Wake wins $13.5 million federal magnet school grant. These 4 schools will get the money.

The Wake County school system has won a $13.5 million federal school integration grant that will allow it to start two new magnet schools and to overhaul the programs at two existing magnet schools.

The grant will cover the cost of starting magnet programs at Wildwood Forest Elementary in Raleigh and Wake Forest Elementary. It will also pay for changing the themes at Centennial Campus and East Millbrook middle schools in Raleigh.

The federal Magnet Schools Assistance Program (MSAP) grants are given by the U.S. Department of Education to help voluntarily desegregate U.S. public schools.

“It embodies the district’s conviction that transformative learning occurs when children from socioeconomically, racially and geographically diverse backgrounds are exposed to innovative programs and learn with peers in integrated environments,” Kimberly Lane, Wake’s senior director of Magnet and Curriculum Enhancement, said during the grant announcement at Tuesday’s school board meeting.

Wake will get $3.4 million this year, with the rest of the grant money coming over the next four years.

Magnet schools promote desegregation

Since 1982, Wake has used the magnet program to diversify school enrollments, fill under-enrolled schools and provide additional educational opportunities. Magnet schools offer programs typically not found at regular schools, such as advanced arts and foreign language courses.

Wake has won multiple MSAP grants over the past 37 years to help fund the magnet program.

In April 2021, Wake won $14.1 million to add magnet programs at East Cary Middle and Dillard Drive elementary and middle schools and to change the theme at Smith Elementary.

In November, Wake school administrators recommended the four schools for the new grant application because they have higher than average percentages of socio-economically disadvantaged students and lower than average test scores. They also are under-enrolled and can take new students.

The schools are particularly facing competition from nearby charter schools.

New school names

The grant will come with name changes for the four schools.

Centennial Campus Center for Innovation Magnet Middle School will become Wake’s first and only Center for Innovation. Wake says students will use design thinking to spark innovative ideas and creative problem-solving.

Wildwood Forest Magnet Elementary School Academy of Arts & Design will feed into the East Millbrook Magnet Middle School Academy of Arts & Design to form a K-8 art and design pathway.

“As students move through iterations of prototyping and testing, they will make their thinking visible through imaginative problem solving and artistic expression,” Wake said of the two magnet schools.

Wake Forest iSTEM Magnet Elementary School will allow students, Wake says, to engage in discovery to solve emergent problems.

Wake Forest Elementary had been a magnet school for 25 years when the school board voted in 2007 to remove the program. At the time, school leaders said the school no longer needed the extra support from the magnet program.

But Wake has been adding more magnet programs over the past decade as part of its efforts to integrate schools.

“I’m just very excited to see these programs grow and to see what these students and their teachers will accomplish,” said school board member Heather Scott. “I’m so excited for the communities that are around these schools. I know they’re excited about that as well.”

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