Can and will critics of new Wake County Superintendent Anthony Tata be able to support him when he officially starts his new job Jan. 31?

As noted in today's article, vocal critics of the hiring such as school board member Carolyn Morrison and Great Schools in Wake Coalition chairwoman Yevonne Brannon say the community will need to rally behind Tata at some point.

For Brannon, that means when Tata is officially on the job. But for now, including today's board meeting, complaining about the search process and Tata's qualifications are still okay.

The North Carolina chapter of the NAACP, which has been fighting the end of the diversity policy in the Wake County school system, is being cited as a role model for next week's National NAACP Daisy Bates Education Summit being held in Raleigh.

In an article Monday in the American Independent, Adora Obi Nweze, the president of NAACP’s Florida chapter and chairwoman of the national organization’s education committee, said holding the summit in Raleigh will let those attending see how a state chapter is fighting a change in school policy. Nweze said the approach is needed in every state.

“I think it’s a national issue,” Nweze said at a Monday morning press conference in Raleigh. “In every state you could find a Wake County. There is an effort to re-segregate under the guise of new plans.”

Supporters of the old diversity policy are ramping up the message of "wait 'til next year" in the aftermath of last week's GOP election victory on the Wake County Board of Commissioners.

As noted in Thursday's American Independent article by Ned Barnett, diversity policy supporters say last week's election results shouldn't be seen as a referendum supporting community schools. Instead, they're pointing to the 2011 Wake County school board elections as the true test of public sentiment.

“I don’t think the voters went to the polls and voted the way they did because of what was going on with the school board,” said Karen Rindge, executive director of WakeUP Wake County, the parent group of the Great Schools in Wake Coalition. “But I think we’re going to see a change next year. That’s when we’re really going to see if the public agrees with this board of education.”

UPDATE

In today's article in the American Independent, newly elected Wake County Commissioner Phil Matthews is calling last week's election results a mandate for neighborhood schools.