Safety and Security Committee Meeting

Electronico student assignment at wcpss.net sea kon mñana. This evening's session will focus on the opening of the new hilltop needed more elementary school and other related recommendations in the southern area of our district. As a reminder, today's session was prepared by the Office of Student Assignment, and the information we will review with you this evening is a subset of the full presentation that was shared with the board during their work session on September 2nd. Several supplemental materials related to the development of this year's plan were also shared with the board during their work session on September 2nd. You can find these with the board materials for the September 2 work session. 4B is a review of information shared with the board during previous work sessions. 4 C is an updated version of the public engagement summary report. 4 D includes PDF versions of the current draft of proposed attendance boundary changes that allow you to zoom in to the street level. and 4E includes data reports used to inform projected enrollment for impacted schools. You can access all of these materials and find additional resources by visiting the 2026 enrollment proposal page on our district website. Again, this evening's session will focus on the opening of the new Hilltop Needmore Elementary School and other related recommendations in the southern area of our district. Before we begin, let me go over some logistics. Our session will last for no

more than an hour and a half. We will begin with a presentation and conclude by responding to questions from today's session. We recognize that now and throughout the session, you may have questions regarding the proposal or the recommended stability rules. To capture your questions, we will be using the Q&A feature within Google Meet. To access this feature from a computer, please click on the grid shape in the toolbar on your screen. If you're using a mobile device, select the three dots first, then select the icon with the three shapes. You should then see a Q&A feature identified by a question mark icon. To ensure your questions are anonymous, our host and moderators will be monitoring the Q&A for questions and capturing them throughout this evening's session. Once you see that your question has been removed from the Q&A, that means that your question has been successfully captured by our moderators and you do not need to resubmit your question. We will make every effort to respond to your questions toward the end of our session. In addition, we will use your questions to update the FAQ portion of our website. for NVANO electronico student assignment at wcpss.net a secona. In addition, we are asking that you contribute to the larger community discussion related to this initial draft of the 202627 school enrollment proposal via thought exchange. The thought exchange will

remain open through October 5. After it is closed, we will summarize the feedback received and will share this summary with the board during their work session on October 21. No one will be personally identified in the summary. Before I turn things over to Susan, we would like to remind you that today's session will focus on the opening of the new Hilltop Needmore Elementary School and other related recommendations in the southern area of our district. By the end of this evening's session, you will have had an opportunity to briefly review the assignment planning process. Extensively review the recommendations included in the initial draft specific to your area of the district. Quickly review the timeline for the planning process. And perhaps most importantly, submit questions that you have that will help you gain a better understanding of the potential impacts of the proposed plan for your family. I will turn things over to Susan.

Thank you, Eric, for welcoming our participants. And for all of you joining us this evening, thank you for this opportunity to share with you some important information that's included in the initial draft of the 2026 2027 enrollment plan. To provide some context, on September 2nd, staff members presented the initial draft of the new student enrollment proposal to the board of education. This draft includes proposed school assignment changes for the 2026 2027 school year. So that would be the next school year. This year's student assignment proposal does focus on the opening of the new Hilltop Neanware Elementary School and aligning feeder patterns in areas that are impacted by this school opening as well as feeder patterns in areas impacted by recent elementary assignment changes in previous plans and relieving caps and overcrowded schools while filling

underutilized schools. Not all, but many of these changes will allow students to attend a less crowded school and many will also have shorter bus routes. The proposal also includes recommendations for stability rules for families that are impacted by the plan and those recommendations are included in the current proposal. All of the information we will share during this evening session along with other tools and resources to help you better understand the recommendations included in this initial draft of of the proposal can be found on our district website. Um, just as a reminder, the website on the top is where you'll find the most current information about the the actual proposal and the recommendations included in the proposal, including frequently asked questions and other resources. Um, the main assignment planning page that you see here on the bottom of the slide is also a great resource particularly for anyone interested in learning more about the complete process that we use to prepare for and develop our annual enrollment plans. We recognize that some of you may just now be joining us or joined us after um Eric gave the initial um instructions on how to post questions. So, we just want to remind everyone that we'll be using the Q&A feature in the Google Meet to capture your questions today. To access this feature from a computer, please click on the grid shape that you see here on your toolbar. Then, and if you're using a mobile device, you're going to look for these three dots first. Ultimately, you're trying to get to the c the question mark icon so that you can submit your questions. So to ensure that your questions are anonymous, our host and moderators will be monitoring the Q&A tool throughout the session and they will be capturing them throughout the session. Once you see that your question has been removed from the Q&A, that means that your question has been successfully captured by our moderators and you do not need to resubmit your question. We will make every effort to respond to your questions toward the end of our session. Also, we would like to again encourage everyone to participate in the community discussion related to this initial draft of the 202627 school enrollment proposal via thought exchange. The thought

exchange will remain open through October 5th. After it has closed, we will summarize the feedback received through the thought exchange as well as through sessions like this and we'll share that with the board during their work session on October 21st. To ensure you have a better understanding of how this year's proposal was developed, we're going to take just a few minutes to briefly review our planning process and our public engagement progress to date. What you see here is an example of the information that was included in the board materials with much more extensive information about this process if you're looking for that information. So, briefly again, the policy that guides the development of our district's annual enrollment plans is board policy 4150. Here you see a snippet of that policy. It does direct staff to balance to the extent reasonable the goals and factors identified by four main pillars. These are student achievement, stability, proximity, and operational efficiency. Each of these pillars have very specific definitions within policy 4150. To help make sure everyone is on the same starting point, we're going to show a brief video that explains these four pillars and then we'll continue with our discussion. [Music] Understanding student assignment. It's no secret that our school district is growing and it's growing fast. That means each year we need to address overcrowded schools and often need to open new schools to keep up with this growth. To state the obvious, we may have to reduce the enrollment at an existing school or fill new schools with students. This is done through the annual student assignment process. To best understand when and where new growth is coming in our district, we conduct an annual enrollment forecast. This forecast helps us look ahead up to 10 years and project enrollment growth throughout the district. This information helps us update our capital improvement plan and to make more informed decisions related to school assignments. Each year, some students

are assigned to one of our new schools or reassigned to an existing school. This ensures we have balanced school populations across the district. We know families love their schools and that student assignment decisions can be worrisome. That's why we want to be completely transparent in how we make them. Our school board has established four pillars that guide each and every student assignment decision. Here's what they mean and how they work together. Student achievement. We want all of our schools to provide the best academic opportunities for our students. This pillar compels us to think about whether a student assignment plan can help reduce high concentrations of poverty or low performing students at some of our schools. Stability. Essentially, we try to keep as many children at their current school through the exit grade as possible. When reassignments are necessary, we provide the opportunity for some students to submit a stability transfer request and stay at their current school through the exit grade. Operational efficiency. This pillar is about making sure all of our schools and transportation resources are at their best use. Overcrowded schools are a problem. Classrooms packed with too many students are one thing, but then there are the endless carpool lines, bathroom facilities that can't comfortably accommodate everyone, and having to start lunch when most people are still working on breakfast. On the flip side, having underenrolled schools is an inefficient use of public resources, particularly when there are crowded schools nearby. Proximity. Okay, this one can be a little tricky. In a perfect world, houses would be built in neat little rows on a predictable timeline and at a slow and steady rate. As it is, we live in an imperfect world where lots and lots of homes pop up in one area while growth is slight or non-existent in others. For this reason,

it is impossible to send every child to their most proximate school unless we want some of our schools bursting at the seams while others are half empty. That said, this pillar states that we will send students to schools within a reasonable distance. Often the difference between the most proximate school and the next most proximate school is no more than a couple of miles. Please remember that we must consider all four of these pillars when making assignment decisions. There is no priority among the four that applies in every situation. It's a balancing act that ultimately helps us come up with the best possible plan for everyone. Thank you for working with us to ensure our school system continues to serve all students well. We hope that was helpful in explaining how board policy 4150 directs staff to consider the four pillars when developing assignment plans. Um, as a reminder, that video along with all the resources we're sharing today are on our district website. In addition to the guidance that's provided by board policy 4150, we also follow a an annual planning cycle that has six core or essential steps. We're currently actively in step four, which is the development of the annual enrollment plan. So, the first step in the planning process, and again, we're going to go through these pretty quickly, is the presentation of the annual enrollment or membership forecast. And this provides both a 1 and 10-year projection for enrollment growth in the district. Even though it does provide a 10-year projection for enrollment, it is updated annually to account for changes in things like residential development patterns, home sales, birth rates, and other areas that can impact the forecast. And while simply knowing how many students the district needs to be prepared to serve is helpful, knowing where within and throughout the district

