Wake puts enrollment caps on 25 schools in 2023. See who’s on the list.
A new elementary school in Apex will join the list of crowded Wake County school campuses put under enrollment caps that will keep some newly arriving families from attending them.
The Wake County school board approved Tuesday putting enrollment caps on 25 schools through the 2023-24 school year. The newest school on the list is Apex Friendship Elementary, which school leaders say is already facing significant crowding after opening in August.
The need to run buses to send students to overflow schools will add to the district’s challenges during a time of acute driver shortages. But school leaders say capping is “the best of several bad options” with alternatives including massive student reassignment and converting schools to a year-round calendar.
“Capping has a lot of negatives,” said school board vice chair Chris Heagarty. “When we cap, we take families who are moving into an area that have made a decision, moved right next to the school and because we’re overcapacity, we’re sending them to a further, more distant school.”
List of capped schools
The new enrollment cap at Apex Friendship Elementary goes into effect immediately. The overflow school will be Baucom Elementary, which will temporarily move to a new location while its campus is renovated.
“I am saddened to see that we are capping a brand-new school that opened at 80% capacity,” said school board chair Lindsay Mahaffey. “But I’m hopeful knowing that in the Apex and Holly Springs areas we have a few elementary schools that will be coming to provide relief.”
Caps will continue at 19 elementary schools, two middle schools and three high schools.
Baucom Elementary will no longer serve as one of the overflow schools for Apex Elementary. Salem Elementary will no longer serve as one of the overflow schools for Olive Chapel Elementary.
The cap will end at Sycamore Creek Elementary in Raleigh now that a new elementary school has opened in the area.
‘Disadvantage a lot of our families’
Enrollment caps are a way to shift the burden of reducing school crowding onto newcomers.
When a capped school reaches an enrollment limit, families who weren’t living in the attendance area by a certain date are assigned to a more distant school that has space. This school year, 837 students are capped out of the school they’d normally attend.
Wake also has to deal with how the state sets class sizes at 18 students in kindergarten, 16 in first grade and 17 students in second- and third-grades.
Most of the capped elementary schools are in fast-growing western and southwestern Wake.
“I know that staff does everything they can to try to come up with the best possible recommendations here,” Heagarty said. “Unfortunately, these recommendations will disadvantage a lot of our families. But at this point I don’t know that we have a better option.”
Wake County enrollment caps 2023-24
ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS
Caps will continue at 19 schools with the addition of Apex Friendship.
- Abbotts Creek
- Alston Ridge
- Apex
- Apex Friendship (effective immediately)
- Beaverdam
- Cedar Fork
- Highcroft
- Holly Grove
- Holly Ridge
- Hortons Creek
- Mills Park
- Northwoods
- Oakview
- Olive Chapel
- Parkside
- River Bend
- Rogers Lane
- Scotts Ridge
- Weatherstone
- White Oak
Baucom Elementary will no longer serve as one of the overflow schools for Apex Elementary. Salem Elementary will no longer serve as one of the overflow schools for Olive Chapel Elementary.
MIDDLE SCHOOLS
Caps will continue at 2 schools.
- Apex Friendship Middle
- Mills Park Middle
HIGH SCHOOLS
Caps will continue at 3 schools.
- Apex Friendship High
- Heritage High
- Panther Creek High
This story was originally published February 21, 2023 at 8:37 PM with the headline "Wake puts enrollment caps on 25 schools in 2023. See who’s on the list.."
