NEW HANOVER COUNTY — Some specialty schools in New Hanover County could move to a more randomized admission process per changes passed by the New Hanover County Schools policy committee earlier this week.
READ MORE: NHCS strategic plan nixes DEI to comply federally, sex ed changes could be next
Republican school board members Pete Wildeboer and David Perry approved an amendment to policy 4150 on school assignments; Judy Justice, the third board member part of the committee, was absent Tuesday.
The amendment, if passed by the entire board at its July meeting, would bar school and district officials from using weighted criteria to score students for admission. Affected speciality schools include Snipes Academy, the International School at Gregory, Rachel Freeman, as well as year-round elementary schools, Codington and Eaton.
The amendment indicates: “The Student Assignment Plan shall detail the procedures for how the Lottery Assignment process will work. All lotteries will provide an equal chance for all students to be selected. No weighted preferences shall be made. This does not include the cooperative innovative high school programs.”
The original language did not provide a caveat for the high school early college programs, including SEA-Tech, Isaac Bear and Wilmington Early College. Superintendent Chris Barnes worried the amendment would run afoul of the 2004 state statute mandating the programs “target” three high school demographics:
- Students who are at risk of dropping out of school before attaining a high school diploma
- Students with parents who did not continue education beyond high school
- Students who would benefit from accelerated academic instruction
“If we want to look out for kids who are at risk of dropping out, I’m all for that, but I don’t think you can do that without an individual assessment,” Perry said. “You can’t do that with an income level, zip code and educational level.”
Barnes pushed back, saying the program is state-backed and the research to establish it showed the three categories are the most likely students to face barriers to graduation.
Perry didn’t buy it.
“I don’t care about statistics; I care about individuals, and make sure each one gives an equal opportunity for success,” Perry said. “I don’t want them discriminated on just because their parents went to college.”
Barnes said he just wanted the board to be familiar with the lottery system and general statute requirements before making changes, though he does have a morally guided opinion on the matter.
The superintendent said he views his job, in its bare-bones form, to graduate kids from high school with a plan for success.
“That means getting every kid over the line,” Barnes said. “I think there’s a fundamental question about whether or not everyone starts running from the same starting point. So I will tell you that, morally, I believe that supporting kids means different things to different kids, and it means helping other kids, helping some kids who may have other things stacked against them, who may have other things that inhibit them, and giving them as much of a leg up as possible helps them get to graduation.”
Barnes skirted the use of the word ‘equity’ though what he described meets the definition. Equity means to adjust support based on a student’s need, as compared to “equality” (the word Perry used), which is to provide everyone the same support regardless of how much they need.
“Equity” has become a Republican target at the national and local level. The Trump administration has essentially outlawed the use of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives by organizations that receive federal funding. Though the move is being legally challenged, it prompted the New Hanover County Board of Education to comb through its policies and erase even just the words “diversity,” “equity” and “inclusion,” though some were not being used to reference the greater DEI framework.
Though changing how the state sets up its early colleges may be a no-go, the same can’t be said for the remaining lottery schools. Barnes explained the others, in reality, don’t really bar any students from attending.
For Gregory, the lottery only occurs at the kindergarten level only because of its language program that relies on participation from the beginning. Barnes said there’s usually not a waiting list for Gregory because the school is allowed to have larger class sizes than normal.
As for Snipes and Freeman, essentially every student that applies gets in, rendering the lottery unnecessary.
NHCS Assistant Superintendent of Student Support Julie Varnam explained the lottery really only occurs at Codington and Eaton. Neither school has an “attendance zone” where kids are districted to go to that school, and they don’t accept hardship applications, filed on an individual basis if a child needs to move to a school outside their district. This could be due to special needs, bullying, or easier pickup for a caregiver that doesn’t live near the child.
The lottery used at these two schools is based on tiers of acceptance, including:
- Tier One: If a child has a sibling already at the school
- Tier Two: If a child is living in an “underrepresented” zip code
- Tier Three: Based on a family’s self-reported income
- Tier Four: Based on the parents’ education
”So I’m understanding that if my wife [and I] both have a master’s degree, we would be discriminated against by this lottery,” Wildeboer said. “We’re saying that because we went to school and tried our best, that my child wouldn’t have the same right as a child of somebody who did just graduate high school.”
Varnam said he would have the same right, just not the same “likelihood of being grabbed in the lottery.” Barnes said it was more of a “rubric” to determine how the school fills its limited number of seats.
The assistant superintendent also noted the lottery was established well before she took her position and was driven by past board policies.
“My understanding, in my research, is the weighted lottery for those schools was created to mitigate risk factors that could interfere with student success or student access to those programs,” Varnam said. “And I also think that was probably during a time when the belief was that year-round schools proved to provide a more sound educational opportunity.”
Wildeboer shared he recently attended a meeting with principals in Topsail where the benefit of year-round schooling was lauded.
Perry described the tiered system as advancing DEI but not calling it that. Though the system isn’t specifically targeting race, Perry said “if you look at downtown for people with a high school degree that’s probably what you’re going to get.”
He then claimed federal funds could be withheld because of this work-around; the Trump administration also prohibited any DEI by proxy.
Perry suggested he and the board attorney write a “parallel” policy to the current 4150 that would address Codington and Eaton’s admission system, while holding 4150 in the policy committee for further review. He said he still wasn’t convinced they were required by the state to use a targeted lottery system, but he could be convinced otherwise.
Attorney Brian Kromke then weighed in to suggest the district satisfy the statute’s “shall target” language with communication geared toward it’s three demographics rather than focusing on admission.
“You can’t pick favorites, or you can’t make choices because you want a certain outcome for certain people, it just has to be a moderate — that’s my personal belief and I’m personally glad that we’re headed in that direction with our government,” Kromke said. “There can be no favoritism for race, color, socioeconomic status, where you come from, because there are people who are rich, that live in poor neighborhoods, people who are not educated, who live in the better neighborhood. So I’m a big fan, and I believe in the ideal — no weighted lotteries.”
It was Varnam who suggested the policy move forward with the caveat for the three high schools. Both Perry and Wildeboer agreed, though Perry said he would like to return to the high schools in a future discussion.
Reach journalist Brenna Flanagan at brenna@localdailymedia.com.
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