Here's a recap of today's first meeting of the Wake County school board's superintendent search committee.

It looks like a split is emerging between majority and minority members over whether to hire a search firm and to conduct a national search. Committee chairwoman Debra Goldman said it could cost $75,000 to $100,000 to pay a search firm to conduct a national search.

But Goldman and Chris Malone are arguing for hiring a firm and conducting a national search to bring the best possible candidate.

Here's another Friday meeting courtesy of the Wake County school board.

The board's superintendent search committee has called for a meeting at 12:30 p.m. Friday in the board conference room, 3600 Wake Forest Road in Raleigh. This is the first official meeting of the new committee and is for now open to the public.

During Tuesday's committee of the whole meeting, board members wrangled about whether to hire a search firm and conduct a national search.

Wake CARES is praising the latest revisions in Wake County's student assignment policy, which makes proximity a priority while eliminating references to trying to balance poverty levels at schools.

In a press release today, Wake CARES commends the school board's policy committee for having passed an amended student assignment policy on Wednesday. The group says the amended policy provides families more stability and "opens the door for parents to have a more instrumental voice in their child’s school assignment."

“Every parent should have an equal opportunity to have a say in their child’s school assignment regardless of their income level or where they live” said Allison Backhouse, a leader of Wake CARES, in the press release. “This policy revision, which brings all parents into the decision-making process of assignment, will better serve children and families.”

Taxpayers won't be footing the bill for four Wake County school board members to attend this week's Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce trip to the Greater D.C. area.

Chamber VP Drew Moretz said that the group wanted school board members to attend the trip so much that they're picking up all the costs. School board members Debra Goldman, Anne McLaurin, Deborah Prickett and John Tedesco are attending.

But taxpayers may foot the nearly $2,000 cost to send four county commissioners on the trip.

CORRECTION/UPDATE

The chamber says that McLaurin paid for the trip herself.

Parrish said Gurley has reimbursed the county for his share of the trip.

The Wake County school board's policy committee signed off today on a revised policy that makes community-based schools and proximity a prime factor in student assignment.

The committee split today on failed efforts by minority members to amend the policy to say that balancing low-income students and low-perfoming students should also be factors in student assignment. They didn't take the compromise offered by board majority members.

The fight revolved around wording in the policy that said one of the factors that student assignment assignment plans will be based on is students with higher needs.

The fallout over Wake County school board member John Tedesco's speech at the April 15 Tea Party rally isn't going away.

This time, the conservative Civitas Institute is complaining about the criticism that liberal activist Chase Foster heaped on Tedesco at last week's school board meeting.

In a blog post today, Bob Luebke asks whether Foster "has also lectured Kevin Hill, Keith Sutton, Ann McLaurin and Carolyn Morrison for their work with the Democratic Party of Wake County?"

How much diversity can Wake County schools see under the community zone assignment model?

As noted in today's article, school board member John Tedesco said they can still have "cultural diversity" in schools in his vision of the new zones. He said that balance can be a factor in the new assignment algorithm.

But critics of the new board majority aren't buying Tedesco's argument.

Chris Fitzsimon is bashing the Wake County school board majority for Tuesday's votes on the voluntary desegregation resolution and the budget.

In a column Wednesday, Fitzsimon, executive director of the liberal N.C. Policy Watch,criticizes the "Gang of Five" for rejecting board member Carolyn Morrison's amendment about making every effort to avoid minority group isolation.

"For some reason that was too much for the Gang of Five who all voted against the resolution," Fitzsimon writes. "Maybe they wanted only a half-hearted effort, or more likely, no effort at all."

Raleigh Mayor Charles Meeker is demanding answers about how the Wake County school system's new community assignment zones will affect the city, both financially and in the composition of its schools.

In a letter Wednesday to school board chairman Ron Margiotta, Meeker officially informs him of Tuesday's unanimous City Council vote raising concerns that the board's plans could resegregate schools. He tells Margiotta that an assignment plan has been "presented privately to selected individuals" so they want to see it too.

School board member John Tedesco insists there's no plan yet, just his vision of what the zones might look like.

SEE UPDATE AT END OF POST OF INTERVIEWS WEDNESDAY OF MEEKER AND TEDESCO

The $20 million in new potential cuts proposed last week by Wake County school administrators got a pretty negative reaction from speakers at Tuesday's school board meeting.

As noted in today's article, several speakers complained about the reduction in the number of media specialists and in the 30 percent cut in extra-duty pay. Board members and staff repeatedly stressed that the new round of cuts hasn't been approved yet.

But the board might run out of options, especially if state funding is cut by 5 percent.