they're going to be located and that growth is going to show up is particularly helpful in developing our annual enrollment plans. The map you see here depicts the projected change in total student population residing in various areas across the district. What we hope you notice is that growth is not evenly distributed throughout our district and that some areas of the district are projected to stabilize and have minimal changes in student numbers over the next 10 years while others are still expecting um growth and high rates of growth. I have highlighted the region that will be discussed in today's session for some additional context. The next step in our planning process is a review of the projected crowding for the next school year. In addition to providing a 10-year outlook, the annual forecast also provides a one-year projection that we use to determine our funding needs for the coming school year, as well as to predict crowding for the next school year. In this case, these projections that you see here were shared with the board in March of 2025 and are for the current 202526 school year. Again, I've highlighted the region that will be discussed in today's session for some additional context. The third step in our process is to review the capital improvement plan or CIP, including any adjustments that have been made during the annual review process for the CIP. In the map toward the top of your screen, this one here, you will see um several schools that are highlighted with green circles. These are the schools that opened new for the current school year. And there are three elementary schools and one high school in that set of schools. In the same map, the orange circle that just popped up shows where the new Hilltop Needmore Elementary School is going to be located or is located and is this school is projected to open for the 202627 school year. The darker gray circles that you see appear now are showing you the schools that are farther out in our capital improvement plan, which takes us out about a seven-year cycle. The map toward the bottom of your screen includes where all of the major

renovations are going to be occurring across the district. And most of these projects do usually include some sort of capacity increase. So, we do monitor these as well. Um, as you can see, Swift Creek Elementary is highlighted with an orange circle on this map. It is projected to have its renovation complete in time for the 202627 school year. And so, we did want to take that into consideration when developing this year's plan. in your region. You'll also be aware of some renovations happening at Fway Verina Elementary. Um, so because they're a little bit more minor, they don't show up on this map, but those are being taken into consideration as well. I do want to pause and acknowledge that every single one of these projects, both new and renovations, do have the potential for completion date changes based on things like market volatility, scope changes, and changes in designer construction schedules. Essentially, we need to constantly monitor the progress of all of our construction projects as we develop each year's annual enrollment plan. The fourth step, which we mentioned earlier, um that we jump into once the forecast is complete, the projected crowding has been evaluated, and the capital improvement updates have been recorded. And so, that's where we are now, is deeply into step four. But the first part of step four, as you can see on this slide, is public engagement. We began these activities as far in advance as three years ago, depending on the the project that we're looking at, to capture thoughts and ideas from families and community members to help inform the development of the next enrollment plan. For this year's plan, um the most recent sessions were held between March and May. You can see here a quick look at the total participation in the various public engagement activities that were hosted earlier this year. The plus numbers that you see in parentheses beside the numbers are the record the increase in participation between our presentation to the board in June and our presentation to the board most recently on September 2nd. So you can see that we're constantly seeing more and more participation in some of our asynchronous events and in some of the viewing of our videos. specific to the impacts related to

Hilltop Needmore Elementary. We've actually hosted a series of three in-person sessions over the last three years in preparation for the opening of this new school. In addition, we've also hosted several thought exchanges during this same time period again to gain a better understanding of the unique perspectives and needs of families in this area. So, as you can see, we started engaging this community as early as 2023 um in preparation for the opening of this school. And you can see the total participation. Um, we sent out over 4,400 invitations to family members across those three years to participate in these various discussions. For a complete summary of all the thoughts and ideas captured from families and community members during all of the public engagement sessions, please review the updated public engagement summary that was shared with the board during their work session on September 2nd. As you can imagine, throughout this process, many thoughts and ideas have been generated and captured, and we've taken these ideas and concerns into consideration throughout the planning process. The planning team identified a series of planning implications based on all of the information that's been collected to date. So, first, continuing to identify ways to provide stability of assignment for students and families. How can we minimize disruptions for families? working to provide K8 calendar continuity when possible. Uh regardless of where we are in the district, this seems to pop up as a key factor for most families. Working to provide K12 cohort or feeder pattern continuity wherever possible or feasible. This also crops up in every region of the district. It's not unique to any one particular area. Acknowledging the unique regional concerns when developing capacity management recommendations and balancing the desire for proximity and stability that we're seeing um expressed by families and members of the community with the district's need to maintain the board student achievement and operational efficiency goals. In addition to our public engagement

efforts in May, we also had a clarifying discussion with the board to determine what should be included from their perspective in this year's enrollment plan. Um in addition to the recommendations related to the opening of the new elementary school, we were look asked to look at um the feeder patterns that would potentially need to be aligned once the elementary attendance area was established for Hilltop Needmore Elementary. Thinking about some of those um items that we talked about in the planning implications and in addition to the recommendations for the new elementary school, we were also asked to evaluate the impact of renovation projects in providing relief to crowded schools nearby. and to continue to look at uh crowded schools and cap schools to determine if any relief could be provided for those schools, reducing transportation inefficiencies wherever possible throughout the district. And finally, the plan was did need it was clarified that the plan needed to address some lingering feeder pattern and calendar alignment issues following proposals that were approved for the current 2526 school year. So once that step was done, we the planning team took all of the information that had been collected through public engagement over the last several years in addition to the operational needs of the district and those guiding uh sort of points from the board during that discussion in May and began developing the plan and we'll talk about that in just a little bit. But before we dive into those recommendations, I would like to briefly review steps five and six of the planning process that follow after the board approves an annual enrollment plan. So what you're seeing here on this slide is the step five, the fifth step in the planning process where we review and approve cap schools and manage our overcrowding with this one particular tool. Uh this work is done after the approval of the plan as I mentioned and once the board did approve the 2526 plan last fall staff did review which schools would still need some support particularly based on overcrowding concerns and brought these specific capping recommendations to the board in February of 2025. So these have been

effect in effect since February of 25. The sixth step in the process is where we review um any other types of school utilization concerns that could not be addressed either through the enrollment plan or through the capping recommendations. In particular, this year, a review of the schools operating on a single track year-round calendar that do have current crowding concerns along with continued projected enrollment growth resulted in the board approving one calendar change for the 2627 school year. And that is for Lake Myra Elementary in the eastern part of the county to help expand its capacity by going from a track 4only school to a multi-track school. And as you can see here, it g it'll give the school close to 200 additional seats based on the way that students track in and track out of the school. So all of these pieces of information are then carried forward into this year's plan to determine whether or not they have any implications on the enrollment plan. Again, as a reminder, all of this information and much more detail is on our assignment planning page and is included in the materials that were shared with the board during their work session on September 2nd. And links to that can be found either here or on the enrollment proposal page. For those of you that have joined us a little bit late or might now start, you know, brewing some questions, please continue to use the Q&A feature as you post your questions. Our host and moderators will be monitoring that once you see that your question has been removed. That lets you know it's been successfully captured and we'll get to it toward the end of the session. And I'm trying to get to that part as fast as I can. And of course, we have our thought exchange that's ongoing. The benefit of using the thought exchange is not only can the planning team see the comments that are being posted, but the board members can as well and members of your community can go in and rate the thoughts that you're posting to help the board and the planning team better understand what are the key concerns for your region. So, we encourage you to continue uh viewing and posting and going back and rating thoughts through October 5th. The results of this particular thought exchange along with information we're collecting during

