Students who will be capped out of Enloe High School for next year are yet to have a place to land when the school year begins.
School board and staff discussions have considered both Southeast Raleigh High and Broughton High as options. Both have been dismissed as reasonable options.
Staff were asked to consider other schools where students in nearby areas attend. These include Leesville Road, Millbrook, Knightdale, and Athens Drive High schools. One consideration included that buses already carry nearby students to other schools and some transportation efficiencies would be realized.
Many BOE members felt the discussion underscored the need for high school seats inside the beltline. Keith Sutton stated that, “the data may never show this is a high growth area but capacity is needed here.”
Fletcher agreed, and further pointed out that there are real estate challenges with building a high school campus inside the beltline – “A 60 acre high school won’t be opening inside the beltline anytime soon.” A new high school campus in Wake County typically utilizes a 60 acre parcel of land. And those just are challenging to find in almost every area of Wake County, let alone inside the beltline.
Expect these issues at the surface as WCPSS and the Wake County Commission consider plan operating budgets and bonds for capital improvement. Bill Fletcher noted that, “this is the result of chronic underfunding of capital needs – we need seats.” Both issues are likely to be on the agenda at the joint meeting of the two groups on Monday, January 26.
