News and Notables

Wake School News Summary (2021-22)

January 2022

The State Board of Education voted to authorize a new charter school in Wake County at their meeting on Jan. 6. The new school, Revitalize, plans to enroll students for the upcoming fall semester and to use the Garner Road Community Center for classroom space. The News & Observer reported that “Revitalize plans to serve students in Southeast Raleigh with a goal of having 68% of its enrollment coming from economically disadvantaged households.” More information: https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/education/article257124312.html#storylink=cpy

The district announced the names of educators who earned their National Board Certification during the 2021-22 school year on Jan. 31. The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) made the award to 84 new teachers and granted renewals to 148 teachers in WCPSS as the district continued to lead the nation in the number of National Board certified teachers. Renewals are required after five years.

December 2021

The NC State Board of Education announced on Dec. 3 that Danielle McCaslin of Mills Park MS in Cary was one of the state’s finalists for the 2021 Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching (PAEMST).

Monday, Dec. 6 was the first day in the newly renovated school building for students and staff at York ES in Raleigh. Several hours were devoted to acclimating students and taking tours of the fine facilities. The renovation was so extreme that the entire school had to be relocated to the new Barton Pond school site on Strickland Road for one school year. (Barton Pond is enrolling students and will open in the fall of 2022.)

The newly renovated York Elementary School. Photo by Chris McCabe.

 

The York school family enjoys referring to their “New York.”

HSOT announced on Dec. 6 that WCPSS Athletic Director Deran Coe had been notified that he would receive a citation of merit from the National Federation of State High School Associations, based on his nomination by the NCHSAA. Coe is known for his efforts to support good safety practices and to increase participation, including by expanding and encouraging unified sports opportunities at district middle and high schools. HSOT’s interview with Coe is here: https://www.highschoolot.com/wcpss-athletic-director-deran-coe-to-receive-national-award/20020744/

The second week of December was Computer Science Education Week (CSEdWeek), a global event observed by many local schools. Professionals with technology skills visited schools and helped to plan lessons on coding or engineering. Representatives from Apple paid a visit to Centennial Campus MMS in Raleigh to help with some coding workshops on Dec. 7, and representatives from SAS volunteered at Brentwood MES in Raleigh. At Lacy ES and Underwood MES in Raleigh, students experimented with several programs that teach basic coding skills.

The NCPTA announced the winners of the annual Reflections Theme Contest for 2021-22 on Dec. 9. This aspect of the Reflections Art Contest allows students to select a theme for the following year’s contest. Of the 5 entries that the NCPTA selected for advancement to the national level of the theme contest, four were from WCPSS students at Mills Park MS, Alston Ridge MS, White Oak ES, and Carnage MMS.

The NC Center for the Advancement of Teaching (NCCAT) announced a slate of finalists for their 2022 Prudential NC Beginning Teacher of the Year Award on Dec. 21, and Zoe Grove, a 7th-grade Math teacher at West Lake MS in Apex, was among them.

November 2021

The first weekend in November brought great success for Wake County athletics.  On Nov. 4, seven WCPSS teams advanced to the third round of the boys’ soccer playoffs. The following night, seven football teams from WCPSS advanced to the second round of the playoffs (Nov. 5). And on Nov. 6, the Green Level HS volleyball team swept Ardrey Kell for the first state championship in school history. The school was established in 2019, and local sports writers speculated that this was the fastest path to a state championship for any school in North Carolina.

Sarah Mitchell of Apex HS won the Individual Cross-Country State Championship in the 4A division on Nov. 6 at the state meet. Her time was the second fastest on the Ivey Redmon (Kernersville) course in state history. And although a Wake county team didn’t win a team championship in either cross-country or golf, Green Hope’s girls’ golfers came in 6th in the state on Nov. 7.

Apex boys’ soccer lost in the quarterfinals of the state championship to New Hanover, 1 – 0, on Nov. 11.

After five teams from the WCPSS district made it all the way to the third round of the 4A football state championships, played on Nov. 19, Panther Creek, Leesville, and Rolesville fought their way through to the fourth round. The fourth-round games were played on Nov. 26, leaving only Rolesville to proceed to the “final four,” the Regional Finals in Raleigh. On Dec. 3, Rolesville came up just short, losing to Cardinal Gibbons 28 – 36.

Nov. 29 – Dec. 1 saw State Superintendent Catherine Truitt’s first annual Accelerate, Invigorate, Motivate (AIM) Conference at the Convention Center in Raleigh. The attendees were district leaders from all NC public school districts and charter schools, and the conference was described as a chance for “teams of NC teachers, principals and district leaders [to] come together for opportunities to learn, collaborate and network.” Attendees had high praise for the event. Rupen Fofaria of EdNC reported that they “met with representatives from other districts from their regions in eight large rooms, seated at round tables for working sessions. Much of that time was spent setting goals and brainstorming performance metrics to measure progress on goals.” District leadership teams included both teachers and principals, and much of their time was spent discussing regional or collaborative solutions to common problems, such as staffing shortages and student mental health. Attendees discussed local plans and compared them to the strategic plan from the State Board of Education. More info: https://www.ednc.org/2021-12-01-aim-conference-brings-educators-together-to-begin-a-new-season-of-education-in-n-c/.

