For the 2016-2017 school year there will be a change in Wakefield’s campus, the Wakefield North campus, or ninth grade center, will no longer be a part of Wakefield. The incoming class of 2020 will get the true high school experience from their very first day of high school.

Wakefield has decided to drop the lease on Wakefield North, due to several factors.

“[Wakefield] has dropped enrollment,” said Principal, Malik Bazzell. “Over the last five years, [Wakefield] has lost about five hundred students. This is due to the opening of Heritage [High School] and  Rolesville [High School].”

With enrollment dropping, Wakefield’s population went from 2500 to 2000 over the past few years, which is less than the building’s capacity size. This has allowed for the number of campuses to be reduced down to one. With the campus change, there will also be a slight change in the schedule.

“There are going to be some schedule changes,” said Bazzell. “I don’t want to say what exactly is going to happen because it has not yet been decided. However, Smart Lunch is saved.”

The possibility that the ninth grade center will be primarily located in the vicinity of the current trailers on main campus is a likely conclusion to the closing.  In addition, some teachers may end up “floating” between classrooms.

“It just depends, [the transition committee] will look at the school as a whole,” said North Campus Principal, Chancey Wolfe. “There may be some teachers, because we have more teachers in main campus than north, that may have to float. They would have to share classrooms.”

As previously stated the Wakefield student count has gone down significantly on both campuses. With this amount of students under one building, the amount of students who may try to transfer to Wakefield from their base school will be denied. This is mainly due to the fact that the student count will be close to the building capacity.

“From my understanding, [Wake County] is not allowing as many students to transfer to Wakefield who don’t want to go to their base school,” said Bazzell. “You’re grandfathered in if you’re here, but there will be no new transfers.”

North Campus teachers have mixed feelings about their campus going away. Especially teachers like, Freshman English teacher, Ricky Taylor who has been a part of the Wakefield staff since Wakefield opened.

“We all have enjoyed being down here at the ninth grade center,” said Taylor. “Things change, and it’s a part of life and [the teachers] are looking forward to the change.”

Without the North Campus in place to help freshman slowly adjust to the life of high school, one could only come to think how such a change would not only affect freshman, but also their families and upperclassmen.

“I think [the North Campus] is a great transition because of the small environment. The freshman class is contained in many ways from the other students,” said Taylor. “So [freshmen] get a lot more attention from teachers, counselors, and administrators.”

By allowing the freshman to fully attend the main campus at Wakefield, they get the taste of high school, and even have the ability to join clubs during school. According to Wolfe Wakefield may be implementing a “Freshman Academy” for the upcoming school year to allow [freshmen] to have a smooth transition. The “Freshman Academy” is still undecided, as far as where it will be held and who would be teaching there.

“If we put these things in place, like the ‘Freshman Academy,’ to help [freshman], I think it can be a successful year for them,” said Wolfe.

All in all, with some change comes challenge, and Bazzell is ready.

“With change comes a lot of apprehension,” said Bazzell, “but we’ve got a pretty good plan in place where we think we are going to have a smooth transition.”