Some families in Wake County will be reassigned to a new school next year.

On Tuesday, the Wake County school board unanimously approved a school reassignment plan for the 2025-26 enrollment plan Tuesday night.

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Most families aren’t affected, but four new schools and an expanded school opening in southwestern Wake is triggering a change for hundreds of families. District officials says they’re moving neighborhoods around in a way that prevents them from having to move them again for several more years. In the high-growth region, many families have been reassigned once before and perhaps only a few years ago.

New schools need new students, but many don’t want to leave their current school. Some would be moved to schools not far away, while others would have their walk commutes turn into bus rides or carpools. And many families would have to move to a new calendar.

Facing opposition

Families across numerous neighborhoods and schools have said they wanted to remain at a traditional calendar school, rather than move to a year-round school. District officials have said the fast-growing area needs more year-round schools, which can hold more students by tracking some students into class and tracking others out for weeks at a time.

The district has offered a solution for families proposed to move from year-round elementary schools Olive Chapel and Same to traditional-calendar Baucom Elementary, but not for others. In the proposed solution, those families wouldn’t have a new elementary option. Rather, the change would allow them to stay on a traditional calendar when their children go to middle school, instead of assigning them only to the year-round Lufkin Road or Salem middle schools. It would serve to make sure elementary and middle school siblings can stay on the same calendar, but it wouldn’t mean they get to stay on the calendar they are currently on.

Once the enrollment plan is approved, some families who are affected will be able to apply for a stability transfer to stay at their current school. The window to apply for a stability transfer is expected to run for two weeks in December. But families of the youngest children won’t have that option.

Some of the most robust opposition has come from families in two neighborhoods zoned for Olive Chapel Elementary that would be moved to Baucum Elementary, which is reopening with about 200 more seats for students. Both Ashley Downs and Pearson Farms have walking paths to the school, families said. Students living in Ashely Downs can walk on a new sidewalk along Olive Chapel Road, without having to cross it, to get the school. Families in Pearson Farms can take the Beaver Creek Greenway to the school.

District officials have argued the walks to school aren’t safe and say Ashley Downs families must cross a major road and an Interstate to get to school. But families in the area say that’s not true, because they never cross Olive Chapel Road and because the road and sidewalk go over Interstate 540, via a bridge. District officials told WRAL News that they don’t think the sidewalk is wide enough and said it doesn’t have a grass buffer between it and Olive Chapel Road.

Baucom Elementary is about two miles farther away.

Proposed stability rules

Families can often apply for a stability transfer — a type of transfer that can allow a family to stay at their current school and that is automatically granted if applied for in a certain timeframe. They usually don’t receive bus transport any longer if they stay at their current school.

At new schools, only rising fourth and fifth graders could apply for a stability transfer, along with their rising kindergarten through third grade siblings.

The district is proposing to allow all current students to stay at their current schools — just without busing — if their proposed reassignment is to a school that already exists and isn’t one of the four new schools opening next year. That would apply also to siblings who will be kindergartners next year.

Rising tenth graders reassigned to Felton Grove High School could apply to stay at their current school, but only under certain circumstances. They must currently be participating in Apex High’s Academy of Information Technology or Apex Friendship High’s Academy of Engineers. Because Felton Grove will take only ninth and tenth graders, juniors and seniors will be able to stay at their current school. If they have a sibling who will be in ninth or tenth grade next year, they can also stay at the current high school.

The proposed reassignment plan

Four new schools are prompting the move of a couple thousand students. Families can look up whether they’re affected on the district’s website here.

  • Rex Road Elementary School would receive students from Buckhorn Creek and Holly Grove elementary schools. Staff is recommending a multi-track year-round calendar, because no new elementary schools are scheduled to open soon in the high-growth area. It would only be about half full once it opens, but leaders expect it to fill up soon. Four other elementary schools would be affected through additional rearrangement of students intended to keep enrollment stable at each school: Herbert Akins, Holly Ridge, Holly Springs and Lincoln Heights.
    • Bowling Road Elementary School would receive students from Buckhorn Creek, Lincoln Heights, Herbert Akins, Fuquay-Varina and South Lakes elementary schools. The school board voted to make Bowling Road operate on a traditional school-year calendar.
      • Pleasant Plains Elementary School would receive students from Scotts Ridge, Apex and Apex Friendship. Then Scotts Ridge would add students from Olive Chapel, to avoid losing too many students to Pleasant Plains. Staff is recommending a multi-track year-round calendar.
        • Felton Grove High School would take students from Apex, Apex Friendship and Holly Springs. Then portions of Apex Friendship High would move into Apex High.

          Renovated schools:

          • Fuquay-Varina Middle School is opening in a new location. It will add students from Holly Grove Middle.
            • The renovated Baucom Elementary will be able to house 208 more students, allowing it to take on students from some more crowded schools: Salem and Olive Chapel. Salem would then be able to take students from Laurel Park. One Baucom neighborhood that is next to Penny Road’s district would be moved into Penny Road’s district.

              Existing schools:

              • A portion of Apex Friendship Middle School’s assignment zone that is located in the middle of Apex Middle School’s assignment zone will be reassigned to Apex Middle School’s assignment zone.
                • Portions of Apex Middle and Holly Ridge Middle will move into the Lufkin Road Middle assignment zone.
                  • A portion of Oak Grove Elementary’s assignment zone would move to Powell Magnet Elementary.
                    • A portion of Dillard Drive Magnet Middle would move to Ligon Magnet Middle
                      • A portion of Centennial Magnet Middle would’ve into West Millbrook Magnet Middle
                        • A portion of Southeast Raleigh Magnet High would move into Millbrook Magnet High