District wins nearly $15 million federal grant to help eastern Wake schools compete
Wake County has won nearly $15 million in federal funding to expand magnet school offerings in the eastern part of the county to compete against charter schools and private schools.
Wake will receive $14.9 million over the next five years to add magnet school programs to East Wake High School in Wendell and Wendell Middle School. The grant will also be used to revise the magnet school themes at Zebulon Middle School and Wendell and Zebulon elementary schools.
There will be a mix of science, technology, engineering, arts and math (STEAM) offerings at the five eastern Wake schools.
“We are just beyond thrilled,” Kimberly Lane, senior director for Magnet and Curriculum Enhancement Programs, said to applause when she announced the new award at Wednesday’s meeting of the school board’s student achievement committee.
Lane said that the U.S. Department of Education hasn’t officially announced the new round of grant awards. But she was given permission to share the news with the school board.
‘Game changer’ for eastern Wake
Since 1982, Wake has used the magnet program to diversify school enrollments, fill under-enrolled schools and provide additional educational opportunities. Magnet schools offer programs typically not found at regular schools, such as advanced arts and foreign language courses.
Wake has magnet programs at 61 of its 198 schools. Wake has increasingly used magnet schools to promote diversity in lieu of involuntarily busing students to balance school enrollments.
Several new charter schools have opened in eastern Wake and Wake Forest in the past decade, luring families away from district schools. Lane said they hope magnet programs will bring those families back and encourage others to remain in the district..
Lane said that when she shared the news about winning the grant, Eastern Area Superintendent Mark Savage told her “this is going to be a game changer for our schools in this area.”
Magnet themes
Zebulon Elementary and Zebulon Middle will add the AIG Basics program, where academically and intellectually gifted students are grouped together for math and language arts classes. AIG Basics also offers extensive electives, so Lane has said they’d look at courses with a science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) theme.
Wendell Elementary and Wendell Middle will offer a creative arts and design magnet theme.
Wendell Middle and Zebulon Middle will feed into East Wake High, which will have a STEAM theme.
Unlike most Wake magnet schools, the five schools will only be open for students who live in their base attendance area.
Federal funding
The funding for the five magnet schools will come from a federal grant designed to promote school integration. The school board voted in February to apply for the new grant.
Wake has won more than $100 million since 1985 from the federal Magnet School Assistance Program. The new grant is the largest one Wake has received.
Last October, Wake won a $13.5 million grant to start magnet programs at Wildwood Forest Elementary in Raleigh and Wake Forest Elementary. The grant will also pay for changing the themes at Centennial Campus and East Millbrook middle schools in Raleigh.
