N.C. District Polling Parents on Year-Round Schools

The Wake County, N.C., school system is scrambling to find seats for thousands of students after a judge’s ruling threw a monkey wrench into its plan to accommodate explosive growth by converting more schools to a year-round schedule.

By this week, district officials will know exactly how many families will allow their children to attend school on a multi-track, year-round schedule, which alternates 45-day sessions with 15-day breaks. Children whose parents don’t consent—or don’t return consent forms—will be enrolled in traditional-calendar schools, which hold class from late August through June.

The trouble is that the 128,000-student district, which includes the city of Raleigh, is growing so quickly that it doesn’t have enough seats for all its students. It has gained 30,000 students since 1998, and anticipates another 65,000 by the fall of 2015. Eight thousand of those children are expected by this coming fall. Classes have overflowed into 1,100 trailers, and into gymnasiums,...