Wake County school board member Kevin Hill says he wants to correct "misinformation" about Baileywick Elementary School that was spread by Heather Losurdo during her unsuccessful bid to unseat him.

Under the words "Rock Bottom," Losurdo had put out a campaign mailer saying "Baileywick Elementary School is a high needs declining enrollment school in Raleigh that deserves Federal funding under the needs-based formula instead of being funded on a per-pupil basis." She charged that "Hill has refused to advocate for them, so they have been unable to get the funds and resources they need."

During Tuesday's board meeting, Hill said it was "really important to give Baileywick a good shout out," as he pointed to the school's academic accomplishments.

This is the "stonewall" campaign mailer from Wake County school board candidate Heather Losurdo that has generated some controversy in District 3.

The mailer says that incumbent school board member "Kevin Hill says he will 'Stonewall' Concerned Parents." She got the year wrong in the mailer but it references a March 30, 2010 email that was released last year by the Bedford Homeowners Association.

"Some 300 Bedford area parents signed a petition to the School Board asking to be heard about the reassignment of their children from nearby Wakefield High School to Heritage High," says the mailer. "Kevin Hill refused to meet with us and emailed the principal at Heritage that he intended to 'stonewall' them and their petition. Heather Lousrdo will listen to her constituents and advocate for their needs. Is that any way for a Representative to treat his constituents?"

Wake County school officials announced today that an additional meeting on the student assignment plan has been scheduled for Monday at Millbrook High School.

No reason was given for the Millbrook meeting. But the revised feeder patterns released on Monday made a pretty substantial change to Millbrook's feeder pattern.

Before Monday, staff had proposed that Douglas, Fox Road, Joyner, Millbrook and North Ridge elementary schools feed into Millbrook High.

But following parental complaints, the base students from Douglas and Joyner were dropped from the recommendation. Staff replaced them by adding Baileywick and Brassfield elementary schools to the feeder pattern.

Wake County Superintendent Tony Tata is recommending two vastly differently approaches to deal with under-enrolled schools.

As noted in today's article, one approach had the school board voting Tuesday to set aside $896,000 to provide additional teachers to five small underutilized elementary schools. The article also noted how when it comes to underutilized multi-track year-round schools, Tata wants to pursue the option of letting them switch to a single track.

Let's start with the small elementary schools discussion.

SEE UPDATE AT END OF POST FOR LINKS TO HANDOUTS

More details to come later but there's been a change in which five under-enrolled Wake County traditional-calendar elementary schools would get additional staffing for the 2011-12 school year.

Wake Superintendent Tony Tata said today that Baileywick Elementary School is on the list because its enrollment has been declining sharply. He said that York Elementary is no longer in the running because new data shows the school's enrollment is projected to increase.

The other schools getting additional teachers are still the same as previously mentioned. They are Aversboro, Hilburn Drive, Jeffreys Grove and Root elementary schools.

The school board will vote today on allocating the $896,000 for the extra positions at those schools. Tata said he wanted the vote now to have the info out before they hold the teacher transfer fair.

Millbrook High School is taking a beating from parents at other schools during this reassignment season.

As noted in today's North Raleigh News article, parents complained about Millbrook during last week's community engagement meeting at Knightdale High. In particular, some Baileywick Elementary parents say changing the high school assignment from Leesville to Millbrook will have major repercussions.