these information sessions will be shared with the board during their work session on October 21st. All right. So, what we'll hope you'll find as we get ready to dive into the specific recommendations for this area is that they do take into account the information that was collected throughout the various public engagement sessions over the last several years and for this area in particular for the last three years. Um, it also will take into consideration the guidance that's been provided by board policy 4150 and the need to address things like captain overcrowded schools perhaps in your area in particular and being mindful of the impact of the new school openings in your area. We're looking at the desire to provide K8 calendar continuity whenever possible. The planning team heard that loud and clear. That K12 cohort or feeder pattern continuity. The planning team heard that loud and clear across the district. and the need to continue to work on the other goals that the board has for us such as re um reducing high concentrations of poverty and we're promoting integration and diversity in our schools as well as the need to support improvements in operational and transportation efficiency. So, now that we've reviewed all the work that led up to the development of the plan, let's dive into the recommendations for this area. We'll start with a quick overview of the entire district, and I do mean quick. Um and then we'll focus on in on um the recommendations for this area. Again, I know I show it a lot, but it's just to make sure you know all of this information can be accessed on these websites. All right, so first we'll just do a quick overview. The base elementary schools that will be impacted by this year's enrollment plan based on the initial draft proposals are largely in this region and all of the recommendations I'm circling here are specifically related to the opening of Hilltop Needmore. either a direct implication because students would be assigned to the new school or a domino or cascading effect to help backfill schools that might have a reduced enrollment or schools that might need a little bit of relief because crowding is is creeping up on them. The other two regions are in the west and the east and

those are specifically to address some long-standing crowding or new and up and cominging crowding concerns. So, at the elementary level, these are the schools that are uh projected to be impacted by the current draft of the enrollment plan. At the middle school level, you'll see again some areas here. This is related to the opening of Hilltop Needmore. Um over in the west, part of it is to address those crowding concerns and part of it is to address those feeder pattern alignment issues I mentioned earlier. And in the east, it's to continue to manage that crowding that we talked about at the elementary level. And at the high school level, very few schools impacted this area directly related to the opening of Hilltop Needmore. And this is part of that carry forward for feeder pattern alignment in the western area. We'll focus just on the area for related to Hilltop Needmore. Before we dive in, we just want to remind you that because Hilltop Needmore Elementary will be a new elementary school for students being proposed to be assigned into the new school, the stability rules will be a little bit more restrictive than they will be for other students. And that's just to ensure that we have a sufficient population to open the brand new school. You'll notice these readme tags at the top because this area is impacted by all four types of reassignments. All of these pertain to this region. So we'll talk stop start first with those stability rules about opening a new elementary school. So, if a student is being recommended to be assigned into Hilltop Needmore based on their address and they're rising into fourth or fifth grade, they would be eligible to put in a stability transfer and stay where they are. Lots of questions I'm seeing in the thought exchange and through different um channels are asking, is there a cap? Is it a lottery? No, there is no cap on the number that can be approved and there is no lottery. any student that's rising into fourth or fifth grade that wants to stay at their current school. So in this

case that would be Banks, Valentine or Westlake, they would be eligible to do so. They just need to make sure they submit the request during the stability transfer window. And we'll talk about details about that later. If they're a rising fourth or fifth grader that also have younger siblings, those younger siblings would be eligible as well. So, if you have a current third grader and a current first grader and a current four-year-old that's getting ready to start kindergarten next year, all three of those students would be eligible to remain at their current school if you can provide transportation. And we know that that's not the best option for families, but it's the compromise we can come up with to make this happen. So in an effort to provide stability for families, we do have to restrict the transportation that's available because we simply can't provide that many bus routes for students in the same area. So again, if your students are in the area that's being recommended to be assigned from either Banks, Valentine, or Westlake into the new Hilltop Needmore Elementary, they would be subject to these more restrictive stability rules. If however your students are in any of the other elementary school changes proposed for this region, they would be eligible for these more expansive or generous stability rules. So for example, if your student is at Vance Elementary and is being proposed to attend banks, they would be eligible to stay regardless of what grade they're in as long as they're currently at the school. And those rising kindergarten siblings would be welcome to join them as well. And all of these transfers on both of the slides are through the end of the fifth grade. So you don't have to change schools once the older student ages out. They can stay through the fifth grade if that works for your family. Again, all of these are with no transportation. In this region, these same rules would apply for any students being proposed to go from Middle Creek Elementary into Oak Grove or from Middle Creek Elementary into

Westlake Elementary. So all of those situations would be eligible under these more generous rules at the middle school level because all students in the entire plan are being proposed to go from an existing middle school to an existing middle school. Every middle schooler projected to be impacted by this plan would be eligible for these generous stability rules. So this is not for rising sixth graders but for rising seventh and eighth. So if you have a current sixth or seventh grader at Herbert Akens Road Middle that is being proposed to change to Westlake Middle, they would be allowed to stay at Herbert Akens Road Middle on transfer with no transportation through the end of 8th grade and a rising sixth grade sibling would be welcome to join them as well. I think there's also maybe a Dillard to Westlake Middle as part of this region. Those students would also be welcome to stay at Dillard if they could provide their own transportation. at the high school level. Again, all recommendations in this year's plan are to move students from an existing high school to an existing high school. So, every single high school student impacted by the proposal would be eligible under these stability rules to stay where they are as long as they can provide transportation. So, if they've got a current 9th, 10th, or 11th grader in this region at Willow Spring High School, they would be eligible to stay at Willow Spring High School without transportation through the end of 12th grade. and those rising nth grade siblings would be welcome to join them. I don't have a slide for this, but I also think it's important to say that if you have other students that are even younger that aren't quite going to be going into 9th grade for 26 27 going into future school years, the regular transfer rules would then apply. So if you have a 11th grader who's going into the 12th grade the same year that you have an eighth grader that's coming into the nth grade in a future year, that rising nth grade student would also be eligible under the regular stability rules that allow families to stay

together as long as you can provide transportation. So you would have the option of sending them to the newly assigned school for your address or having them join their older sibling. And we'll I'm sure we'll get a lot of questions on this in our Q&A tool. So we'll we'll just keep trucking. So again, if you have any specific questions and if you want to go ahead and put your specific example in there, I have a this grade student who's at this school who's proposed to go to that school. We'll answer any of those questions that you have to make sure that you have a clear understanding of how the stability rules would work if the board approves the plan as currently drafted. All right, so let's now talk about the actual recommendations themselves. So Hilltop Needmore Elementary, as most of you are aware, is already open and functioning as Fuke Wave Arena Elementary. So, if you weren't aware, Fuway Arena Elementary is going through a minor renovation. So, we were able to swing the students into the building. That's what we call it in the construction world. We swing them off site. So, the students for Fugway Arena Elementary, their staff, their teachers, their principal, everybody moved into Hilltop Needmore, and they're hanging out there for about a year or so while the minor renovations on their campus are complete. As soon as they're complete, later um the spring of 26, they'll move out. We'll give the the uh school a good once over and cleaning, reset all the furniture, and then it'll be ready to bring in students into Hilltop Needmore Elementary as Hilltop Needmore Elementary. So, we actually will be hosting our open house at Hilltop Needmore Elementary. And I did hear from a couple of our principles that some of our communication might have been confusing. The staff for Hilltop Needmore has not yet been identified. So, if you come to the open house, you'll be talking with other staff members who can tell you about the experience for opening a new school. We'll have the area superintendent available to answer any questions about the hiring process. Um so anything that you want to know about how we're going to staff the school, we'll definitely have some staff at the open house to be able to help you um understand that process a little bit better. Um in addition, we'll have a lot of resources for other things like before and after school care, child nutrition services, transportation. So if any questions about how moving into this new school

