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Answers to Frequently Asked Questions

(these are questions that have been asked of CCLP during the past couple of weeks)
 
(1)  Does the Middle School Principal support the MYR conversion?  We can't speak for what she does and doesn't support.  She said less than 2 weeks ago that she would need 18 months-2 years to convert LRMS to the year-round calendar, so this has completely blindsided her too.  She was NOT even asked about how she felt about this before she was thrown under the bus.  We feel that it is disrespectful to her and irresponsible of WCPSS to even contemplate doing this. 
 
(2)  How do the Middle School teachers and staff members feel about this possibility?  We won't speak for them, but judging by the number of teachers and staff members who have come to us during the past week and asked how they can fight this conversion, we know that there are MANY who do not want it.
 
(3)  Isn't it better to have the MS on YR since LES is already on YR?  We say NO.  Like many parents at LES, Brier Creek, and now even Sycamore Creek, many of us are just counting down the days until we can be out of the YR insanity.  We know that our teachers are counting on a MYR reversal too, so we need to FIGHT FOR A MYR REVERSAL AT LES and not just roll over and accept MYR at LRMS too.  Now this just forces our families to have to deal with split schedules and the undesirable YR calendar for 3 additional years.
 
Some people will take the short-sighted approach and say "if the ES is on the YR calendar, they should also have our MS go YR.". BUT WHAT ABOUT WHEN YOUR OLDEST CHILD REACHES HIGH SCHOOL?  We need to look at the FUTURE, not just today.   When your children are in High School, keeping the family "united" is more important than ever.  The High School will never go year-round.  We have spoken with enough people at the MYR middle schools who say that we need to fight YR at the MS even harder than we did for the ES because it has been such a negative experience for them. 
 
Here is what has been shared with us from those in YR middle schools:  Educationally, the breaks are even more disruptive to learning than they are at ES--we're waiting for test score comparisons from those who were traditional but then converted to MYR.  Also, some electives (specifically advanced math classes and some foreign languages) are not offered on all tracks, so you could potentially have to switch tracks just to get the electives you want.  (SO, do you make your ES kids continually switch tracks to match up with the track your MS kids need, or just have them on 2 different YR tracks?)  There are cases where the middle school "teaching team" does not have high enough enrollment to receive funding for 4 teachers, so they either have to find a teacher who is dual-certified to teach 2 subjects OR have a teacher teaching a subject that he/she is not even certified to teach.
 
(4)  How does this play out in regards to the pending court case?  None of us claim to be lawyers, so this is our interpretation.  Right now they do not have the authority to assign students to YR schools.  Leesville Middle currently has almost 1300 students.  (LESS than they had last year, so they're not in CRISIS mode by any means)  WCPSS has to provide traditional seats to everyone who wants one.  There are not even CLOSE to enough open traditional seats in the system to accommodate all of the people at LRMS who want a traditional calendar.  As long as the lawsuit is pending, they need to follow Judge Manning's ruling. 
 
We've already lost so many involved and dedicated families to this mess.  We'd hate to think of what we'll be facing at LES next year if they do NOT convert us back to the traditional calendar.  AND, the Principal at LRMS is doing an excellent job, but she's had a HUGE mess to clean up.  Forcing this on her right now would be the WRONG thing to do.
 
(5)  Doesn't it make sense to convert to MYR so no one has to be assigned out of LRMS?  This is an easy one---THINK AGAIN!!!  (no offense intended)  If you actually believe that doing this will avoid reassignment, you're going to be shocked.  Chuck Dulaney said last week that if this goes through, they'll be assigning some of the current LES families OUT of LRMS into either Carroll Middle or West Millbrook Middle in order to make room for some of the current Brier Creek families who want a YR middle school and are "geographically closer" to LRMS.
 
Forcing MYR on Leesville Middle does NOT mean that there will be no reassignments !
 
(6)  What happened to the "Growth Committee" that was supposed to be looking out for what our families want?  Will they get involved to help us out?  Without going into too much detail, that committee consisted of 12 people.   8 members of that committee WERE looking out for what the majority of our families want and how decisions would impact NOT ONLY OUR OWN FAMILIES TODAY, we were looking at how decisions would impact ALL OF LEESVILLE in the future. There was a smaller group on the committee taking a very short-sighted approach and not interested in acting on behalf of the community's desires.  They were strong year-round supporters who didn't want to consider a MYR reversal---even though it was what the majority of our community wanted.   When the facts were presented, the facts didn't support the mission of the smaller group, so the decision was made to dissolve the Growth Committee.  This was unfortunate because the group of 8 wanted to survey the families and take action, but we were blocked from doing the survey that would prove what the families and staff members truly want.
 
The good news is, the "group of  8" is still very concerned and committed, so we're going to continue to fight for the good of the community. 
 
