BigggerPicture4Wake announced tonight which Wake County school board candidates it prefers this year.

In the press release, the group says they're supporting Kevin Hill in District 3, Keith Sutton in District 4, Jim Martin in District 5, Christine Kushner in District 6 and Susan Evans in District 8. It's the same list being backed by the Wake County Democratic Party, Wake NCAE and The Independent weekly.

BiggerPicture says it believes those four candidates "will foster an atmosphere of productive debate and sound decisions for Wake County schools." They have questionnaires from several of the candidates on their website.

The diversity policy isn't the only difference separating Wake County school board members.

As noted in today's article, the board is also split about how to view charter schools, private schools and home schools. Members of the new board majority are more willing to embrace these educational alternatives even as they say they want to bring more families back into the school system.

“Honestly, I would like to see the public schools get involved with the charter schools and develop a better working relationship because of the way that they tend to be theme schools,” said school board chairman Ron Margiotta. “If we want to talk about it’s being competition, I welcome the competition.”

For those who read BiggerPicture4Wake's press release, here's a different perspective on the calendar conversions from Concerned and Committed Leesville Parents.

In a press release today, CCLP says the return of Leesville Road elementary and middle schools to a traditional calendar means "families can finally breathe a sigh of relief that they will once again have unity in their community." CCLP says the year-round conversions "have proven to be extremely destructive and divisive to the close-knit Leesville community."

While BiggerPicture had blasted school board member Deborah Prickett, CCLP praises her for her role in pushing for the conversion back to a traditional calendar.

BiggerPicture4Wake is calling last week's vote to convert Leesville Road elementary and middle schools back to a traditional calendar the Wake County school board majority's "third strike."

In a press release Monday, BiggerPicture says the first two strikes were eliminating the weekly Wednesday early dismissals and abandoning the Forest Ridge High site. The group says that the board majority is fulfilling campaign promises but ignoring data with decisions like abandoning the year-round calendar at Leesville.

"Now, the public needs to call them out to avoid further damage to Wake’s school system,” said Rhonda Curtright, BiggerPicture co-founder, in the press release.

Is Leesville Road Middle School a safer place since it was converted to a year-round calendar in July?

That's an argument made in a press release Tuesday by BiggerPicture4Wake and at Tuesday's CEM meeting by supporters of keeping Leesville Middle on a year-round calendar. BiggerPicture says that "incidences of violent behavior and school suspensions have dramatically decreased" since conversion.

For instance, BiggerPicture says Leesville Middle recorded 370 suspensions involving 188 students during the 2008-09 school year. But since July 1, the group says there have been 90 suspensions involving 62 students.

Most speakers actually talked about year-round schools at Tuesday night's hearing at Leesville Road High School on school calendars.

As noted in today's article, the year-round calendars at Leesville Road elementary and middle schools dominated much of the discussion. It's a departure from the first three CEM meetings in which turnout was light and neighborhood schools and the diversity policy were discussed more than the calendar.

Both sides of the Leesville fight turned out in large numbers. They tried to out cheer each other when one of their speakers finished talking.

Wake County school board member Deborah Prickett is not giving up her quest to convert both Leesville elementary and middle schools back to a traditional calendar.

As noted in today's North Raleigh News article, Prickett said she's weighing the calendar survey results versus the school capacity situation in the area. Even though a majority of Leesville Road Elementary parents who responded in the survey backed keeping the year-round calendar, Prickett pointed to the empty seats at nearby Sycamore Creek Elementary.

“It’s important what the parents said in the survey, but I take a look at Sycamore Creek, and they’re 300 seats below capacity,” Prickett said in the article.

It looks like the resolution ending mandatory year-round assignments is the only one approved by the new Wake County school board majority that will require a second vote.

As noted in today's article, the MYR resolution was added to Tuesday's board agenda on the advice of school board attorney Ann Majestic. She said her research on the issue indicated that the resolution essentially changed board policy and policies normally require two votes.

"It effectively makes changes to board policy," Majestic said. "My advice was that it was intended to govern the conduct of the board and administration."

The Wake County school board has already posted the agenda for the Jan. 5 meeting.

The agenda for the regular meeting looks, initially at least, to be fairly tame. The committee of the whole/work session agenda looks more interesting.

What's the possibility that the new Wake County school board majority would still unconvert some schools for 2010-11?

As noted in today's North Raleigh News article, some parents haven't given up hope that the board will switch both Leesville Road elementary and middle schools to a traditional calendar next year.

"We still feel we'd be a great guinea pig for mandatory year-round reversal next year," said Lisa Boneham, founder of Concerned and Committed Leesville Parents, in the artlcle.