MAGNET SCHOOLS
Attract Students in Different Ways
The Lure? Academic and Ethnic Diversity

by Anne Woodman

The Triangle attracts more than its fair share of intelligent, well-educated, upwardly mobile adults. So it should come as no surprise that these same adults manage their children's education with plenty of research, planning and passion.

Parents here also expect a quality public education system. Wake County Public School System (WCPSS) and Durham Public Schools (DPS) have taken the commitment to quality education up a notch by offering magnet schools. Spanning language to music and leadership to technology, magnet schools receive additional funds for staff and resources that enhance the magnet's theme and enrich students' academic experience.

Magnet Schools in the Triangle: A Brief History
According to an amicus brief written for a 2006 Supreme Court Case by Walt Sherlin, a former administrator with WCPSS, Raleigh City Schools merged with WCPSS in 1976 under pressure from the United States Department of Health, Education and Welfare (HEW) to accelerate racial integration of the county's schools. In 1982, under additional pressure from HEW, the merged district adopted a voluntary desegregation plan requiring a minority enrollment between 15 percent and 45 percent at each school. So the district created programs, including magnet schools, to encourage additional voluntary desegregation.

At first, magnets were a way to bring more Caucasian students to schools inside Raleigh's "beltline," where attendance of that race was underrepresented. Today, WCPSS's 34 magnets and DPS's nine magnets located throughout both counties provide an array of academic and cultural opportunities, with WCPSS stressing the reduction of high poverty concentrations and DPS seeking a solution to racial isolation. DPS magnets were also set up to encourage innovative instructional practices and promote systemic reform.

Enrichment, Strength and Stability
Carrie Johnson is a former first grade teacher who taught at Joyner Elementary in Wake County nine years ago, a magnet school located within a neighborhood. She loved everything about it. So when the first of her three children was ready for school, she researched her options. "I knew I needed a 'Joyner,'" Johnson said. "Somewhere we could be part of the community."

At the time, Douglas Elementary was entering its first year as an arts and sciences magnet. The Johnsons applied and were accepted to the program. All three Johnson children have enjoyed Douglas Elementary, even though the family has moved to a different home, which often involves a change in school.

"My oldest, Sam, loves sports, and the curriculum forced him to be exposed to (the arts)," Johnson said. "Ben, my middle one, learns through music and drama, doing drama club, chorus and Odyssey of the Mind. His education has been so enriched." Her first grader, Sarah Grace, attends Douglas, too. Sam, now a sixth grader at Daniels Middle School, an International Baccalaureate (IB) magnet, hopes to attend Broughton High School, also an IB magnet.

Gayle Campbell, whose daughter attends Farmington Woods Elementary in Cary, another IB program, said the magnet's net result is not only academic or cultural. Both the individual projects and the school's general focus have helped her children look beyond themselves. "There is an emphasis I've liked—caring for people other than your family, including fundraising to help others," Campbell said. "The projects must have a component of stepping outside of yourself."

The Power of Choice
While parents research their options and make educated decisions, there is some unrest regarding magnets, mainly due to WCPSS's recent decision to "de-magnetize" four elementary schools: Lincoln Heights, Olds, Root and Wake Forest. Over the next two years, funding for the four elementary schools' magnet programs will be gradually phased out, with their magnet status ending in 2010-2011.

Before moving to Raleigh from South Florida, Olds Elementary PTA President Stephanie Gootnick researched the Wake County school district thoroughly. She visited all of the magnets and chose Olds Elementary, the county's only University Connections magnet. She moved into the school's base attendance zone to ensure her daughter's placement at Olds.

"Our partnership and relationship as the University Connections magnet school with North Carolina State University continues to grow and thrive, and our mutual commitment to enhancing science, math, reading and cultural arts through programming support with NCSU is of tremendous benefit to the students and the entire Fred A. Olds surrounding community," she said. "We also have particular reading and math programs that have resulted in high test scores for our children and have inspired tremendous improvement in students who have come to Olds from other schools."

As the school phases out its magnet program, Gootnick must deal with an ironic twist of fate. While students attending the magnet school from outside the base area will retain magnet status and receive priority when applying for magnet middle schools, families living inside the base area will not.

Gootnick and other Olds parents led the charge to protest stripping the magnet programs. "We asked former Wake County Schools Magnet Director Ken Branch at our meetings this summer if he could assure us that Wake County Schools will, at least, protect the zoning for Olds base students so they are not yanked out of Olds, for example, in fourth grade, and Mr. Branch distinctly told us he could not. So, while magnet students currently at Olds and their siblings are assured a seat at Olds in years to come, base students who live in the Olds neighborhood and are equally effected by de-magnetization have no guarantees they can stay at Olds."

Typically there are more applicants to Wake County's magnet schools than seats available. In 2006, WCPSS reported accepting only 3,454 of 7,735 magnet applications, or 45 percent. In 2007, 9,285 students applied for magnet schools—up 1,550 from 2006—but only about 3,250, or 39 percent were accepted.

Bill Poston, a WCPSS spokesman, said the magnet program attributes at Olds Elementary and the other schools scheduled to lose magnet status will still be available. "The connections with N.C. State can continue," he said. "Olds can still have a strong connection; still have special opportunities. The tutors and mentors from N.C. State will still be there."

Magnet Programs Change and Adapt With Growth
Growth continues throughout the Triangle region. At the start of the school year, Wake County alone saw 5,600 new students enter its public school system. Neighborhoods that formerly did not attract families with young children, leaving some schools under-attended and in need of magnet funds to spruce them up, are now thriving, while others continue to need support.

Branch, WCPSS's former senior director for magnet programs, was part of the magnet evaluation process in 2007. He said now the school system has a better process in place to keep track of magnets and their goals. ÒWhat we learned is that as a staff, we need to do a "State of the Union," Branch said. "We will come back annually (to evaluate the magnet programs). What we did with the board (of education) was to drill down more deeply than we ever had."

Chris Bennett, executive director of advanced academic studies for DPS, said the Durham school system also produces status reports periodically, which led to the de-magnetization of two elementary schools two years ago. Ultimately, the change alleviated overcrowding at neighboring schools.

In Durham, "If you get into a magnet, you can go to a magnet anywhere," Bennett said. "There is an extra cost there (to the school system) for transportation, and there is a cost for additional staff. Local dollars go into magnets for supplies. In the end, we have to put money into the program to make sure it will be successful."

Former educator Johnson is sure her choice of magnet schools for her children is making a difference. "We made a choice to go to Douglas because of the magnet," she said. "I believe it's made a difference in my kids' education. They learn so differently that it wouldn't have been the same without the magnet." WL

Anne Woodman is a freelance writer living in Morrisville.

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