 

 

October 2021

Unable to host the typical largescale gala event in downtown Raleigh, WCPSS used Facebook Live to stream the announcement of the winners of its biggest competition on Oct. 7. Keith Richardson of Knightdale HS was named Principal of the Year. And Bonnie Mwanda of Heritage HS was named Assistant Principal of the Year. Richardson was honored with a pep rally, and in addition to several district leaders, his father was a surprise guest.

The ABC Science Collaborative, a group of researchers whose nationwide efforts to mitigate the harms of the Covid-19 pandemic were coordinated by the Duke Clinical Research Institute, announced results from a study of data collected over the summer on Oct. 8. Based on close to 60,000 students and 12,000 school workers at 783 schools, the study focused on schools that were in compliance with the NC StrongSchools Toolkit, which required universal masking indoors, 3 feet or more of distancing, and quarantining after known exposure. They found that even though the Delta variant of the coronavirus had “a reproductive number of about 7,” indicating that one infected person infected seven others on average, “in schools that implemented universal masking, for every 13 people who acquired COVID-19 outside of school, one person acquired COVID-19 within schools,” the research team announced. They also argued that “data from other schools without a mask mandate during July-August 2021 showed these schools were 3.5 times more likely to have school-associated COVID-19 outbreaks than the schools in this study that required masking.” The collaborative signed an agreement with WCPSS in November 2020 to provide science-based safety guidance to the schools at no cost in return for anonymized student data to aid in their tracking and mitigation efforts.

Annual rankings of the nation’s public elementary and middle schools by US News & World Report Magazine were published on Oct. 12. Wake’s public schools, both district schools and charter schools, captured multiple top-ten rankings in the state:

  • Magellan Charter School in Raleigh was ranked third in the state for both its elementary and middle schools.
  • Davis Drive ES in Cary was ranked fifth in the state.
  • Mills Park ES in Cary was ranked seventh.
  • The middle school at Wake Young Women’s Leadership Academy in Raleigh was ranked seventh in the state.
  • Endeavor Charter School’s middle school was ranked eighth (located in Wake Forest).
  • Mills Park MS in Cary was ranked 10th.

See the article here: https://www.usnews.com/education/k12?src=usn_pr

At the 47th Annual Central North Carolina Band Festival, held at Western Alamance HS in Elon on Oct. 16, Apex Friendship were named Grand Champions. Fourteen bands participated, including Leesville Road HS and Apex HS.

Oct. 17 brought the tragic news of a terrible car crash that killed five teen boys on Capital Blvd. in Raleigh. Thirteen-year-old Mi-Keal Freeman, a student at Carroll MMS in Raleigh, was the youngest of the victims. Zymeer Dennis, a student at Wake Forest High School, and Lebron Staton, a student at Ligon MMS in Raleigh, were both 14 years old when they were killed. A large group gathered to mourn in a North Raleigh park on Oct. 18. Several GoFundMe accounts were opened to assist the families with funeral expenses.

Lincoln Heights MES in Fuquay-Varina announced on Oct. 18 that science teacher Annette Steele had  been named the 2021 Outstanding Elementary Science Teacher for District 3 of the NC Science Teachers Association (NCSTA).

As the state entered its fourth year without a budget agreement from the General Assembly, Judge David Lee held yet another hearing in the decades-old Leandro lawsuit on Oct. 18. The attorneys representing the plaintiffs were displeased that the NCGA seemingly had no intention of providing the levels of funding for North Carolina’s public schools that were recommended by the WestEd Consulting Group in late 2019. They told reporters that the judge had several options for forcing the state to increase the funding proposed in their draft budget, including issuing injunctions and levying hefty fines. Spokespeople for the leader of the NC Senate expressed open defiance. Judge Lee called for a followup hearing on Nov. 1 as the NCGA’s budget negotiations with Gov. Cooper continued. The plaintiffs were instructed to use the two-week window to prepare a court order that would require the state to provide adequate funding to satisfy the lawsuit, which the plaintiffs won back in 1997.

Also on Oct. 18, Lincoln Heights MES announced that teacher Annette Steele had been named the 2021 Outstanding Elementary Science Teacher for District 3 by the North Carolina Science Teachers Association.

 

September 2021

Multiple cross-country teams from Wake high schools participated in their first Friday Night Lights meet in two years on Sept. 10. (They hadn’t been able to compete in 2019 because of Hurricane Dorian.) This year’s FNL was hosted by Mt. Tabor High School of Forsyth County Public Schools and held in Kernersville. The event featured 10 races, 104 teams, and 2500 runners.

On Sept. 21, Wake STEM Early College HS in Raleigh announced that one of their teachers, Evelyn Baldwin, had won a Regional Award for Excellence in High School Teaching from the American Chemical Society. Regional winners were automatically nominated for the National ACS James Bryant Conant Award. Baldwin teaches chemistry and physics. More info about the regional awards here.

