Auditors from the accrediting agency AdvancedED have placed the 143,000-student Wake County, N.C., school district on “accredited warned” status and issued an unsparing assessment of who should take the blame for the community uproar over changes to the district’s school assignment policy.
The agency’s March 16 report said that, starting in late 2009, four new Board of Education members launched “a premeditated act that resulted in destabilizing the school system and community.” It said the board members ignored professional educators’ concerns about the consequences of dismantling the district’s longtime school assignment policy, which tried to limit the number of low-income students at any one school.
Board Chairman Ron Margiotta said that he believes the report’s characterizations of the members’ motives was unfair, but that its recommended actions are already underway.