would impact your family, those resources will be there as well. In addition, we're going to have staff members at the open house for all of the other schools that will be receiving new students. So, if you are perhaps a Vance family being proposed to go to banks, you could talk with the banks principal and have a better understanding of how things operate at banks and and maybe set up a tour, those kinds of things. So, we do encourage everyone who can to come to the open house. We're going to host it physically at the Hilltop Needmore site. Um, the Fugway Verina Elementary staff has been gracious enough to let us borrow the facility for the evening. This is the location of the school. If you're not familiar, it's in the Fugquway Verina-ish, the northern Fugway Verina area. And the schools that are projected to be impacted by the opening of the schools mentioned earlier are Valentine Elementary, Banks Road Elementary, and Westlake Elementary. And what you're seeing here on this slide is if we make no changes to the base attendance areas for these three schools. This is the projected crowding with trailers for each of the three schools in the 2627 school year. And you can see that all of them have marginal to rapid growth in their base attendance areas that would continue to crowd these campuses over time. The other schools that are projected to be impacted at the elementary level through that domino or cascading impact are Middle Creek Elementary, Oak Grove Elementary, and Vance Elementary. And again, you can see there are some crowding differentials between these three schools. And we want to be able to take advantage of this opportunity to to rebalance these schools a little bit. So again, what you're seeing on this slide is if we make no changes, this is the projected percent crowding for each of the schools um in this area. So now let's start looking at the maps. The map on the left will show you what the current base attendance areas are for the schools with some hash marks. If you can kind of see some shaded areas on the map and those shaded areas indicate that these are areas we're proposing to become part of a different school assignment area. the map on the right then will show you if the board were to

approve the recommendations as presented. These would be the new base attendance areas for schools in this area. We're going to start specifically with the recommendations related to Hilltop. On the left hand side of your screen, you can see that there are some numbers that are labeled and I've got a one, a two, and a three over here. The one represents the portion of Westlake Elementary that is being proposed to become part of the new Hilltop Needmore Elementary. As you saw on an earlier slide, Westlake is not overcrowded or overenrolled. This portion is being recommended strictly for transportation efficiency and proximity to the campus. It geographically makes sense, if you will, to assign this area to the new school. The area labeled by two is a portion of the Valentine Elementary base attendance area. Again, Valentine is showing some crowding and some growth in its base attendance area, so it could use some relief, but it doesn't need massive relief. So this area is physically closer to the school than other portions of the Valentine based attendance area and would provide that needed relief for Valentine while also providing some students for the new Hilltop Nemore Elementary School. And as you can see the school's located right here. And then area three, which is by far the largest portion of the proposed base attendance area for the school, would come from Banks Elementary. And as you can see, a big chunk of it is really proximate to the new school. And so that's a large reason why that portion is being assigned to the school. It's also where some of the newer growth is in the base attendance area. The portion here on the sort of southeast side of 401 is prime for growth. It also has some established. It's a mix between undeveloped area and developed area to become part of the new Hilltop Nemore Elementary base attendance area. And similarly up here, mostly developed, but a little bit of potential for growth in that area as well. And so the reason I'm describing it that way is we heard very clearly from U community members over the last several years that when we're building new schools and putting assignment areas into new schools, we

should be mindful to leave room for growth. Uh by way of example, we opened Apex Friendship Elementary as a brand new school a couple of years ago in in August as a traditional calendar school. By February of that same year, the school was capped. And less than three years later, we were already identifying parts of its base attendance area to assign out of the school because we put so many existing neighborhoods into it on top of the undeveloped land. And we heard from community members, they'd rather that the schools fill a little bit more slowly so we don't have to have those frequent reassignments right after a new school opens. And we tried that strategy first with the opening of Woods Creek Elementary. We've used that same strategy again for Pleasant Plains, Bowling Road, and Rex Road Elementary for the current school year. And we're going to continue down that path because it does seem to be a good method for reducing instability for families by allowing them to be assigned into the new elementary school and stay there for a period of time. And so what you'll see with Banks Road Elementary um when we get to the numbers is that it won't be full in its first couple of years. There's room for it to grow. In addition to those recommendations, this area is also impacted by a handful of cascading or domino, if you will. Um, and so one of those dominoes is Westlake Elementary. As I said, this portion that's proposed to become part of Hilltop, Westlake doesn't need relief. So, in order to backfill the school a little bit and make sure we're taking advantage of an opportunity to get some students that are pretty close to the school and on a good transportation route to the school, we're recommending taking this area labeled number two from Middle Creek Elementary and assigning it to Westlake Elementary. That's a calendar match, track four to track four. um and and so that calendar-wise, but again, this group of students because it's from an existing school to an existing school would have those more generous stability rules. So any student who wanted to provide their own transportation would be more than welcome to stay at Middle Creek and finish out their schooling through the fifth grade. The area labeled one is another portion of the Middle Creek Elementary base

attendance area on the western edge of its boundaries that is being recommended to become part of the Oak Grove Elementary base attendance area. you'll see some crowding numbers for Middle Creek and it'll it'll help to under understand why we're making this recommendation. A third set of recommendations related to the opening of Hilltop Needmore as I mentioned in some of my um opening remarks is this portion of Vance Road Elementary. So labeled with the one here, this portion of Vance Road Elementary is being proposed to become part of the Banks Road Elementary base attendance area. As we mentioned earlier, there's a large portion of the existing banks attendance area that is being proposed to become part of Hilltop. That's a little too much. It would um empty banks a little too quickly. And so this would help to not only backfill banks, but provide relief for the overcrowded Vance Elementary campus. And so what you'll see here is that um the projection changes would have this relative impact. You'll see that schools that previously had numbers well above 100% are now in the 90s or high 80s. And you'll see some schools that maybe were in the 60s or low 70s kind of boosting their enrollment just a little bit and getting a little bit bigger. And then you'll also notice what I mentioned about Hilltop Needmore not filling very quickly in those first two years. It's got room to grow for those new developments that are also part of its base attendance area. I do want to come back here and talk about this piece. I neglected to mention it in the opening slides. Our practice over the last several years is to recommend to the board that every elementary school open as a multi-track year-round elementary school, recognizing that we have fewer and fewer new school sites available and crowding continues to be a concern across the district and we want to take advantage of that extra capacity wherever we possibly can. Balancing against what the community needs are and what the realistic growth rates are in a particular area. So for Hilltop Needmore, we are recommending that the board approve it as a multi-track year-round elementary school so that in

the future, if needed, it could add those additional tracks as the growth comes into its base attendance area. But for the first several years, our forecast is showing that it would be okay if it operated as a track 4only school. And for this region in particular, it meets some unique needs. Most of the students coming out of Banks and Westlake are coming out of Banks and Westlake, they're already on a track 4. So, this would allow a little bit of calendar stability for those students. Valentine students, some of them would need to change to track 4. However, we do recognize that most families prefer track 4. In addition, with some of the other recommendations we're going to make, it would also allow for calendar alignment K8. So, we could have track four calendar alignment not only K5, but in through the eighth grade. And then so that just it answers some of those calls we've been hearing from all of our communities is that can we have stability of calendar if possible? Can we have calendar continuity for our students K8 in particular? We know high school's a little bit different because it needs to be traditional but could we at the very least have our students on the same calendar K8? And so this proposal will allow us to do that. So this is unique. This is very different and this is very responsive to the community feedback. So, let's get to the middle school pieces. Um, so here you're seeing the two areas that are being recommended to come out of Herbert Akens Road Middle and come into West Lake Middle as part of that K8 calendar and cohort alignment. Um, a portion of the proposed attendance area for the new school already is at Westlake Middle. So it would just be these areas highlighted in this sort of shaded purple that would change from Herbert Akens Road Middle to Westlake Middle. And this is an example of one of the schools that's not been open for very long that filled very rapidly because we put so many existing students into the school when it first opened versus using that balanced approach. And so we are three, four years later coming back and saying

