To the editor:
On October 6, the Wake Forest Planning Board and the Board of Commissioners will vote whether to allow Wake Preparatory Academy, a K-12 charter school to build a 35-acre campus on a vast swath of forest land across from Joyner Park. This will be the fifth charter school to arrive in Wake Forest. Next year a sixth charter school will seek project approval on Naxos Drive, near Lowes Home Improvement.
Let me tell you why I am particularly angry about the possibility of Wake Prep. It’s not exactly the trees we’ll lose, or the newly homeless wildlife that make me so angry, although I do care about both. And it’s not exactly the extra time my husband will have to sit in traffic, as the school has remarkably inadequate plans to mitigate the extra 3500 cars coming to Harris Road. And it’s not exactly the tax money that we will have to pay for an unneeded school at a time when the public schools are already inadequately funded.
No. What makes me blood-boiling, up-at-night, hopping mad is that despite opportunities to purchase land in other locations, Wake Preparatory Academy, a school that claims to care about all children, a school that wants to give children “choices,” has decided to locate right next to Richland Creek Elementary School, one of the most under-enrolled, and therefore underfunded schools in the county.
Richland Creek Elementary School, built in 2013 to address crowding in Northeast Wake County, is a beautiful school, still fairly new and only 67.9% full. Last time I checked, there were 486 students in a school with 716 seats. But why? And why does Wake Forest Elementary, the next closest elementary school to the proposed Wake Prep site, sit at 84.3%? To answer for this complete waste of tax money, we must understand the North Carolina charter school expansion.
In 2011, a well-intentioned NC General Assembly, in a rare moment of bipartisanship, lifted the charter school cap to allow more charter school growth in the state. When they were first opened in the U.S. in 1992, charter schools were meant to draw from a population of kids that were at the most risk of failure. They were meant to be short term experiments– little learning labs from which education innovators could try something new and then collaborate with the public schools so that all could benefit. And for the most part, charter schools have earned their place in the U.S. public education system.
However, when charter schools are not kept in check by those who are tasked with governing them, they can do harm. In 2019, The Charter School Advisory Board refused to take the advice of the Wake County School Board and the State Board of Education when they were warned that Northeast Wake County was already oversaturated with charters and had plenty of public school seats available. Instead, they had a petty conversation about the “process” errors that Wake County leaders had made when they recommended for these schools not to receive approval. The letter was sent “too late.” The board didn’t like the information that they received, nor the people who gave them the information, and so they ignored it.
There should never be this many charter schools in such a small area, and there should never be one next to Richland Creek. You would think the folks from the Wake Prep community would at least acknowledge this, but when you read their 340-page application to the town, there is barely a mention of Richland Creek. And when you look at Wake Prep’s ever changing website, Richland Creek and Wake Forest Elementary are noticeably absent from the section stating a need to address school overcrowding. They do mention Olive Chapel. Oakview. Scotts Ridge. Where are these schools? Exactly. They are in Apex. Only two schools in Northeast Wake are capped for crowding, and that’s Harris Creek Elementary and Heritage High. The rest are in Cary, Apex, Holly Springs, and Morrisville.
Here’s a little secret on school capacity, in case you ever want to examine the WCPSS Facilities Utilization Report, from which I’ve spent many fun hours spreadsheeting and analyzing per region, per school board member, and per town in Wake County. 100% capacity is not over crowded. 100-110% is right where a school wants to be in terms of funding. That’s the sweet spot. That’s a school that is flush and ready to perform little learning miracles every day. That’s not a reason to open up a charter school. Any school between 62-84% may have to make do on sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars less. At first I didn’t really understand this concept. I thought, Wow! Small school, small classes! Lots of attention for my kid! But the school will always have to pay for a principal, front desk staff, custodian, cafeteria workers, etc. So there is less money for teachers. And bigger classrooms. Less to go around. More for the school next door.
In addition, Wake Prep continuously mentions the large waiting lists on the charter schools in our community as a justification for their arrival. But here’s the thing. Most parents, in the year before their little precious one begins Kindergarten, apply to all the charter schools. I know that we did. And if the child does not get in to a charter school, they usually remain on the lists. So Wake Prep could very well be counting the same child over and over. Of course, there is no real way to prove this. I can only say that my child stayed on several lists, probably for the remainder of his Kindergarten year. And he enjoyed his regular public school. But I never thought, “Its official, my child is happy—I better call all those charter schools so they can take him off the lists.” I feel like there are a lot of families like us. Looking back, we are happy it didn’t happen, because we love the school we’re in. Not because we have anything against the charter schools.