(7)  How can we help to be sure that the MYR conversion at the Middle School does NOT happen?  All we can say is, stay tuned, and stay involved.  The HUGE group we have still fighting for a MYR reversal is being joined by an even larger group fighting the MYR conversion at the Middle School.  We're fortunate to be part of a large and close-knit community. 
 
(8) Our Middle School has less children attending this year than last.  WHY the sudden rush to convert?  We don't have an answer to that one.  The other 2 options to handling growth were reassigning students to a MS closer to their homes OR building a 6th grade center.  We feel that they are taking the least desirable option by forcing this disruptive change on an entire population.
 
(9) Shouldn't they just assign a few students out of the school instead of forcing this on the entire school?  We feel that this MYR proposal was made without much thought or research.  Some of us looked into the idea of a 6th grade center to be located on the land near 540/Leesville but Chuck Dulaney told us that he had staff looking at building a YR middle school on that site.  Hearing that assured us that LRMS would not be forced to endure a MYR conversion.  Regardless of what is decided, there will still be reassignments.
 
(10)  Why does Patti Head continue to punish Leesville instead of look out for our families?  You have to ask her that question.  She says that she is listening to everyone and says she hears from both sides.  We also hear from both sides, but when over 90% of the people are asking you to do one thing and less than 10% are asking for something else,  we happen to believe that you should support the majority.
 
(11)  I am on Track 4 at Sycamore Creek.  Will I be guaranteed that my Middle School children are also on Track 4?  NO.  WCPSS will "attempt to" keep families at different YR schools on the same track, but that may mean you will have to switch tracks to accomplish that.  They will NOT guarantee it.
 
(12)  Will WCPSS convert Leesville High School to the year-round calendar?  They have said that for multiple reasons they won't ever put a high-school on the year-round calendar. There is a "modified calendar" followed by Southeast High School in Raleigh.  Although it does have a couple of 1 and 2-week breaks during the year, it would not be a logical choice to providing "calendar continuity" to ANY families.  One of the extra breaks matches up with Track 4, one matches up with Track 1, and other than that the modified calendar is as different from tracks 2 and 3 as the traditional calendar is.  There is a chart on another page of this website that compares "common days off" between traditional, multi-track year-round, and Modified Calendar.
 
(13)  I found an article on the WCPSS website that seemed to confirm that the year-round calendar in Middle School is not ideal.  Why force this conversion on LRMS if they know it's not ideal and they know the base families and staff members do not want it?  That is a question we've been asking as well. The following questions and answers are taken from that page on the WCPSS website:
 
Why not convert all middle schools to multi-track year-round calendars?

Middle schools are usually organized into four-teacher instructional teams with each teacher having a different area of certification—language arts, social studies, mathematics and science. The four core teachers teach four “homeroom” classes within each team. Organizing teams for each grade level within four tracks for each grade level is challenging. The optimum arrangement is one team per track per grade level, which serves approximately 1,248 students.

Any enrollment pattern less than the optimum will need some two-teacher teams, requiring teachers to have more than one area of certification and to teach multiple subjects. Optional multi-track middle schools can enroll the appropriate number of students through the application process and maintain the teaming structure. Conversion of existing middle schools from a single-track calendar to a multi-track calendar will result in differing numbers of students at each grade level and require the organization of more two-teacher instructional teams with smaller schools facing more disruption to the team organization than larger schools. Conversion of all middle schools would require many more teachers with dual-certification (e.g. math and science or language arts and social studies) or force more teachers to teach out-of-field, make it harder to attract and retain highly qualified teachers for middle schools, and negatively impact instructional planning and delivery. The adopted CIP calls for opening new middle schools as multi-track year-round schools and consideration of possible conversion of some existing schools to a multi-track calendar. Offering opportunities to apply for voluntary enrollment in a year-round middle school will enhance the ability of the schools to optimize team organization.

Why not convert high schools to multi-track year-round calendars?

Offering a full curriculum to separate tracks of 700 students requires more teachers than the same curriculum offered to a school of 2100 students and operating expenses would increase significantly if the existing diverse curriculum was to be maintained. The additional operating costs would outweigh the initial savings in construction costs after approximately ten years. Significant operational problems would challenge the administrators responsible for a four-track high school. School security would be a major problem as groups of students tracked in or out and extra-curricular activities spanned the track calendars. Providing equitable access to clubs, sports, and various school activities would be difficult. Recruitment and retention of highly qualified teachers would be difficult because of the need to have one teacher teaching many levels and sections of courses to small groups of students. For example, one French language teacher serving one track, would be responsible for teaching five different levels, with the advanced levels each having just a few students, and there would not be enough students taking French in one track to fill more than three course sections during a year. Therefore the French teacher would need to be qualified to teach another language or some subject other than foreign language. Few teachers would be able to teach multiple sections of the same course within a track, requiring additional planning time and contributing to teacher burnout.  

