WENDELL — The student achievement committee of the Wake County Board of Education was scheduled to meet Tuesday to discuss the effectiveness of the small-school concept in place at East Wake High School.

Lori Millberg, who represents District 1 which includes eastern Wake County, Wake Forest and Rolesville, said the committee planned to weigh the pros and cons of the school to see if the small-school program will continue. She expects a decision by the board by the 2010 school year.

Millberg said an evaluation was planned before the school went into its fifth year at the beginning of the small-schools’ creation. She said the committee’s study is not due to any specific problems with the schools. The small-school concept has only been fully implemented for two school years.

“In anticipation of its final year of commitment we said, ‘Let’s look at it.’ We may well say we’re going to keep it,” she said. Millberg, chairwoman of the student achievement committee, said the group was scheduled to meet Tuesday at 11:30 a.m. to discuss=2 0the situation.

“I think that there are certainly pros and cons,” she said. “I don’t mean they are all cons. We’ve created small environments and a lot of good is going on. But I continue to be concerned about academic performance. The scores are nowhere near where we wanted them.”

Millberg said in some instances, scores have even gone down.

Average SAT scores in 2004 before the four schools were in place were higher than last year’s scores. In 2004, the average verbal score was 472 and math, 488. In 2008, average verbal SAT score was 450 and math, 468. There was no writing portion of the test in 2004.

Wake County scores have gone down several points since 2006.

“In all fairness, you have to know that statewide SAT scores have dropped,” said Millburg. “Now the school has a higher percentage of free-lunch kids. But we certainly have not seen what we hoped to see. We had hoped to see an almost immediate improvement in performance. There’s little evidence in that.”

Millberg said East Wake High School offers fewer AP classes than before and that, because of school scheduling, students can take only two a year.

She said students don’t have comprehensive classes as they have at other high schools across the county.

“I don’t know how much of a con that is. I don’t know how important it is to the students, how many of them would take those classes,” she said. “Course selection is not that significant to some.”

Students no longer have seminar classes or paideia — classes which are interdisciplinary. For instance, if a student is studying Civil War in history, then the English teacher might teach novels written about the Civil War period.

But students do have classes like engineering and dance, and other special classes in their areas of interest in the School of Engineering Systems, School of Arts and Global Studies, School of Information Technology and School of Health Science.

“My daughter is in the School of Health Science. I have been pleased with the school,” said Teresa Piner of Wendell. “I think the teachers have been very attentive to her needs. She has enjoyed her time there.”

Piner said she liked the smaller schools with the familiarity between teachers and students.

But Piner also said having four schools has resulted in a “breakdown in communication.”

She said it is difficult to find one answer about events that affect the entire school, like extracurricular activities such as the prom.

Parent Steven Sanderson of Wendell said his two children’s experience at East Wake High School changed his mind about the high school.

“I was not a fan to start with, but now they have pretty much won me over,” he said.

Sanderson said school administrators have worked hard to let students cross over from school to school to t ake courses they wouldn’t otherwise be able to take.

“I don’t want to convey to anybody that they don’t have everything they need to graduate and get in a university,” said Millberg.

“I will say from my own personal experience, my son (a sophomore in the School of Engineering Systems) had a fine year last year. And he’s having an even better year this year. I’ve been impressed with the teachers. If I didn’t believe in this school and the teachers, I wouldn’t send my kids there. I don’t want to suggest that parents should lose faith in the school.”