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APEX, N.C. -- The summer isn't over yet but some Wake County students head back to school Monday. It's the first day of class for thousands of year-round students.

All of Wake County schools have seen changes in recent months. West Lake Middle School is still on a multi-track system, but a handful of year-round schools have been limited to one track. It's just one of more changes that could lie ahead.

Anne Sheflin dropped off two of her children at West Lake Middle School for the first day of class. Her youngest daughter Aliza started third grade at West Lake Elementary. Sheflin says year-round school has been great for her family.

"The best thing for us is the continuation of learning throughout the year without the long summer break. It's nice to have the little three week break. They're actually ready to go back into school after that,” said Sheflin.

"You get to do a lot of fun stuff and go on a lot of vacations,” Aliza said of her track-out breaks.

The Wake County School Board voted to end mandatory year-round schools for the last school year. Sheflin chose to keep her kids on the schedule.

"It should be the choice of the family. I have friends that were totally black and white with the idea. Some of them got changed back to traditional and were very happy about it,” she said.

West Lake schools remain on a multi-track schedule. Superintendent Tony Tata decided to reduce five year-round schools to a single track for two years, for a savings of $400,000 each year.

"Tight budget times. I looked at all the year-round schools and I looked at which are below their capacity, and we had 14 of them,” Tata said.

Some parents have been concerned year-round schools would disappear in the county if the trend continues. Tata doesn't think that's the case.

"I think there's high demand for year-round schools. One of the things about Wake County is we have a lot of choice out there,” he said.

The single track year-round schools will begin class on Aug. 1. Tata says school leaders are still working on the much-debated student assignment plan. They hope to have a plan ready for the school board's approval in the fall.

Parents came out Saturday to Lufkin Road Year-Round Middle School to get their children ready for the start of the new year. Never far from their minds is the controversial student assignment plan.

"Our neighborhood was going to be moved and be split up into two or three different schools," said Lori Kearney, a parent.

She moved her family a few years ago so her child could to go to the school of her choice.

"It would be nice to live in a place, to live there to be able to say, 'I want to live here because I want to go to that school," said Kearney. "You can't do that in Wake County, and that's very aggravating."

Tata wants to take aggravation out of the equation with a new student assignment plan. Currently, there are two plans for Wake County school student assignment, a blue and a green plan.

The green plan is closer to what's currently in place and students are assigned to schools based on nodes or where they live. The blue plan, or the community-based choice plan, lets parents choose from a variety of elementary schools which are linked with middle and high schools.

Critics worry a community based plan would re-segregate Wake schools. Tata says that's not the case.

"This notion that the old plan prevented high poverty schools is a myth," he said.

Year-round schools also bear well for local retailers. News 14 Carolina's Will Huntsberry has more.

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