On Sept. 25, the Panther Creek Invitational band competition was held, after being canceled in 2020. Eleven local bands were jazzed for the opportunity to compete once again, including seven from Wake County.

Multiple ribbon-cutting ceremonies were held this month after a strong two-year period of extreme renovations and new school construction and postponed celebrations due to the pandemic. On Sept. 28, the opening of the new South Lakes ES of Fuquay-Varina was observed, one year late. They called it a “shellebration” as a nod to their school mascot, a sea turtle. Multiple members of the Wake County Commission were in attendance, as was Monika Johnson-Hostler, representing the BoE, and the Mayor Pro Tem and Police Chief of Fuquay-Varina. Students led the school cheer, and the school’s chorus sang a song. The school, situated on the same site as the town’s Willow Lakes Park, offers many opportunities for outdoor learning and play, which is a great bonus during a pandemic. More info here: https://t.co/u76NAapZfZ?amp=1

Conn MES in Raleigh held a ceremony to celebrate the reopening of its renovated facilities on Sept. 29. School Board Chairman Keith Sutton shared some fond memories of the school, where he sent his own daughter.

Newly rebuilt Fuquay-Varina High School

Entirely rebuilt, Fuquay-Varina HS nears completion. Photo by Pinnacle Eye Productions.

The ribbon-cutting ceremony for the newly rebuilt Fuquay-Varina HS was held on Sept. 30. In addition to WCPSS Supt. Cathy Moore and Southern Area Supt. Clinton Robinson, the mayor of Fuquay-Varina, John W. Byrne, was in attendance. The main feature is a four-story building that is nearly 300,000 square feet in size, and the school now has a completely redesigned auditorium and a greenhouse. The renovation was so extreme that the campus was completely off-limits until it was completed. As a result, although the site plans were approved by the school board in 2017, the work could not begin until the new Willow Spring HS facilities were complete so that current FVHS students, faculty, and staff could use them for the 2019-20 and 2020-21 school years. 

The last week of September was Rivalry Week at many schools, a time when middle-school and high-school football and soccer programs scheduled games against their traditional rivals. East Garner MMS played against North Garner MS, East Millbrook MMS played against West Millbrook MMS, Apex HS met Apex Friendship HS, and Green Hope HS met Panther Creek. These last two schools take their rivalry, “the Fight for 55,” very seriously. They started the trash-talking a week early so that the student councils could compete in a food drive to benefit the Food Bank of Central and Eastern NC.

August 2021

The NCHSAA announced on Aug. 3 that the Heritage Huskies, Apex Friendship Patriots, and Panther Creek Catamounts had won one of the 4A Wells Fargo Conference Cup titles for 2020-21. Each Conference Cup championship is based on aggregate performances by male and female athletes in all sports, with only intraconference matchups included for consideration.

Several local athletes competed in the postponed 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, including Randolph Ross, graduate of Garner MHS and a student at NC A&T. Although Ross failed to qualify in a heat on Aug. 1, he helped the men’s relay team win the gold medal in the 4 x 400 on Aug. 5.

WRAL News reported on Aug. 10 that, as year-round schools started the new academic year and schools on the traditional calendar pushed their preparations into high gear, a worrying number of Covid-19 cases were leading to quarantines for many students. Six district elementary schools had reported clusters that week, including 10 cases among students at Salem ES in Apex. Many were on edge as the Delta variant surged in the state and nationwide. However, WRAL noted that even though slightly more than 19% of newly discovered cases in North Carolina were among children in early August, only four children were in hospitals statewide at that point.

On Aug. 11, the district announced that Lincoln Heights Environmental Connections MES in Fuquay-Varina and Zebulon GT MES had each won a $42,000 grant from NC GreenPower. The grants were aimed at supporting education about solar power and were accompanied by a 5-kilowatt solar array, sensors, teaching materials, teacher training, and additional support. To defray the cost of the program, the schools were required to raise close to $10,000 in matching funds.

One week before schools on the traditional calendar started the new academic year, most of Wake County’s municipalities reinstated an indoor mask mandate that took effect Aug. 20. It was a stark reminder that the pandemic was far from over. Groups of parents and other concerned citizens voiced concerns that wearing masks was unhealthy or even dangerous for children.

On Aug. 30 and Sep. 2, Hannah Aspden of Raleigh, a 2018 graduate of Leesville Road HS, won gold medals in the postponed 2020 Paralympic Games in Tokyo. Aspden won the 100-meter backstroke and helped her team win the 4×100-meter medley relay. The Mayor of Charlotte, where Aspden attends Queens University, honored her achievements and proclaimed Oct. 1 Hannah Aspden Day.

Paralympic gold medalist Hannah Aspden honored by city of Charlotte and Dan Lugo of Queens University

Hannah Aspden with her father and Dan Lugo, President of Queens University. Photo captured from Aspden’s Instagram page.