At the joint Board of Commissioners/Planning board meeting in September, I listened to a lawyer for Wake Prep speak for three hours. He explained that there was almost nothing the Board could do to prevent the school from coming. Only if the school “will be detrimental to adjacent property” would they be able to deny them. By then it was 9:30 pm, and most of my neighbors, who wanted to speak about their objections to the school’s placement, had already left to put kids in bed, or tend to other needed things. Several neighbors with immune conditions could not attend so they wrote letters. A few tough-as-nails moms, PTA leaders, and school counselors spoke about the alarming increase in segregation in the Wake Forest schools. This is a warranted worry; charter schools in Wake Forest serve 2.05% free-and-reduced lunch kids, whereas the public schools in and around Wake Forest serve 39.14%. Wake Prep has lately stated that if they have more applicants than seats, they will weigh up to 35% of their school for socioeconomic disadvantage. But I will believe it when I see it. Because the originally approved application states there will be no weighted lottery. An addendum to that application, which would have made a weighted lottery required, was dismissed by the Charter School Advisory Board.
In the last dregs of the meeting, a board member asked one of the charter school operators about the low enrollment numbers for Richland Creek. And this was the one moment in the night I saw a crack in the otherwise cool demeanor of the charter school bloc. A young charter school official stood up and blurted out “All I can say about Richland Creek is… CHOICE.” Oh, goodness. I know you think you’re giving folks a choice. But can any child in Wake County get this choice? Uniforms are an entire new wardrobe. Required service hours is a great idea, but not when it’s necessary to work a paying job after school. And transportation plans that keep decreasing the number of buses as Wake Prep gets closer to approval coupled with a nearly mile-long carpool lane does not look promising. And how to tell a child $65 can’t be given for a field trip. Or that a parent can’t commit to a specific number of hours of volunteering. 50,000 kids in Wake County go to school to be fed, stay safe, and luckily we have teachers available to teach them. Nothing else is asked. So, will you really do all those things that you promised in the Board of Commissioners meeting? If not, then move along. Let us fill Richland Creek and Wake Forest Elementary. The Board of Commissioners have been given a tough choice. They can only vote no if it has been proven that the school will be a detriment to the adjacent property. So I submit that this school, although shiny and new and pretty, will be a detriment to kids already sitting in our schools, in our community. If you feel the same, please write to them. Time is short.
Melinda Shail
Wake Forest
13 Responses
It sounds like you should voice your frustrations with the school board about how they assign students to schools. We are one of the thousands on the waitlists for local charter schools because we were not happy with the school we were assigned to. We are also on 3 private school waitlists. Instead of trying to prevent more school choices, WCPSS and advocates should look into why so many are leaving the school system and/or choosing charters. I wish our tax dollars would follow us since we withdrew from WCPSS, but unfortunately, we are forced to contribute to this school system that has failed us and is subjecting kids to political indoctrination.
Scott,
Thanks for your clear and personal description of the problems that parents are facing. You said it well. Charter and private schools are the only choice available to parents who do not approve of the inferior and very political education (indoctrination) that public schools currently offer. Those parents have to bear the costs of two educations systems, one of which is the failing public school system. A simple solution is to let the dollars flow to those schools that do the best job educating out kids, whether they are public, private, or charter. That can be accomplished by school choice. Only then will the public schools be forced to clean up their act, or they will go out of business.
Scott,
A few years ago I felt the same you do. Please please please research these schools! Every charter school in NC is required to post notes from the board meetings on their website. In particular pay attention to the meetings where there are several people making public remarks. Find out how what the outcome was from these meetings.
Research the founders of these schools. Talk to people who know these individuals. Seek out parents who lived these schools & those that were not as happy as others. Get both sides of the story.
You may also want to do a search on Facebook to see if the principal has a Facebook page. You may find out the principal has videos of themselves twerking in the school hallway, or that the principal is actually in a homosexual relationship with a coworker. I’m not condemning this but it seems as though many of you are conservative & don’t realize that the liberal political views are still in the charter schools.
Ms. Shail,
Thank you for your thorough and thoughtful letter concerning the impact of WPA on the Wake Forest community. There are many other locations in Wake Co. that would be more suitable for yet another charter school. Disturbing the serenity and natural environment opposite Joyner Park and having a stadium back up to neighborhoods is insensitive at best. Positioning themselves adjacent to a new under enrolled public elementary school which taxpayers fund is greedy and their tactics are manipulative. WPA’s management company has moved into NC to profit from taxpayers who believe they are funding public education which is transparent and accountable. The business model which WPA will operate under is not. Just do a google search on Glenn Way, the owner of the various management companies all profiting from this deal and you will see plenty to raise questions. Wake Forest does not need this new charter school in this location. The Board will hopefully come to the same conclusion when they vote next week.