Herbert Dickens Road Middle's a little too crowded and there's continuing growth in the rest of its base attendance area. In addition, we want to have some calendar alignment for these students so they can go from a track 4only elementary to a track 4 only middle school. And this portion right here, it's that part that would be coming into Westlake out of Middle Creek. It's this is just to create again a cohort and feeder pattern alignment. They're currently assigned to Dillard, which is on the traditional calendar. And so this would put them at Westlake Middle, which is a track four only school. You can see here all the combined differences. If we make no changes, there's a lot of discrepancies between the crowding between these schools. If we make these changes, that balances out a lot better and gives Herbert Akens Road Middle a little bit of room to grow, but as you can see, it has a projected 6% growth rate even still after these recommendations are being made. So, this would give them the relief they need to prepare for that growth. Um, one thing I do want to say about the numbers on the orange charts that I'm not sure I said on the elementary level, these percentages assume that every single student that's projected to be impacted moves to the new school. And so we know with the stability transfers, it's going to be somewhere between the numbers we see here and the numbers you see on the lower portion of the screen because there will be a percentage of families that will prefer to stay at their current school and provide transportation. And we're glad that we can offer that as an option. All right. And then the last piece for Hilltop Needmore is this section of high school. Again, Willow Spring High has not been open for too terribly long. when it was first opened, we had to assign a a chunk of existing neighborhoods as well as some growth neighborhoods. Those growth neighborhoods are starting to really take off and the crowding at the school is is starting to get a little bit too much. Um, in addition, this creates an opportunity for students if they're going from Hilltop Needmore and into West Lake Middle. Almost every single student at Westlake Middle goes to Middle Creek High School. So, this would create a cohort continuity for students as well. So they would know their friends and classmates as they're

transitioning between not only fifth and sixth grade but also eighth and nth grade. We do recognize for some of these families it's the Middle Creek is a little bit further away than Willow Spring. However, you're the closest neighborhoods that would allow for that calendar continuity, excuse me, that cohort continuity and Middle Creek is the closest school in this region with available space. That would make sense from a from a feeder pattern standpoint. And so you can see here the differences. Um, now Middle Creek does have a significant number of trailers on its campus and so we're not thinking that we need to fill up every single one of those trailers, but this discrepancy here and the growth rate that we're seeing here really um is supported the planning team moving forward with this recommendation. As you can see, it balances the schools a little bit better, takes advantage of that available capacity at Middle Creek as well as aligning the feeder pattern for students impacted by the opening of Hilltop Needmore. Again, these are recommendations at the high school level from an existing school to an existing school. So, every single student impacted by these recommendations would be eligible for a stability transfer as long as the family can provide transportation. And I do see some questions have been coming in throughout the session. So, keep popping those questions in there. We want to make sure we're getting your specific questions answered. So, if you are on a computer, please use the grid structure on your toolbar. If you're on a mobile device, look for those three dots. Then look for some three shapes. But ultimately, you're looking for this icon, and that'll allow you to post your question. We're going to keep them anonymous. So once you see that your question's been removed from the Q&A, that lets you know that our moderator successfully captured it. And we're going to get to those in just a few minutes because we're almost done with the recommendations. The other thing that the board does need to review at this time of year is the calendar application areas. So, for some of you, you will see that you have um you may be assigned to a year- round school, but if you look in the applications, like where the magnet schools are listed, you might have something that's considered a traditional calendar application school. Or vice versa, if you're at a traditional school, you might see a multitrack. In a handful of areas across the district, less and less by the year,

those come with transportation. And with our need to continue to look for ways to improve our transportation efficiency and reduce pressure on our bus routing system, the board continues to ask us to look at ways to reduce the total amount of transportation that's being provided for these types of options. So when we're opening a new school in particular, we have been over the last several years just reducing those options. So what this chart is saying is that if you're currently assigned to banks and you're in the proposal being recommended to become part of the Hilltop Needmore base, instead of seeing Fugwave Arena as an official traditional calendar application option, you would just no longer have one that comes with transportation. So let me pause and be clear. This doesn't mean you can't ask for a traditional calendar school. It simply means that if we're able to approve it, it won't have district provided transportation. If you're at Middle Creek Elementary currently and you're in the section proposed to Oak Grove, you would no longer see a traditional calendar option with transportation. Previously, it was Swift Creek. That doesn't mean you can't ask for it still. You potentially could still ask for it. And if there's room available and all those sorts of things, we might be able to approve them. Just would not have district provided transportation. And then the last one then is area is that portion of Middle Creek that's being recommended to go to Westlake Elementary. And again, we would just remove that transportation. You can see it's a bit of a consistent flow for all of the impacts and that's just to continue to find ways to free up those buses to be able to provide better and more efficient routes to our base students. Um there are other changes that were being made specifically to improve transportation efficiency. They don't affect this area. Um and then at the middle school level there were a handful of changes because there's that portion that is currently assigned to Dillard that's being proposed to become part of Westlake Middlebase attendance area. uh we would say it would no longer have a year- round calendar option because it's going to be based at a year- round calendar and with the Herbert Akens Road Middle section proposed to come to West Lake wouldn't see Holly Ridge as a

traditional calendar option with transportation any longer. Doesn't mean you can't ask for it and provide your own transportation. It just means bus service would no longer be provided. In the west we have some ongoing capping and crowding issues and so some of those are still being held in place but it's mostly just to help relieve those crowded and cap schools in that region. Okay, so all of this I know I went through pretty quickly, but the calendar application full information is posted to our website. So if you want to look at that in, you know, at a later time and a little bit slower pace without me talking so quickly through it, um you're welcome to look at all of that information there on our website. Remind everybody to post your questions. And I I think we're almost there. So, as you're posting your questions and gathering your thoughts and making sure you're ready to post those in there, um I do want to take one moment to share just a little bit of information so that you know where we are in the process. On September 2nd, we did go to the board and share officially with them the initial draft after all of these other visits talking about the planning process. So, we've been working with the board on this year's plan specifically, discreetly since March of this year. Um, as I mentioned, we've been talking to the public since as early as three years ago. On October 21st, we'll go back to the board with a review. We'll share with them any revisions to the initial draft based on feedback we're getting from the community that staff would propose. We'll also give them a full summary of all the information that we've gathered and collected from the community based on the release of the initial draft at that time. Later that same night during their regularly scheduled board meeting, they'll have a special um public hearing time period. So, if you do want to come and speak directly to the board and share your questions, concerns, you're excited. Even if you like the plan, it's always good to share that with the board as well, you can do that on October 21st. This is a much earlier date for those of you that have been paying attention to these processes in previous years. Last year and the year before, we kept getting feedback that having the public hearing in November just was too close to the final draft being reviewed and it didn't feel as if staff had enough time

to provide responses to the board about things that might have been brought up during the hearing. So, in response to that, we've moved it up a little bit earlier so that families can share that information in a public hearing format directly with the board so that and then that gives staff sufficient time to provide any responses to the board that they might need to consider as they prepare for a review of the final draft. Our goal is to have the board approve the plan by November 18th, which is the week before the Thanksgiving holiday. And that way that would give us sufficient time to get all of our systems updated and get information out to families before the Thanksgiving holiday with all of their instructions on how to participate in the stability transfer process. So you can go ahead and start working on that, enjoy your holiday, not worry about it, and we can get you all of your answers on those stability transfers officially in your hand, officially approving your requests before the winter break. So we will continue to be working um during this time period before we lead up to October 21st. We have two more information sessions and an open house coming up. Again, for those of you who might have joined us late, we're going to get some clarifying language out there. At the open house, there will be staff to help you understand what happens when we open a new school, what it's like to start a new PTA, any of those questions you might have. But the actual principal and actual teachers won't be named until much later. The principal is usually not named until closer to December or January, and then they start hiring their staff almost immediately following that. So, we realize that there's been some misunderstanding thinking, "Oh, we're going to meet the new principal of Hilltop Needmore." And we did not mean to create that confusion. That person won't be named until a little bit later in the process, but we will have plenty of staff available to help you answer any questions you have about what it's like to open a a new school, what it's like to start a new PTA, those types of things. Before and after school care, transportation, does my students lunch number just follow them to the new school? Yes, but you can ask the the CNS team more questions about those things if you have them. Our websites will stay running and the thought exchange of course will remain

open until October 5th. All right, I think it's time, Eric, for me to turn things back over to you because I need a drink of water.

I think it is. Yeah, that's a lot. That's a lot of information. And so, we'd like to address as many of your questions as possible. Please take a few minutes and post any questions or comments using the Q&A feature. As you continue to post questions, we will start by addressing questions that were submitted during the session.

All right, I got a sip of water. Are we ready?

I think so.

All right. What tracks will be offered at Hilltop Needmore? Will students be given uh will students on a given track at their current school be able to stay on it?

