Hunter Elementary School, a magnet school near downtown Raleigh, looks like it will be among the 13 Wake County schools that will have a full enrollment cap placed on it today for the rest of the school year.

But the discussion last week about where the capped out base children for Hunter would go gives more insight into the differences between the board members about how students should be assigned. It could serve as an another example of what direction the new 2014-15 student assignment plan will take.

Last week, staff added Hunter to the original list of 12 schools it was recommending for a full cap for the rest of the 2012-13 school year. Students who are capped out of Hunter would be given the option of Oak Grove, Timber Drive and Washington elementary schools.

This month's Wake County school board discussion on the draft 2013-14 student assignment plan shows both the advantages and disadvantages of the district's multi-track year-round calendar.

On one hand, the multi-track calendar is helping Brier Creek Elementary School in northwest Raleigh keep up with growth as the only school in the area. On the other hand, the multi-track calendar was negatively impacting Eastern Wake schools, leading to staff recommending that three schools switch to a single-track calendar for next year.

During the Nov. 13 board work session, board member Deborah Prickett said that at her last board advisory council meeting some parents had asked about switching Brier Creek to a traditional calendar or single-track year-round school.

How will the Wake County school board, in practice, balance the competing goals in the student assignment directive of proving stability, proximity and diversity?

School board members Susan Evans and Jim Martin provided some insight of how they'll approach the assignment issue during the Aug. 21 board work session on the federal magnet school grant. The issue was over staff not recommending magnetizing Barwell Road, Creech Road and Hodge Road elementary schools because it would result in reassigning out part of their enrollments and having a negative impact on minority isolation at surrounding schools.

Some board members gave different reasons for questioning whether that concern should keep the schools from being magnetized.

Is the Wake County school system letting Knightdale's schools down?

As noted in today's article, speakers at Tuesday's school board meeting complained that the school system has not done enough over the years to help improve the academic situation in Knightdale. The words got both harsh and impassioned.

At the same time, school administrators and board members say they're trying to find ways to help schools in the town.

Fox Road Elementary School has replaced Lynn Road Elementary School as being recommended by Wake County school staff to receive a magnet program.

When staff presented the list of new magnets last week, some board members had questioned why Fox Road wasn't on the list. At the time, staff said they were concerned that magnetizing Fox Road would hurt Millbrook Elementary's magnet program.

But staff said today that Fox Road's magnet draw area could be created without hurting other nearby schools. Staff said today that they're still not recommending Barwell Road, Creech Road and Hodge Road elementary schools, despite the request from some board members, because they're concerned the draw area would hurt surrounding schools.

Staff is still recommending adding magnet programs to Green Elementary School and Carroll Middle School and overhauling the magnet themes at Poe Elementary and Moore Square Middle. A final decision on which schools to include in the federal magnet grant isn't expected until next month.

It took 18 months, but the Wake County school board has finally adopted a strategic plan that's supposed to guide the operations of the school district.

The document, which was proposed by Superintendent Tony Tata and required by AdvancED, went through multiple revisions to get as much support as possible from the school board. The final version, which includes various targets, won bipartisan support on Tuesday.

But questions about the level of autonomy that Central Office should give to schools and the role of performance pay/merit pay for teachers kept the vote from being unanimous.

Wake County school leaders are touting the academic gains this past year at several schools with high levels of low-income students

New results released today show that all four Renaissance Schools saw gains in their passing rates and made at least expected growth. The most dramatic gain was at Barwell Road Elementary, where the passing rate rose 9.7 percentage points to 74.1 percent. 

Wake used $9.5 million out of its $10.2 million in federal Race to the Top funding to create the Renaissance model.

Wake County Schools Superintendent Tony Tata was at Barwell Road Elementary School this morning to laud the Renaissance schools for their academic success.

During a brief pep talk with teachers, Tata said preliminary test results indicate that Barwell had the highest increase in test score proficiency in the district. His remarks drew applause from the teachers.

Tata said that Barwell showed high growth and also had a 10-point increase in proficiency.

Three new principals and two interim principals were announced at tonight's Wake County school board meeting.

Barry Richburg was named principal of Conn Elementary School in Raleigh with a salary of $72,386. He's been an assistant principal at Briarcliff Elementary since last year.

Annice Williams was promoted from assistant principal to principal of Poe Elementary School in Raleigh with a salary of $89,521. She had been principal of Barwell Road Elementary until much of the staff was replaced last year when it became part of the Renaissance School program.

Eyes around Wake County are focused on how the four Renaissance Model  schools will do this year.

As noted in today's article, the four Renaissance schools got additional resources, such as the money that was used to have a quartet from the N.C. Symphony work with students at Barwell Road Elementary School on Monday.

“We want to focus on everything we can to bring enrichment to their lives," said Barwell Road Principal Sandy Barefoot. “It certainly opens up the world to them.”