Five new schools will get magnet school status and will join slate of thirty-four that WCPSS currently offers.
Broughton High and Daniels Middle will return to magnet status. These two schools had magnet designation in the past, but both lost magnet programs in 2008. They will now be Global Studies magnets. Together they will provide a complete immersion pathway (elementary, middle, and high school) for students in two elementary schools with language immersion programs. (Broughton High maintained its International Baccalaureate Programme after magnet status was lost.)
Those two elementary schools are Jeffreys Grove Elementary and Stough Elementary. They, along with Hodge Road Elementary, will also become magnet schools during the 2015-2016 school year.
The decision to confer magnet status on these schools came just two weeks before the upcoming WCPSS Magnet Schools Fair on November 1. This was noted by the Board of Education, and one member shared a concern that the decision came without a typical full review of the magnet program.
Of additional concern to the Board of Education was the lack of a language immersion pathway available to the students of Hodge Road Elementary in East Wake. In response, Deputy Superintendent Cathy Moore shared the district’s intention to develop a K-12 immersion pathway in the East Wake area.