The Wake County school board and the Wake County commissioners may have agreed in principle to a school construction dollar amount, but they're still split on how to spend the money.

As noted in today's article, both boards agreed Thursday to target $900 million for the amount with the details to come later about what would be funded. As Thursday's discussion showed, the issue of how much to spend on renovations vs. new schools is a sticking point between the two boards.

Joe Bryan, chairman of the board of commissioners, resumed Thursday the questions he had at the last meeting about why some renovations have such high dollar amounts.

Members of the Great Schools in Wake Coalition and other supporters of the Democratic school board majority turned their attention Monday on the Republican majority on the Wake County Board of Commissioners.

During the public comment section, several speakers criticized the commissioners for asking for state legislation to take over ownership of schools, to be able to give money to help build charter schools and to change the way school board members are elected. It also came with a warning.

"I hope that the Wake County Commissioners don't want to radicalize lots of middle-class parents," said Robert Siegel. "But if you do start messing with our schools, we're going to respond the same way we responded to the extremist school board of 2009. I don't think you want Wake County to become a national disgrace again."

The bad blood continues to flow between the Wake County Board of Commissioners and the school board.

As noted in today's article by Martha Quillin, Republican commissioners accused the school system of misleading taxpayers about its fund balance. The GOP majority also tabled approval of a land purchase for a northeast Raleigh middle school and accused the school board of engaging in politics in wanting them to approve buying the former YWCA building in Raleigh.

GOP commissioners said they were speaking for the taxpayers. But Democratic commissioners said Republicans were endangering development of the next school bond issue and harming relations with the school board.

You might have been wondering whose meeting you were attending on Tuesday as school issues came up at the meetings of the Wake County school board and county commissioners.

As noted in today's article, commissioners voiced their concerns about the school system proposal's to add unarmed private security officers to every elementary school. As noted in today's article by Josh Shaffer, school board members reacted to the school issues that the commissioners were voting on as part of their 2013 State Legislative Agenda.

All this suggests a rocky road ahead as they work together on the bond issue and school funding.

Joe Bryan talked about restoring the relationship with the Wake County school board fresh off his election today as the new chairman of the Wake County Board of Commissioners,

Bryan was elected chairman in a 4-3 party line vote with all the Republicans voting for him and all the Democrats voting for Betty Lou Ward. In a similar 4-3 vote, Phil Matthews was re-elected vice chairman over James West.

Bryan acknowledged how strained relations have become between the school board and commissioners in the past year. He'll likely be working with Keith Sutton, who is expected to be elected the new school board chairman on Tuesday by the Democratic majority.

"I see the biggest challenge that we face personally is trying to reestablish, to restore our partnership wit the Wake County Board of Education and to in fact bring about a successful school bond issue for this coming year," Bryan said during his acceptance remarks.

The initial results indicate that Chris Malone is the only Wake County school board who will advance to state office this year.

With 16 of 18 precincts in, Malone is leading tonight in the state House 35 race with 55.63 percent of the vote over former school board member Lori Millberg. But school board member Debra Goldman is losing in her bid for state auditor and board member John Tedesco is losing his run for state schools superintendent.

In terms of Wake County commissioner, with 122 of 200 precincts reporting,   Paul Fitts and Dale Cooke are winning. If they prevail, Republicans would increase their lead to 6-1 on the commissioners.

UPDATE

With 178 of 200 precincts in, Fitts and Cooke have seen their leads shrunk to slightly above 50 percent.

With 187 of the 200 precincts in, Betty Lou Ward and Caroline Sullivan have now taken narrow leads, which if they hold up would keep the Democrats with three seats on the seven-member board.

The initial results indicate that Goldman and Tedesco did worse in Wake County than they did statewide.

The final Wake County results are in and Malone hung on for a narrow victory, getting 50.57 percent of the vote.

For the commissioners, the counting of the early voting totals sharply shifted the races in favor of the Democrats. Sullivan got 57.04 percent to Cooke's 42.96 percent. Ward got 56.84 percent while Fitts droped to 43.16 percent.

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.

Wake County school board members know for sure at least one of the county commissioners who will be elected this fall.

The filing period closed today with no Republican filing to run for Commissioner James West's District 5 seat. West is running unopposed in the Democratic primary. He's the first person running in an uncontested race for Wake County commissioner since 1994.

West, who was appointed to the board of commissioners in September 2010 to fill a vacancy, has said the school system will remain one of his priorities.

In District 4, Republican Dale Cooke will oppose Democrat Caroline Sullivan. In District 6, Democratic incumbent Betty Lou Ward will run against Republican Paul Fitts. The races are countywide even though the candidates must live in their district.

Erv Portman has become the third Wake County commissioner to seek higher office this year.

Portman announced today he's filed for the state Senate seat now held by Republican Richard Stevens, who isn't seeking another term. Portman's candidacy means he's giving up the chance to run for the seat on the commissioners that expires this year.

Portman, a Democrat, was appointed last year to fill the opening caused by Stan Norwalk's resignation.

It was with a smiley face on her ballot that Wake County school board member Debra Goldman finally ended the 2 1/2 hour struggle on Tuesday to name a new vice chairman

A look at the 56 rounds of votes shows that Goldman voted for herself 48 times, in all but one case being the lone vote. She voted seven times for other people, usually Chris Malone or Carolyn Morrison, before finally going for John Tedesco in the 56th round to break the stalemate.

“Our chairman keeps saying somebody holds the key here and it's pretty obvious through the vote," Goldman said before the final ballot. "I’m going to cast my vote different this time because this is number 56, which is the year my parents got married and for me that's a good number because it showed unity and it showed commitment and it showed values. I am going to cast my vote this time and take myself out of that position.”