Sutherland residents ask Wake County Board to keep neighborhood assigned to White Oak Elementary and Mills Park Middle

Residents of the Sutherland subdivision appeared during the Sept. 16 Wake County Board of Education public comment period to ask the board to retain the community's current base assignments to White Oak Elementary and Mills Park Middle rather than reassign students to Turner Creek Elementary and Salem Middle under a proposed 2026 student-assignment plan.

Amy Chakuri, speaking on behalf of the Sutherland community, said the neighborhood was reassigned to White Oak when that school opened and that a later county decision aligned Sutherland with Mills Park Middle. Chakuri asked the board to ‘‘consider stability in school and calendar assignments for Sutherland’’ and requested that families be allowed to remain at White Oak Elementary and Mills Park Middle if possible.

Two other Sutherland residents who spoke — Bergala (last name in the record: Paramgamin) and Houman Hushar — provided additional context. Bergala said approximately 25 Sutherland students currently attend White Oak Elementary (about 3% of that school’s enrollment) and roughly 20 attend Mills Park Middle (about 1% of that school’s enrollment). Bergala told the board that White Oak is approximately 2.2 miles from Sutherland and Mills Park is about 2.7 miles; Turner Creek and Salem Middle would be farther (about 3.9 miles and 5.0 miles, respectively), which the speaker said would roughly double typical commute times for families. Houman Hushar highlighted transportation and scheduling hardships, noting many families in the neighborhood are on rotating work schedules and that switching to a year-round calendar at the middle-school level would create multi-year calendar misalignments for households with children on different school calendars.

Speakers asked the board to minimize calendar reassignments where possible and to consider Sutherland’s small enrollment, proximity to existing base schools and prior assignment history when finalizing the student-assignment plan. The board’s public materials and the superintendent noted that the student-assignment proposal is a draft and that the district will host multiple public input sessions and a public hearing (an Oct. 21 public hearing was announced for the reassignment process). No board action on the Sutherland requests was taken during the Sept. 16 open session.

Residents seeking to preserve current assignments urged continued outreach and asked the board to account for both proximity and stability in decisions that affect families’ transportation and calendars.