 
(14)  How can we survey the base families to ensure that our opinions are documented and available to WCPSS?  This has been suggested, and we are continuing to push for a true survey of staff members and base families attending LES and LRMS.  The PTA feels they need to remain neutral and does not want to conduct the survey at this time.  Since this is such a controversial change that is being considered, we hope they'll conduct a true survey that simply asks calendar preference of our families and staff members.

Random Questions

What is District 7 comprised of?

If you break down District 7, no middles or high, then you have 6 Traditional and 6 Year-round schools.  Total empty YR seats in District 7 is 829, Total empty seats in District 7 Trad is 480.

 

How many students can Leesville hold?

Originally opened in 1992 for 650 students, in 95-96 it held 1020 with 11 mobile units.

08/09 Day 20 959 with 1067 ASCC and 17 mobile units

07/08 Day 20 was 844 with ASCC of 1101 and 15 mobile units

06/07 Day 20 902 with ASCC at 986 with 19 mobile units

05/06 Day 20 921 with ASCC at 908 with 16 mobile units

04/05 Day 20 836 with ASCC at 733 with 7 mobile units

03/04 Day 20 770 with ASCC at 732 with 7 mobile unit

()Annual School Campus Capacity (ASCC):  The Annual School Campus Capacity is calculated for each school by adding the School Building Capacity to the capacity of the mobile units available for instructional purposes and adjusting the total to reflect the actual number of supplemental programs.  The Annual School Campus Capacity for each school may be revised yearly to reflect the actual number of mobile units available for instructional purposes and the actual number of supplemental programs offered. 

What are allowed class sizes?

k-2 LEA-wide average 21, maximum class size 24

3    LEA-wide Avg  21 maximum class size 24

4-9 LEA-wide Avg 26 maximum class size 29

From WCPSS website:

The legislation reducing class size in third grade requires that a LEA use the additional

allotted positions in the third grade only. In order to determine a LEA’s compliance with

this requirement, Financial and Business Services will monitor each LEA’s third grade

class size average for typical classes to determine that the required class size average of

21 has been met. For the purpose of monitoring the assignment of allotted teacher

positions in third grade, a typical class is defined as a regular (standard academic level)

self-contained class in which the teacher spends the majority of the day with the same

students teaching a complete curriculum.

Second-month class size data, as reported for a LEA through the School Activity Report

(SAR), will be used to determine each LEA’s compliance with requirements for both

class size and the assignment of allotted teacher positions in third grade. Note that it may

be necessary for Financial and Business Services to request additional class size data for

those few LEAs that may have schools that do not organize self-contained classes in third

grade but instead organize classes as departmentalized or blocked.

As always, special attention should be given to class sizes in grades K-3 since School-

Based Management and Accountability Program (ABCs) class size waivers are not

available for those grades. All school administrators should review their school’s SAR to

ensure that class size data accurately reflects the number of students being taught within

individual classes. Inaccurately reported classes continue to inflate the number of class

size overages for many LEAs.

A school that wishes to exceed class size requirements in grades 4-12 must include an

ABCs waiver in its school improvement plan. An ABCs class size waiver included in a

school’s improvement plan for 2002-03 will continue to be in effect for the remaining

one year of the ABCs cycle. Notification of new ABCs waivers for class size should be

sent to Curriculum and School Reform Services at DPI.

Requests for an individual class size exception waiver (not an ABCs waiver) provided for

under the provisions of G.S. 115C-301(g) and 115C-47(10) require the completion of a

Class Size Exception Waiver Request for an Individual Class form. Class size

requirements are outlined in Chapter Four of the School Attendance and Student

Accounting Manual. The manual may be viewed online at

www.ncpublicschools.org/fbs/ .

This form can be found in Chapter Four of the School Attendance and Student

Accounting Manual. Before any individual class size exception waiver will be granted, a

LEA must explain why the class size exception cannot be corrected, and the local board

of education must approve the waiver. Please note that a school will not be eligible to

receive an individual class size exception waiver (not an ABCs waiver) if the school has

received one for the last two consecutive school years. The Information Analysis and

Support Section will not approve waivers for class size exceptions for a school if parents

have contacted the Section regarding class size overages at the school. We ask that you

pass this information on to each principal in your LEA.

How many classes are at capacity?

As of 9/10/08, There was one K at maximum class size

Two first grade at maximum, 5 first grade over maximum State class sizes

1 second grade at maximum,

No third grades at maximum, two over average class size

1 fourth grade at maximum

No classes in fifth at maximum.

What are feeder schools for LRMS?

Root (T)
Conn (T-magnet)
Leesville (MYR)        
Hilburn (T)
Brier Creek (YR)
York (T)
Jeffrey's Grove (T)
Sycamore Creek (YR)
Stough (T-opt-out for LES)

 

6 Traditional and 3YR
Stough as the opt-out with 18 empty seats vs. Hilburn with 210.
Stough 47% F&R% 
Hilburn 43.5%
so does  that 3.5%  really justify 5.12 miles instead of 2.44????