Wake County Public Schools
As of the 2006 - 2007 school year, Wake County was the second largest public school district in North Carolina. It was ranked the 21st largest district nationwide. The student population has doubled in Wake County since 1990. The school population increases between 4000 and 5000 students with each new school year. The projected enrollment for the 2007-2008 school year is 136,086 students. The projected enrollment for the 2026-2027 school year is 259,195 students. That is an increase of over 120,000 students in less than 20 years.
Wake County consists of 155 schools. There are currently 96 elementary schools, 30 middle schools, 22 high schools and 7 special/optional schools. Of the 96 elementary schools, 21 are magnet schools, 38 operate on a multitrack year round calendar, one operates on a modified year round calendar and the remaining 36 are on a traditional school calendar. Of the 30 middle schools, 10 are magnet schools, 7 operate on a multitrack year round calendar and 13 operate on a traditional calendar. Of the 22 high schools, 4 are magnet schools with one of these also operating on a modified year round calendar, one is a School of Integrated Technology, one is an Early College of Health and Sciences and the other 16 operate on a traditional school calendar.
The 2007 –2008 school year brought with it many changes in the schedules of our elementary and middle schools. Wake County converted 19 elementary schools and 3 middle schools to multitrack year round calendars. The same school year saw the opening of 3 multitrack year round elementary schools and 1 multitrack year round middle school. The rationale behind multitrack year round schools is that it benefits the community both financially and educationally. The students on a multitrack year round calendar still attend school for the required 180 days. However, the children are pided into 4 different tracks and at any given time during the year one track is home on break or “tracked out” as we call it. This tracking out allows the school to gain up to 33% more capacity. The multitrack year round calendar allows a more cost effective way to use resources and alleviates the need for new schools to be built as rapidly as necessary to keep up with growth. The multitrack year round calendar also reduces class size and allows fewer students to be using school resources (i.e. Computers, library, etc.) at any given time.