A Partial Victory

As you may know, WCPSS changed the magnet lottery last year to remove the F&R status of your node and your assigned school. This was a great step towards making the magnet lottery a fair process for all students, but it is still not a true lottery. Your base school's crowding percentage is what determines whether or not you get into a magnet school now. While I do understand the reasoning behind this, we need to give all of our students an equal chance to take advantage of these amazing opportunities.

In addition to wanting an equal shot for each student, I'm concerned that the capacity numbers being used to determine your fate are not accurate. I spoke at the last board meeting and gave 3 examples of schools whose numbers were a bit misleading.

Daniels Middle School is listed by WCPSS as being at 81% of capacity, which would place Daniels in the last 10% round. But at a recent work session, that capacity was called into question. It seems that while Daniels has extra classroom capacity, they do not have cafeteria capacity to handle that many students.

Wakefield High School is listed at 83% of capacity, but much of that extra space is unused trailers that are going to be moved. I don't think that a date has been set for moving them, but it was pretty clear at that same work session that they have no intention of using those trailers anytime soon.

Wakefield Elementary School was one of the 22 schools converted to the year round calendar and has been under capacity ever since. It is currently at 77% capacity and the BOE has declined to convert it back to traditional, citing the need to save that capacity for future growth. In the meantime, those students are penalized in the magnet application process.

See for the facilities utilization report that lists the capacity and student population figures for each school.

Please send an email to the board members asking for a true lottery. All of our students deserve an equal chance to take advantage of the wonderful opportunities that magnet schools provide.