The Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools Board of Education heard updates on the Fostering Diverse Schools Grant project during their meeting on Tuesday night.
The district’s residential zones have not been updated in over three decades, meaning they do not reflect the significant demographic changes that Winston-Salem and Forsyth County have experienced in recent years. Using the Fostering Diverse Schools Grant, which is worth $943,688 over two years, district leaders intend to study and vet new maps alongside community partners and stakeholders so that school zones can better portray this diversification.
Chief Equity Officer Dr. Effie McMillian and Executive Director of Choice and Magnet Schools Frank Pantano used the meeting as an opportunity to dispel several rumors about the project. No student will have to leave their current school regardless of how maps change during this process, and no personal data collected from stakeholders through surveys is being shared with third parties.
Maps circulating online that some claim have already been developed without stakeholder feedback are not connected to Fostering Diverse Schools, but were actually developed years ago using publicly available data as part of an unrelated third party research project. Pantano emphasized that no maps have been created for Fostering Diverse Schools yet, and that the maps that have been floated do not resemble what the district is striving towards.
“Those maps are terrible,” Pantano said. “It wasn’t even done using our data. It was done using federally available data, it was done for 4,000 different school districts, and it was done purely for a research paper. It’s not at all what we’re thinking we’re going to end up with.”
District leaders believe that modernizing zoning boundaries will lead to greater efficiency in transportation, more diverse student bodies, and more equitable access to school resources. To that end, the Equity, Access, and Acceleration Department will spend the rest of this calendar year engaging students, staff, families, and community members to get as much feedback as possible about their options using phone calls, listening sessions, and online communications.
Thousands of parents and hundreds of students and staff members have already offered feedback. There are 600 registered participants in listening sessions connected to the project, and there’s plenty of room for more. McMillian says it’s important for the team to have as many opinions as possible from community members to factor into their vetting process.
“We want to make sure we’re hearing the voices of constituents across the entire county,” McMillian said. “We’re trying to get a pulse on the community with this first round of engagement.”
More information on the Fostering Diverse Schools Grant project is available online at https://listening.wsfcsvoices.org/.
Also on the Board’s agenda for the evening were:
A live reading by Mineral Springs Elementary School Second Grader Alice Flores Euceda from her self-published children’s book Sé Feliz Siempre
Recognitions for Deaf Awareness Month, Governor’s School attendees, and JROTC award winners
A public hearing to name the RJ Reynolds High School greenhouse after Glenn Perryman
An update on the 2024 Summer Program
Discussion of possible funding strategies for more OPENGATE metal detection systems
Approval of calendar options to submit for public comment, construction design documents for Ashley Academy, a contract with the American Reading Company at Flat Rock Middle School, and several other action items
The Board of Education will meet again on Tuesday, October 8 at 6:30 pm.