Just some fun facts for everyone. FYI this is all public records
– one of the WPA board members is married to someone on the planning board ( they recused themselves from the vote)
-the founder of WPA lives in a town with a greater poverty rate than WF. Yet wants WPA here.
-Some of the commissioners & the mayor are members of other clubs & organizations along with the founders of WPA
– the founder is a real estate agent so you know she will make a pretty penny if the land deal goes through.
– the founder was on the NC Charter school Advisory Board prior to applying for the schools charter
– The Founder of WFCA is also the founder of WPA. Talk to parents of kids who have attended WFCA.
– the founder picks the board of the school. Please know she chooses them carefully to ensure those members will vote the way she wants them too.
– as a parent of a child with a learning disability please know my child has received more help now that they are in public school than they ever did at a charter school.
– if you think public schools need improvement join your children’s, grandchildren’s, nieces or nephews PTA. PTA’s aren’t just for soccer moms!
***** no matter what school a teacher is at they need support from everyone! Pay attention to those wishlists! Don’t just email them when there’s a problem! Pray for them & know some of them are parents themselves. It takes a village!
Mr. Harrison why aren’t you & Mrs. Parlér working on getting a charter school in Louisburg where you guys live? Correct me if I am wrong sir but aren’t 35% of the students WPA is supposed to serve are to be from a “lower economic level.” Louisburgs poverty rate is what 24% & Wake Forests poverty rate is 5% I believe. I think there is a far greater need for WPA in Louisburg than in wake Forest.
Thank you Ms Shail for your very thorough research on the application of Wake Prep for another Charter School! I agree while and would urge the Planning Board and the Commissioners to deny the application based on the harm that it would do to our community! This is not the direction in which we want out Town to proceed!
I agree with this article 100%. Wake Prep is needed in Southeast Raleigh not Wake Forest. If they really cared about kids they would put effort towards lower income kids. Wake Forest is a wealthy community with great public and charter school choices. We do not need another Charter School!
I can not agree more! Mrs. Shail you did a great job!
Many parents choose to send their kids to charter schools because of the failing public schools. The public schools are full of expensive, bureaucratic administrators and often teach political indoctrination that the parents don’t approve of. Public schools have been failing many students for years. That is why many parents CHOOSE to send their kids to charter schools. In addition, charter schools takes some of the capital burden off of the public school system in this rapidly growing time of Wake County. It actually saves the taxpayers money in addition to providing a higher quality education. As for the Richland Creek Elementary School, it was build over capacity in anticipation of a growing North Wake County. It will soon fill up with all of the new developments springing up all around the area. That was good planning.
Mr. Higgins My children attended Wake Forest Charter Academy (WFCA) for several years. I can assure you the bureaucracy is far worse at WFCA than at the public schools in Wake Forest. Just so you know WFCA & WPA are both founded by Mrs. Hilda Parlér. If you take a look at WFCA’s charter application to the NC Charter Board you will notice that the teachers were paid about 50% less than a Wake County first year public school teacher. So where did all of our tax dollars go? Well it went to the management company National Heritage Academies in Michigan.
The following are the reasons my kids no longer attend WFCA. Please know everything I mention below I have proof that backs up my claims.
– WFCA blatantly violated NC general statutes.
– The actions of WFCA & Mrs. Parlér caused emotional & physical trauma to over 20 children. When they fired a teacher with only 9 weeks remaining in the school year.
-Lack of integrity of the Administration & the board.
Mr. Higgins I cannot speak publicly due to the personal issues I discuss about my children. I know you have grandchildren. I know they have had a wonderful experience with their school. WPA is not the school your grandchildren are attending. Every school is different. Please read some of the board notes on WFCA’s website.
Mama Bear, you obviously know me. I also do not want to discuss some of the issues in a public forum. Since you know me, please call or email me. I would like to discuss this some more privately. Thanks, and hope to hear from you.
Mr. Higgins,
I apologize in my original message I said WFCA teachers were paid 50% less than public school teachers. That is incorrect it is actually around $10k difference.
I only have your phone number. To protect my children I would prefer emailing you. Would love to discuss further my email is mamabear27587@gmail.com