Congratulations tonight to Ken Branch of Brentwood Elementary School being named the Wake County school system's 2012 Principal of the Year and Ruth Ann Freeman of Bugg Elementary School being named Assistant Principal of the Year.

An interesting note here is that Brentwood is one of Wake's Renaissance schools, which have come under fire lately from members of the school board's Democratic majority.

Before his firing, Superintendent Tony Tata had repeatedly touted the academic gains at the Renaissance schools. A sore point, for the majority members, is the use of merit pay at the Renaissance schools.

It's looking less likely that the Wake County school board will push for a May 2013 school construction bond issue.

As noted in today's article, school board members Susan Evans, Jim Martin and Chris Malone all said after Wednesday's facilities committee meeting that a fall 2013 bond vote is more realistic. This comes after school board chairman Kevin Hill made similar remarks in Friday's meeting with N&O reporters and editors.

“There’s been a lot that’s gone poorly in the last few months,” Evans said. “The extra time will help us re-earn the public’s trust.”

Lisa Grillo, the Wake County school system's assistant superintendent for special education services, has become the latest high-level administrator to resign since the firing of Superintendent Tony Tata.

Grillo submitted her resignation today to take the position of chief human resources officer for Baltimore County Public Schools in Maryland.

Grillo was hired by Wake in August 2011 to take the newly created $120,000 a year job overseeing special education. Grillo, like Tata, had come to Wake after having worked in the D.C. Public Schools.

Tata was fired by the board's Democratic majority on Sept. 25. Soon afterward, Judy Peppler, the district's chief transformation officer and chief of staff, submitted her resignation.

The Wake County school board's facilities committee will meet today for the first time since the departures of Superintendent Tony Tata and Chief Facilities and Operations Officer Don Haydon.

One of the topics will be start up design for the next school bond issue. Also on the agenda is the schematic design for Cary High School's renovations and geothermal heating and cooling system that would be built at Richland Creek Elementary's permanent campus.

But overshadowing all of these things is the impact recent changes in Wake school leadership will have on the planning for a school construction program and bond in 2013.

The firing of Wake County Schools Superintendent Tony Tata got some air time at the end of the latest edition of NC SPIN that aired over the weekend.

On the show, pundits from the left and right agreed that it was not a politically good decision for the Democratic school board majority to have fired Tata at this time. Panelists also talked about whether the next permanent superintended should be a lifelong educator.

Tom Campbell, the show host, opened the segment by saying that following Wake County schools has been like "watching a yo-yo." Campbell asked John Hood, president of the conservative John Locke Foundation, what he thought of Tata's firing, which he said "was ugly" and "many say it wasn't handled well."

Wake County school board chairman Kevin Hill is continuing his efforts to justify the board majority's firing of Superintendent Tony Tata.

As noted in today's article, Hill met Friday with N&O editors and reporters to list out issues such as concerns about Tata's relationship with board members and staff and his handling of taxpayer dollars. Some of it's similar to what he said at Tuesday's board meeting but he went into more detail.

Hill also went into how he wants to handle the superintendent's search and the timing of the next school bond issue.

UPDATE

Click here to view the letter to the editor from Kevin Hill that will appear in Tuesday's paper in response to Tata's point of view column.

Not surprisingly, the recent firing of Wake County Superintendent Tony Tata and the possible 2013 school bond issue came up at Thursday's forum for candidates for county commissioner.

As noted in today's article by Thomas Goldsmith, the Republican candidates criticized Tata's firing while the Democratic candidates said it was the Democratic board majority's prerogative. They also differed on the need for a bond issue.

Republican candidates Paul Fitts and Dale Cooke called it a "colossal" mistake to fire Tata.

Former Wake County Schools Superintendent Tony Tata is saying his goodbyes in this op-ed piece that will appear in Friday's paper.

In the piece, Tata writes about the "progress" and "great strides" that were made during his 20-month tenure as superintendent. He also briefly addresses his firing, noting he wasn't fired with cause and wanted to stay.

"In a relatively short period of time, we significantly raised expectations and proved that all students, regardless of their socioeconomic status or where they attend school, can have strong academic performance," Tata writes. "With the hope that the impact we made will continue for the benefit of our students and with the belief that our community can best proceed with an accounting of progress, I want to share some parting observations."

UPDATE

Click here to view the letter to the editor from board chairman Kevin Hill that will appear in Tuesday's paper in response to Tata's point of view column.

Officially, the Great Schools in Wake Coalition has been silent about the firing last week of Wake County Schools Superintendent Tony Tata.

But individually, GSIW members have been writing letters to the editor praising the Democratic school board majority's decision to fire Tata. Click here, here and here for examples of letters to the editor written by GSIW members such as Karey Harwood, Sharon Eckard, Swain Wood, Heather Koons and Adrienne Lumpkin.

One piece was written by GSIW member Jason Langberg, an attorney for Advocates for Children's Services. His piece appeared Friday on the website of Parents Across America, a national group that supports diversity and opposes the expansion of high-stakes testing and charter schools.

UPDATE

Swain Wood says he's not a member of Great Schools. He's on Yevonne Brannon's email action list and is the husband of GSIW activist Karey Harwood. He worked on board member Susan Evans' campaign last fall and was the lead attorney in the Open Meetings lawsuit filed against the school board in 2010.

Liberals are continuing to criticize former Wake County Superintendent Tony Tata for taking his severance package after being fired by the school board.

In the new issue of the liberal Independent Weekly out today, there's an item saying "Tony Tata took my lunch money." The Indy says that Tata's $253,625 severance package would buy 126,812 full-price lunches for Wake elementary school students or 634,062 reduced-price lunches.

It's similar to the complaint made in a blog post last Wednesday by Rob Schofield of the liberal N.C. Policy Watch, who wrote it's not moral or right for Tata to take the money.