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Wake County, N.C., Schools Want Students to be Able to Fly Drones

School officials said Monday that the school board should lobby lawmakers to change laws about student use of drones.

After the much publicized grounding of a drone flown at Green Hope High School, Wake County school administrators want laws changed to let students fly unmanned aircraft again.

Earlier this month, the Federal Aviation Administration advised Cary’s Green Hope High that drones are prohibited above large gatherings of people. Wake school officials said Monday that the school board should lobby lawmakers to change laws about student use of drones.

“I want to try to figure out a way that still enables students to be creative at this level of technology, and not get caught by regulation,” Wake Schools Superintendent Jim Merrill told the board’s government relations committee.

Merrill said he thinks a compromise can be forged after talks with federal and state officials. He said grounding drones will slow progress in areas called STEM, for science, technology, engineering and math.

Green Hope’s Air Force Association cybersecurity club, the Black Falcons, used a drone to live stream a football game earlier this year, and planned to use a new drone to live stream a Nov. 7 game.

The board’s government relations committee is working on the list of items on which the state’s largest school district will lobby the General Assembly when legislators return in January. On Monday, the committee reviewed a list of items from school staff and the state School Boards Association. Items include requests to:

  • Abolish or modify the new A-F grading system that will be used to judge every school’s performance.
  • Increase funding for teacher pay, the state’s pre-K program and school construction.
  • Restore funding for projected school growth.
  • Reject “open enrollment” legislation that would require school districts to accept students from outside their districts.
A winnowed list will be presented to the full school board Dec 16.

©2014 The News & Observer (Raleigh, N.C.)