WS Chronicle

For the first time in 30 years, Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools (WS/FCS) is looking to make changes to its residential boundaries. Last week district leaders unveiled three different proposed maps aimed at creating more socioeconomically diverse schools. 

The current residential boundaries have been in place since 1993, and the new maps were made possible by the districts Fostering Diverse Schools (FDS) initiative, which was supported by a $1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education. With the goal of better serving students and families, the FDS launched a planning process to modernize boundaries.  

Through listening sessions, surveys, and a feedback hotline, nearly 12,000 people weighed in on the new maps. After months of collecting feedback, last month FDS produced the first three sets of potential residential boundaries for stakeholders to consider. 

According to the district’s website, each map addresses current problems to different degrees. Map A significantly increases socioeconomic diversity, while Map B is slightly less diverse but has much more efficient transportation routes and more consistent feeder patterns, and Map C sacrifices more diversity for a bit more transportation efficiency.

Map A

  Map B

Map C

WS/FCS Superintendent Tricia McManus said there are 100,000 more residents in Forsyth County than were there the last time district zones were redrawn, and over time they have become inept. She mentioned that in some cases, families drive past a school that is closer to their home to get to their assigned school. 

“The boundaries over time have become inefficient. Some schools are overcrowded, some are under enrolled, transportation insufficiencies have arisen … our schools have become less social-economical diverse as a result,” McManus said. 

Current Map 

The Fostering Diverse School initiative is being led by Dr. Effie McMillian, WS/FCS chief equity officer, and Frank Pantano, executive director of Office of Choice and Magnet Schools. 

Dr. McMillian said the fact that several schools have a high concentration of poverty in some ways are linked to the residential boundaries. She said receiving the grant allowed the district to study both the operational and social economic impact of the boundaries. 

“This grant was an opportunity for us to do a deep dive to really hear from our community and to learn from them about what would make sense and how we move forward to tackle a really complex issue that is definitely long overdue,” Dr. McMillian said.  

Now that the three proposed maps have been released, the district will go back to students, parents, staff and other community stakeholders for additional feedback. The maps will be revised again at the end of spring. 

“We are going to go back to the maps, leverage the feedback to make some adjustments to those maps, and bring them back to the community again for an additional round of feedback and refinement,” Dr. McMillian said. “Once we have done that, then we feel confident that we will have an option that can go to the board for them to weigh in on and vote. We have been thoughtful about engagement.” 

The board of education is not expected to vote on new residential boundaries until August. At the earliest, new maps would be in place for the 2026-2027 school year. “We will be taking the ‘25-’26 school year to really map out what the implementation plan would look like,” said Dr. McMillian when discussing the next steps after engaging stakeholders. Once new residential zones are in place, students will have the option to stay at their current schools.  

“While we will be going to the board with a recommendation, we still have to put a plan together for implementation so that would be another year. The earliest any change would happen for families would be the ‘26-’27 school year.  We want to do things in a way that does not just abruptly disrupt students’ and families’ lives,” Dr. Millian said.  

Pantano, who has been with the district for 15 years, said they decided to go with the two-year implementation plan to ensure that the community was a part of the process. While rezoning is done every five years in other districts across the state, Pantano said here in WS/FCS it’s something we aren’t accustomed to.  

“Families in our district aren’t used to their boundaries changing. Around the country, it’s just a fact of life, every two years or every five years they’re subject to change. Because here, we’ve kinda dropped the ball and not fixed it … we’re trying to take our time and do this intentionally, so people aren’t quite as shocked,” Pantano said.  

Students, parents, and families are encouraged to go online to review the maps. The proposed maps are available for review at https://maps.wsfcsvoice.org/. On the FDS webpage, you can also fill out a survey detailing your opinions. The district is also hosting 11 listening sessions to gather feedback.