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I am a teacher at a year round school in North Raleigh. Our school has been under enrolled for the past two years and will be again next year. Although there are literally hundreds of seats available at our middle school, hundreds of applications for seats there were and continue to be turned down. Why? Because the children of the parents who applied for the seats are not the children the school board wants to attend our school. Education is not the first goal of Wake County Public Schools. The first goal is diversity at any cost. As teachers at the school, we are told not to question or talk about this situation. So while the school system talks about all the overcrowding, we could hold hundreds more students. The school board has tried to fill the school with students who do not want to go to year round school. Many of there students have limited English proficiency and are actually hurt by the year round calendar. For example, a student who begins school at the end of September and is placed on Track 2, will have already missed at least  6 weeks of school that will never be made up. Year round students attend school for 180 days as do other students. If this same student were to be put in a school with a traditional calendar, much less class time would be lost. In many instances, the school board is hurting the very students who need us the most. This situation has bothered teachers at my school since year round schools were given base populations and students and parents were told this is your only choice. The only reason this has not been contested before is because the parents of the children are often economically challenged or speak little English and have no know how about fighting the system. If you are poor or new to this country, you have no voice and no choice! I applaud Judge Manning's decision and hope that Wake County will rethink its policy on year round schools.

Thanks, but I live in Cary near a very over-crowded school and your North Raleigh seats don't really appeal to me.  Also, there are plenty of studies showing year-round schooling is beneficial to education retention.  The truth is, I didn't think year-round or traditional were detrimental (as some make it seem) to our kids' education, but over-crowding (which is the case here) actually could.

IYHO... that mean in your humble opinion.  And that is your right.  What I strongly object to is your statement that "Education is not the first goal of Wake County Public Schools. The first goal is diversity at any cost."  What a crock!    The WCPSS focus on economic diversity has helped ensure that ALL SCHOOLS in the county provide excellent educational opportunity for ALL KIDS, and it has worked.  You argue that "the school board is hurting the very students who need us the most", yet you seem to be critical of the diversity focus that is helping those very kids.  I know from personal experience that the WCPSS adminstrators who are making these decisions are dedicated, hard working educators who have sacrificed throughout their careers in pursuit of educating our children.  Your comments, as well as those by others in Wake CARES, or Americans for Prosperity (would be funny names if not so sad) are an insult to those administrators.  IMHO of course :-)

I happen to be one of the parents who likes the idea of year round schools.  I had adapted my plans to accomodate it, already having booked and paid for vacations for track out periods, and spent lots of time and money on getting a visitation order modified to account for the year round schedule.  I am NOT going to be a happy person when all that time, money, and effort goes down the drain for some rich kids parents wanting to think they rule, and being selfish in their efforts. 

 The constitution was sighted in the hearing, that it is mandatory for children to attend school for 9mths out of the year.  This was a reason that was used against year round school, however the reality is that year round does provide a 9mth a year education, with more breaks. 

I, as a working adult, if given a month of vacation, would prefer to use it a week at a time, instead of all at once.  Maybe people should open their minds...afterall, thats what its all about here is that people dont like change and don't want to be open to new ideas.

 I grew up in an area with overcrowding problems, and it affected students learning, the quality of teachers hired, the number of students in a class, and the number of people who couldn't participate in after school activities (lets face it, if they only want 20 people for a baseball team, that is all they would take, whether there is 400 wanting to play, or 4,000).  Some people were subjected to learning in trailors, most of the time with no air conditioning!  I KNOW THE RESULT of overcrowding.  Lets hear all those parents crying about that when thats what the result of their actions are.  Or, better yet, lets send our kids to school on the traditional calendar for a half of a day!  That way they only learn half of what they are supposed to, and the after school programs, daycares and camps are subject to overcrowding-that'll be more beneficial and save us more money!  But...thats okay because we will have the full summer for vacation ---WHAT KIND OF THINKING IS THAT!  COME ON PEOPLE-GROW UP!  Thought should have been given to all the options, then everyone should have realized that year round is the best option budget wise and for the sake of our childrens education. 

Those of us who are thinking for the benefit of our children should at least be given the option to stay with year round schools.  Just like the other parents feel year round shouldn't be forced on them, its not fair for those of us who have already accomodated the schedule to have to have traditional forced on us.

That's not how authority is consistutionally intepreted.  Constitutional law is all about saying who has the authority.   That is, party A doesn't have the authority, not because it wasn't assigned to them, but because it was assigned to somebody else.  If it wasn't assigned to somebody else, then all bets are off.

So in this case, the Judge left out an important bit.  Who does have the authority?  And in which clause did that authority get proscribed to them?

It seems the Judge is saying that the legislature has the authority.  Can somebody find it on the books where the legislature had the foresight to extend authority to school boards on all issues except converting to year-round calendars?  Did the legislature write a double-secret escape clause just in case this situation we're experiencing in Wake County happened?

I doubt our legislature kept that authority for themselves.  In which case, the school board can legally claim it.   They should challenge.