Okay, so um I'm not sure if everybody heard me because I went over it kind of quickly. Let me see if I can get to the slide. We are actually recommending that Hilltop Needmore open as a track 4only school. Um what we have realized in this region is that operating on a track 4 is feasible for the first several years of the school and it would allow for some stability. So to that question's point, they wouldn't have to change tracks. If you're on track four at Banks, if you're on track four at Westlake, you'll just slide over and you'll be on track four. Valentine families would transition to track 4. However, it's our understanding that most families do like track 4 and prefer it maybe to some of the other tracks. So, we're hoping that'll be a positive impact for some of those students. We are going to ask that the board approve it as a multitrack year round for future purposes so that it's established that when needed it can go multi-track, but for right now, we're um

asking that the board approved that it operate on a track 4 only. And so, all track assignments would be track four if we're able to successfully get this approved, which I I think we will. Can staff children stay at the school they are at or do they have to switch?

So I think if I understand the question correctly, I'm going to rephrase it in a specific way to make sure I'm answering accurately. I'm a staff member at my base school and my child's attending the school with me and now my base is getting ready to change to a different school and I'd like to have my student stay with me where I teach. The short answer is yes. You would go through the transfer process, say place of employment, we can approve your student to stay with you at your current school. If it's a different circumstance, go ahead and put more details in the Q&A and we can have a staff member follow up with you tomorrow and give us an email and all of that. That's what's great about the anonymous Q&A feature. You can give us all kinds of details and no one else will see them. So, if you want to give us a specific example, give us your email. We can follow up with you tomorrow and and talk you through your specific situation.

Has a principal been assigned to the new Hilltop school yet?

It has not yet. Um the principal is usually assigned around December or January. Um and so we'll look for that approval in early December, early January. There's some budgeting concerns. They can't really put them they can't put them in place until the funding is available.

What is the projected student population at Hilltop Needmore next school year? So for the first year, if every single student were to attend the school that's being proposed to be assigned, we think it would roughly open at about a 69% full rate. In reality, we know that a bunch of fourth and fifth graders will most likely put in those stability transfers to stay and some of their younger siblings. So it'll be something

below the 69% is our current projection, but right now that would be the biggest it would be in its first year based on current projections and current growth rates.

When will we learn what the bus routes are?

Eric, you might need to help me with this. Bus routes are usually released in what? April, May. they are being assessed a lot through April and May. So, um particularly with a new environment when they start taking the requests, uh I would think you're looking at probably June before you know what the real routes are,

official stop is. Okay, that's right. Because they don't just look at where the school is and where the addresses are. They actually look at how many kids are requesting the transportation and they try to tailor make the routes to serve the students that specifically want a bus that are eligible for a bus. That's right. So, it'll be pretty close to the start of school, but if we're able to get the track four approved, and again, I think that won't be a problem. You wouldn't start till that fourth track, which is a little bit later in July. So, you'd have a little bit of time to figure out what your stop is before you send your students to school. We're going to jump back to a staffing question. Sure.

For students on an IEP, will the school be equipped to implement those in the first year? And there's a followup on that question, but

Sure. So, part one, most IEPs can be supported at all of our schools. And so, if it's that type of an IEP that can be supported at all of our schools, then yes, the staff will be in place. They will have a transition process with the existing schools to review all of the IEPs that are coming in with their students and they will work with parents to make sure that they understand um how we're going to transition the student to the new school environment and support their IEP. There are a handful of IEPs that are very specific and require very

specific supports. And some of you might have heard the term of a regional program. And so if a student requires services in a regional program, those will all be determined by the IEP team. and those may or may not be able to be served at the new school, but that would be true of any school. Um, if your student has very specific needs, we make sure that we get the student in the right place to get their needs met. Um, and if it's not their base school, the special education team would work with you to set up transportation and whatever to get them to the school they need to go to for their for their special programs.

And that sets up the follow-up question. Will a speech therapist be present at the school? Um, so I believe and Eric, you might join me on this one because this is a little out of scope for us and we can definitely get this to our HR team and get an answer posted to the website. But I believe a lot of that's driven by the student population. So if the student population requires that there's a full-time speech uh therapist or speech pathologist, then we would make that happen. If it's a part-time one, they might share them with another school because I think that's the type of role again, Eric, you've got a little bit more experience in this space where I might not be full-time at one school. I might serve two or three schools, but whatever services a student would need that are considered general IEP services, they would definitely be provided.

Yeah, ultimately special education will make the provision to make sure that service is provided.

Yeah, but we will take that question out and get a more refined answer on our website for you on that one. So, thank you for posing that question.

And so, I will need to dovetail in a follow-up question from somebody else with that. Will an OT be at Hilltop Elementary? Again, that's also going to be up to special education to make determinations about placements of staff throughout the year.

And I will say we should have special education staff at the open house and that'd be a great time to ask them in person um how they plan to provide those supports for students.

Will Crooked Creek have bus service to Hilltop Elementary School?

That's a great question because of how close that community is to the school. Um, our transportation department will evaluate distance, safety, sidewalks, crosswalks, all of those sorts of things. So, if it makes sense that it's what is identified as a no transportation zone or it's, you know, okay for students to walk to school, they may not provide bus service to all of Crooked Creek because, but it's pretty big, too. It's not a teeny community. So, it could be that the outer regions that are farther away from the school might have it. But those are questions we really can't answer today. It is something that our transportation department will look at because certainly if it is healthy and safe for a student to be able to walk to school, we want that to be an option for students. Um, however, if it is not appropriate or safe or if the distance is too long or there's not good sidewalks and crosswalks and all of those sorts of things in place, then we will provide transportation to be on the safe side to make sure students can safely get to and from school. But that'll be a question that's probably harder to answer today, be closer to what Eric and I talked about earlier, maybe May or June before we'll know for sure.

Is there a scope for these proposed changes to be changed again or is it set in stone so that we can plan accordingly?

Yeah, so it's kind of a middle ground. Um the the work that's gone into coming up with these recommendations is very extensive. A lot of work done by the planning team. So from a staff's perspective, we did put forward the best recommendations we can come up with. However, we are receiving a lot of feedback from community members and if for example last year there was an area where we were working really hard to take a very large area large subdivision that was so large that about a year or so ago it actually attended three separate schools and with the opening of a new school we were trying to reduce that to two schools. there's no way we could fit them all into one school. Well, inadvertently the planning team just overlooked that we still had them at three schools and we switched them to two different schools and the community made us aware of that and we were able to make some revisions to get back to

where we were trying to go, which was to get that large area into just two schools and to not have so many changes. So, if there's something like that that the community shares with us where there's we we didn't realize we we missed something on a transportation network, um we missed something on a portion of a subdivision that maybe this street is actually part of our subdivision, but it didn't look like it on a map. Those types of pieces of information we certainly want to look at. Um we've had some feedback this time around about some calendar application situations. Have we overlooked a few things? So we do look at at um we do look at all the feedback that we receive and the planning team then sits down and reviews what recommendations should we make but wholesale magnitude changes are not likely. Um, but maybe a a small removal from the plan or a reconsideration of a particular line or area, maybe a revision or refinement of a stability rule. But I would not see staff at this point based even based on the feedback that we're receiving, I'm not seeing anything that would indicate a large scale revision or reiteration. But no, they are not set in stone. And ultimately the board has final say and they can direct staff to make changes um that they think are appropriate based on the needs of the district and the needs of the communities. Since you're pausing, I want to give another example. Last year with uh the opening of Bowling Road, staff recommended that the school open as a multi-track elementary school and it's in the Fugquway area. However, you may know that it's also co-located on the same campus, the FUA Wave Arena Middle, and the board really felt that the fact that those two schools were on the same campus overrode the need for the extra capacity and ultimately directed staff to change that and open the school on traditional calendar. So, there are some things that the board could direct or that staff could direct that could change, but again, wholesale changes, you know, on large scale not likely. Uh but certainly we are reviewing all the feedback to determine if any revisions

should be made and those would be made by the October 21st meeting.

