately the politics and things can get in the way. I think with the economy the way it is, you're right, every school is pretty much a mess right now.

I really admire teachers, I've known some great, dedicated hard working teachers. I've also met the exact opposite from a school in Cary, someone that admitted to going to school still drunk from the night before, so drugged up on klonopin that she could barely function, so obsessed with her looks that she was constantly berating the other teachers who chose to go to school in jeans and sweatshirts. This isn't a younger woman fresh out of college either, she's married with a child, she has tenure at the school. I can tell you that when I have kids and they have a great teacher I will be so thankful and treasure that person. I hope to never have to deal with someone like her.

By the way, we share a wedding date...congratulations!