Wake County school board member Bill Fletcher is calling a bill turning over school construction to the county commissioners "bad legislation" that "should be stopped."

In this letter to the editor today, Fletcher complains that Senate Bill 236 "removes the school system from having any input into what is built, where it is built and when it is built." He writes that "it abolishes the system of checks and balances that has worked well for Wake County residents for decades."

"The people responsible for providing high-quality education in safe, nurturing environments will have absolutely no say in what goes into new schools and renovations in the future," Fletcher writes. "All decisions about future school buildings will rest with only the county commissioners."

His letter comes as the state Senate Education Committee will pick up the bill Wednesday.

Wake County school board chairman Keith Sutton has finished revising the rosters for the school board committees.

New board member Tom Benton is vice chairman of the policy committee and a member of the student achievement committee. New board member Bill Fletcher is a member of the student achievement and finance committees.

Board member Kevin Hill has also been added to the finance committee.

Sutton is an ex officio member of every committee. The other eight board members all have two committee assignments.

Speaking of Wake County school board advisory councils, a fairly well-known local figure is about to be reappointed to another term.

Tuesday's Wake County school board meeting agenda includes a vote to reappoint Diana Bader to a three-year term on the District 9 Board Advisory Council. School board member Bill Fletcher nominated Bader to stay on as at-large member.

According to her new nomination form, Bader was appointed to the BAC in March 2011. She was an outspoken critic of the former board majority.

It took a bit of prodding Thursday before Wake County school board members finally agreed to publicly support having a school bond this year.

Following the consensus vote in favor of a $900 million school construction program, Commissioner Tony Gurley noted that commissioners have made a successful school bond their top goal this year.

Gurley asked school board members if it's their goal this year as well to have a successful bond issue. Gurley asked because several school board members have publicly talked about not going with an Oct. 8 bond vote in favor of waiting until spring 2014.

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.

You've got a role reversal taking place about the 2011 redistricting map that were adopted by the Wake County school board.

The school board is expected to pass on April 23 a resolution endorsing the current election boundaries. It's one way of how the board is opposing Senate Bill 325, which would change when and how Wake school board members are elected.

What you're likely going to see, based on last week's board discussion, is that the resolution will be supported by board members who either voted against the 2011 map or who criticized it at the time. You'll probably see board members who voted for the map in 2011 not backing this new resolution.

It looks saving teacher assistant positions will be the major crusade by school leaders in Wake County and the rest of this state during this budget season.

As noted in today's article, school board members and administrators said Tuesday that Wake's loss of $12 million in funding for teacher assistants in Gov. Pat McCrory's budget would be "very detrimental." McCrory's budget would cut all $117 million in funding for TAs in grades 2 and 3, only funding them for K-1.

McCroy has touted how his budget would add 1,800 teaching positions. But Chief Business Officer David Neter said those positions are just to keep up with growth so they can't convert the positions to pay for TA positions.

One thing that became clear on Tuesday is that Wake County families really like 8:30 a.m. start times, especially those whose kids go to elementary schools that start at 9:15 a.m.

As noted in today's article, the school board approved Tuesday this revised 2013-14 school bell schedules for each school. A common theme voiced by board members and the public is the concerns families have with continuing to start most elementary schools after 9 a.m.

Wake operates a two- and three-tier bus system in different parts of the district. This means the majority of buses run two or three routes in the morning and afternoon to save money.

In case you don't get The Cary News, new Wake County school board member Bill Fletcher is showing why he was picked by the board majority to fill the District 9 vacancy,

In this Q&A in Sunday's edition, Fletcher says its "not a good idea" to turn over construction, ownership and maintenance of schools to the Wake County Board of Commissioners. In terms of the rest of the commissioners' legislative agenda, Fletcher says having four at-large school board seats is "a poor idea" and he's not in favor of using tax dollars to build charter schools.

On student assignment, Fletcher says that "in order to be successful in a diverse society, we need diverse schools." Fletcher also says Cary parents think stability is more important than proximity.

Fletcher said he will be at Caribou Coffee at 109 S.W. Maynard Road in Cary at 2 p.m. Thursday in case anyone wants to drop in and “just have a little chat." That meeting will come right after what could be another tense meeting that morning between the school board and commissioners.

Is Senate Bill 325 essentially a second try for Republicans to hold a majority on the Wake County school board?

As noted in today's article, the stated main purpose of the new legislation is to give individual Wake County voters the ability to elect a second school board member. But the bill also lets state Republican lawmakers rewrite the boundaries for Wake's school board districts.

This comes after the redistricting plan approved by the former Republican school board majority in 2011 didn't turn out as some thought that it would in ensuring GOP control of the state's largest school district.