I'm going to take a drink of water while you find the next question, Eric. So at the moment it doesn't appear that there are any additional questions. Um, Susan, has anything come to mind that doesn't fall like in the normal framework for you or

Yeah. Um, I did see some questions come up in the thought exchange related to the opening of Hilltop specifically for the middle school and high school recommendations. Some families thinking, gosh, I feel like the new school recommendations a little further away than my current assignment. Um, perhaps Herbert Akens is Whoops. So, sorry. For example, perhaps this region feels like they're physically closer to Herbert Aikens than maybe to Westlake, even by transportation routes. And we just want to reassure families, we do recognize that sometimes our recommendations are going to assign you to a school that's a little bit further away or in this case back to a school you might have already been assigned to once upon a time because he'll Herbert Akens Road Middle is really not that old of a school. It's not been that many years. I was looking today. I think some of this area was previously previously at either Holly Grove or Westlake Middle and got pulled into Herbert Akens Road when it opened and now we're sort of I don't want to use the word bouncing back but you know bouncing back to a pre previous assignment and that's just because of the dynamic nature of this region the constant rapid growth that's happened in this region and the need to provide relief to Herbert Road Middle. We get that this is not necessarily a preferred option for most families because it's just changing three levels for their whole family which is why we're really really um pushing the board to approve the really generous stability rules so that if a student's already attending in this case Herbert Dickens Road Middle they can stay as long as the

family can provide transportation. We did see similar concerns at the high school level. As you can see, you know, this portion that's being recommended to come to Middle Creek is very op, you know, as the crow flies and probably by roadway network closer to Willow Spring High School. We do see that. We do understand that. We do know that. But the reality is Willow Spring High School is crowded. It's getting ready to become overcrowded and we have this perfect opportunity to take advantage of the available seats at Middle Creek High School as well as align that feeder pattern so that the Hilltop students go to West Lake and go on to Middle Creek High School which is a very natural progression for students so they'll know their classmates as they transition from fifth to sixth and 8th to 9th. But we do get that this is a change and at the high school level in particular a lot of families talking about I'm on my sports team at this school. I've developed relationships with clubs and organizations. I've got my sort of graduation plan based on the electives that are available at the school. And for that reason, all students would be eligible to stay at Willow Spring High School that are impacted by this recommendation as long as they can provide transportation. And one thing I could say about sports, I don't know if we have any high school families on today's um session, but if it's a reassignment from one base school to another, you don't have to go through any waiver processes. If you choose to accept your new assignment at Middle Creek High School, you could go ahead and start participating as if you were, you know, a new student because it's an assignment change that the district has done. Um, subsequently, if you're at Willis Spring and on a sports team and put in the transfer to stay, you also would not have to request a waiver because you've already been participating in sports at that school. So th that's not really a conflict. Um, here the only times those rules would kick in is if you voluntarily chose to transfer to a whole different school altogether, then the rules would kick in where you might have to request a waiver and see if you'd be eligible to play sports at that other school. But if the exchange between these two schools, if it's a basetobase or if you're using a stability transfer, no waiver would be required.

Couple of additional questions have come in.

Sure.

I had asked to transfer to traditional uh fugway from Bayool Banks, which was denied last year. Will that be the same next year now that Hilltop is also going to be year round? So each year we can't say yes or no because each year the um crowding at a particular school like Fway Verina Elementary is in a temporary location. So it was very difficult for us to approve a lot of transfers into that school this year because they're they're not in their permanent location. Um so it's really going to depend on how much space is available in the school once it moves into its permanent site. Um in addition we look at grade levels. It could be a grade level issue. You may not be aware, but there are class size uh legislation rules that say our state legislators have said that kindergarten, first, second, and third have a maximum number of students that can be in the classroom. If a class if a school's already at that limit, we legally can't add students to the school. So, there's a lot of factors. We do look at them individually, one by one. That's why we call it a hardship transfer. So, if it is something that is important to your family, certainly we encourage you to continue to participate. You can get to the links for our transfer process through one of these pages because it's on the left hand side. You can look for change for a school or you can just um look at our main website and say I want to request a transfer. But I would also encourage you to look at more than one choice. Eric, don't you think that increases people's chances? Because sometimes if that one particular school doesn't have room on that grade, even if your reason is great and meets all of our policy standards, we can't approve it. But if there's other options you'd be willing to consider, that also does help staff try to find a better fit for your family.

And keep in mind that our magnet schools, most of them are on traditional calendar and Lincoln Heights is in your region. So I think they probably um would be an option for you during the magnet application period. Sorry, I didn't mean to cut you off here.

No, no, no. Just agreeing with you.

If my

I think I saw a question about recording, right?

There was there was a question about where the link will be.

Yeah. And so it'll be on the 2026 enrollment proposal site.

So this one here is where the links will be. All right. Continue. You got a very specific question. It sounds like

if my sixth grader stays at Herbert Akens, when she is in eighth grade, two years from now, can her younger sister, who is now in fourth grade, go to Herbert Akens as well since she will have a sibling there?

Yes, you're doing the math. Yes, if you have a rising eighth grade student and a rising sixth grade student in the same year, our regular everyday transfer rules would apply and you would be eligible to have that rising sixth grader join the older student as long as you can provide transportation and then that student of course could stay through the end of 8th grade. I know middle school it gets a little bit more difficult because it is only a three-year span. Elementary it's a little bit easier because it's sixear span. But um internally we sometimes call it the anchoring sibling. As long as that anchoring sibling is still a physically attending the school the year that the younger sibling is coming in, you're good to go. We can approve those transfers. Just do those in March.

We had one that wasn't posed as a question, but thank you for making Hilltop year round instead of traditional. No question here. Just a thanks.

We'll take that.

Awesome.

Um, go ahead.

No, I was going to say that was really important when we took the community feedback. a lot of the families saying, "Hey, we're coming from Banks. We're coming from Westlake. We're coming from Valentine." We knew where we're going to come from because of the location of the school. Could you please keep it year round in some way so that you know the systems that we've built and the structures that we built to support our families. So, we wanted to honor that and also do that slightly um more uh flexible option of just doing track four only for the first couple of years. And that seems to be working. And so, we're glad to hear the feedback that um that

that's that's a good idea. This is something that was addressed early on in the rationale for year round versus traditional to start. But is there a reason why all new schools are year round rather than traditional? Is that the new norm? And is that being encouraged? And and I think the question is and why is that being encouraged rather than traditional?

Right. Um and so that thank you for that question. I'm going to go actually go back a couple slides to Well, actually, I can go here. Um, this school is already open. That's a high school. This school's already open. This school's already open. When I start looking at the last few schools that are in the capital improvement plan, this is a high school. This is a middle school. Here's one elementary. Here's one elementary. And this one doesn't even have funding yet. We just have a site and a name for the school. We don't have very many new elementary schools coming online in the next seven plus years. Yet, our elementary growth is still continuing to skyrocket. And we have those class- size limits in elementary school that we don't have in middle school and high school that put further pressure on the need for capacity at these schools. So yes, the new norm from the staffing perspective is that we would propose all new elementary schools open on multi-track year round because you can see here we get 200ish more seats without any additional construction dollars. It does put additional pressures on the school. Yes, the air conditioning is running 12 months out of the year, all those sorts of things, but it doesn't require the whatever it is per square foot cost of building another school. So basically, for every three schools that we open on multittrack, that's the equivalent of four traditional schools. So we basically saved ourselves a school by

opening three schools on Multittrack year round. So it's really a cost savings measure. It's in a way to keep people in schools in their community because that's the other thing we're hearing. We'd love to go to a school closer to home. Well, the bigger that elementary school is, the more students close by the school that can attend that school and we don't have to send them to the next closest school or the next next closest school depending on where the capacity is. So yes, it is a standard of practice for us from a staff perspective strictly for operational efficiency um and to make sure that we have as many seats as possible for our families so that when they move into an area they have a better chance of being able to go to the school for their assignment area.

Will we need to register or do any administrative uh or complete any administrative items prior to the start of the next school year if we're moving you're moving

if we're moving from one school to the other.

Oh, okay. So, I'm currently attending, we'll pick banks since that's where most of our elementary students are going to be. I'm currently attending Banks Road Elementary and I'm proposed to be assigned to Hilltop. It gets approved. We get assigned to Hilltop. All the records will transfer to Hilltop. You won't have to take any specific action. All of that is good. However, if you have one of these little kiddos hiding at the house, a rising kindergartener that you're going to bring into the system, then you do want to get them pre-registered as early as possible. Eric, our pre-registration's going to open October

15.

Okay. Our pre-registration is going to open in October 15th. So, if you're going to go to the new school, you still need to pre-register. You pre-register using the current base school because there's obviously no staff at the new school yet. So just pre-register at Banks or Valentine or um Westlake Elementary and then the records will transfer when they need to transfer. Similarly, if I want to stay at my current school with my older siblings, older student and I want to bring the kindergartenner in, I also want to pre-register as early as possible so I can do my stability transfer during the fall stability transfer window instead

of waiting for the regular transfer window in March. And that way I increase my chances of getting it approved. I make sure that my students tracks get aligned particularly if you want to stay at Valentine um and those kinds of things. Or if I'm at Middle Creek, yeah, because Middle Creek West Lake, they're already track four, so we're good there. But if you've got a student at Valentine and you want to keep them on whatever track you're on and you want your family's tracks to align and you want to use the stability transfer, you definitely want to get that kindergartener pre-registered as early as possible. For middle school and high school, again, the records will just transfer. But if you've got a rising sixth grader or ninth grader who's not in a Wake County school, maybe you're homeschooling, maybe they're at a private school, maybe they're in a charter school, and you want to bring them into the district to join their older sibling at that point. Also, you want to take advantage of that pre-registration window opening in October so that you can get all your stability transfers in or if you're going to participate in magnet, anything like that. So, go ahead and everybody everybody get pre-registered in October if you're not already a current student. But if you're a current student, you don't need to do anything. everything will be taken care of for you.

When does transfer portals start? So, this is going to kind of be a two-part question.

Okay.

And and the question disappeared to get put in a category. So, give me a moment.

Well, I'll start with the first one. So, the stability transfer window, we haven't locked in the official dates because it's really dependent on when the board approves the plan. But our hope hope is not a strategy, I know, but our hope is that we'll be able to open the stability transfer window that Monday, Tuesday of the Thanksgiving holiday week, so that it'll just be open that whole weekend. You'll have it open the next week after that and a few more days after that. Absolute worst case scenario, it would open right after we get back from the Thanksgiving break that Monday. Um, so we want to have it open for no less than 10 days. We're going to send you a reminder. We're going to send your principal a reminder. We'll say hey everybody reminders so that you'll know how to participate in

it. But that stability transfer window won't open until sometime after the board approves the plan in November. Did you find the other half of the question?

And should we register for base school after October 15th?

Yes. So on October 15th, you want to register at the base school for your current assignment for 2526 because the other school doesn't get to take you until it's officially approved by the board. So October 15th to November 18th, everybody should be pre-registering at the base school for 2526. November 18th forward, you can pre-register at the newly assigned base school if you want to go ahead and just take that new assignment.

Now,

unless it's Hilltop,

I need to put a caveat in here.

Yeah, you you answer that part,

folks. If your student is already a Wake County Schools student, you do not need to register. There's no registering again, right?

Because this school change is going to take place.

Your student is already registered in Wake County schools.

The normal process will assign your student to the new school and you can put in the stability request to remain assigned to the school if the rules follow.

And I'm going to go here and highlight this. If you have very specific questions about your individual student that you want to have a confidential conversation with one of our staff members about, shoot an email to student assignment@wcpss.net and one of our amazing staff will reach out to you and help you navigate your specific questions about your specific situation.

And there's a part three

stability transfers the transfer to traditional school. Okay,

that should take place March 3rd through the 14th. And that should be posted on the regular assignment page with all of our deadlines already.

I take that back. It's March 2nd through the 13th because it's Monday to Friday.

If you go to this website and look on the left, you'll see all of the other student assignment functions like enroll a child, request a school transfer, dates and applications. So, you can get to that information by going here. Or if you just go to the main district website, go to the top right corner, the I want to, and just find the thing you want to do, and that'll take you there as well. But again, you can also email us at student assignment at wcpss.net, and one of our staff members will be more than happy to help you figure out your best next steps.

So, reiterate on this one. If a student new to Wake County schools will be attending Hilltop in 2627, how soon can they register?

They can register October 15th as well, but they'll do it for the base school for 2526. So, whatever their current base is for your current address. So, Banks, West Lake, or Valentine, depending on where you live.

I have a prek student at Banks right now. Do I need to register him for kindergarten in October at Hilltop or does that transfer happen automatically?

Eric,

that student needs to be registered because not all preK students will be kindergarten students. So, you do need to submit a kindergarten registration for that prek student.

Thank you for that. And if memory serves, some of the registration documents are a little bit different too.

Yeah, kindergarten health assessment and all that kind of stuff that you have to do for kindergarten. So, it's a very different registration process ultimately.

Yes, there are things that they did not collect for prek that are necessary for kindergarten registration. Okay,

I see that we're getting to the end of

our time. Do we have any more questions? the there's there's a it looks like a followup, but it's not clear. Uh, regarding previous question, student already has an address corresponding to the proposed Hilltop school zone.

Okay. So, I think that means you don't have to do anything. If they're already attending schools somewhere in Wake County and the proposal would shift them to Hilltop, need more and you want to go to Hilltop, Need More. You don't need to do anything. Take no action. The only students that need to pre-register or register are rising kindergarten students who've never been in or actually all rising kindergarten students and any student who's not currently a Wake County student but wants to become a Wake County student. Everyone else, your registration will just flow to the new school. We'll take care of it for you. Couple of extra things to throw your way, Susan. Not a question, but excellent presentation. Thank you.

Oh, thank you.

Thank you for taking your time to do this today and for letting us fire off these Q&As's. It's been helpful. I know a lot of my neighbors are mad about this and they are really big changes, but I can actually see as a good thing.

Okay. Yeah. And again, that's why we really wanted all those stability rules in there is to help our families have options for navigating the change.

And folks, this is why we also want you to participate. We want your information in the thought exchange. We want your honest and open participation in the process.

Let's see if anything else has. So, while Eric's double checking that we

don't have any last questions, again, this thought exchange is going to remain open through October 5th. The planning team is looking at it daily. Um, I do want to let you know if you want to share with anybody, if someone uses anything that looks like a proper name, for example, Washington Elementary, Washington is a proper name to protect anonymity for families. It gets moderated for just a little bit and a staff member just needs to release it. So, if you find that you've posted a thought, but you don't see it showing up in the rankings, it'll be there. It might take 12 to 24 hours for us to get it released. Um, but the only ones that would be actually moderated out is if someone shared personally identifiable, confidential information. We've had families accidentally give us like their personal street address or their child's name. And we don't want that kind of stuff out in the general thought exchange or if you're using what the district would consider um inappropriate language, which nobody has. So that's wonderful.

One more that's come in. Is there any sports ground requirement for new schools? I'm guessing they mean requirement for playfields, ball fields.

Yes. Yes, there are requirements for play fields, ball fields. Some of those we do as individually owned, like the district would own them as part of our property and they would belong only to the school. In some communities like Hilltop, there's partnerships with the town. there's a community center that's coll-located on the same campus. So, there could be what we call joint use agreement. So, maybe the district owns the ball fields, but we let the community use them on the weekends for their parks and wreck stuff. But, yes, there will be all of those fields. And if you want, again, this school is open um and operating. So, I would really encourage you to come to the open house on September 24th so that you have an opportunity to get a little glimpse at the school. It's beautiful. It's gorgeous. um and just kind of get an idea for how it's laid out and what's all what's all there. This is a unique situation. A lot of our new schools are still dirt at this point in the year, so or or just partial walls. Um this is really cool. You'll actually get to see

the brand new school since it is already complete.

Well, folks, thank you very much. We hope that the session's been informative and that you have a better understanding of the recommendations included the in the initial draft of the plan. Again, we really do want your open and honest participation because your input and your feedback is vital to the refinement of the enrollment plan. Remember, we will present a summary of the feedback received and any recommended adjustments to the proposal to the board on October 21st with a final vote expected on November 18th. The thought exchange will remain open through October 5th. We encourage you to post comments, rate comments, and explore the exchange. Please continue to monitor your email and the district website for information about upcoming events and updates to the FAQ section on the enrollment plan page. Again, thank you very much for coming tonight for your questions and we hope that you enjoy the remainder of your evening. Thank you everyone.