The Great Schools in Wake Coalition is mobilizing people to show up at Monday's Wake legislative delegation meeting to speak out against the bills that would change school ownership and school board elections.

"Both the Great Schools in Wake coalition and Friends of Dorothea Dix Park have issued alerts asking their members and supporters to show up en masse — and, for the Dix Park crowd, wearing green," writes Bob Geary in this blog post today the liberal Independent Weekly.

GSIW had already mobilized people last month in an unsuccessful bid to persuade the Wake County Board of Commissioners to withdraw their request for the legislation.

GSIW is backing the Wake County school board in opposing legislation that would take away its ownership of schools and change how and when board members are elected.

UPDATE

Due to the large crowd expected, the meeting has been moved to Room 643 of the Legislative Office Building, 300 N. Salisbury St., Raleigh.

See end of post for more info on Great Schools' action alert and an email from the Wake County Democratic Party also urging people to speak out Monday.

The cat will be out of the bag today, but was there a conspiratorial reason behind efforts by Wake County staff and the Republican school board members to get out the draft assignments now?

In a blog post Thursday, Bob Geary of the liberal Independent weekly writes that the changes that the Democratic board majority plan to make to the student assignment policy should drive the assignments and not the other way around. This means changes to the diversity component of the policy.

"The only reason for putting a list of assignments out now, before Policy 6200 is addressed, would be if (Superintendent Tony) Tata wants to highjack the decision about diversity before the board majority can act," Geary writes. "That is, dictate what the policy can or can't say by putting his own plan in first."

Bob Geary is defending efforts by the three new Democratic members of the Wake County school board to delay public release of the new student assignment base maps.

In a blog post Wednesday for the liberal Independent weekly, Geary singles out board members Susan Evans, Christine Kushner and Jim Martin and says they were right for insisting that "the diversity piece (be) given form" before releasing the assignments.

"Letting the staff publish its online list of base schools by addresses — a list that would be preliminary at best, if only because no board member has even seen it yet, let alone thought about all the ways it needs to be changed — would've been a serious blunder," Geary writes.

"That was Tata's intention, apparently, to let parents start looking up their assignments on Friday. Talk about putting the cart before the horse."

Wake County school board member John Tedesco is called "statesmanlike" in this week's issue of the liberal Independent weekly.

This article by Bob Geary notes Tedesco's willingness to reach out to the Democratic school board members for compromises on issues such as student assignment. Geary also writes that "around here, Tedesco is viewed as a conservative ideologue," but he's being called too moderate by his opponent for the Republican nomination for state schools superintendent.

"While Tedesco is poison for many Democrats, he's also the only Republican school board member who regularly communicates with any of the five Democrats who now constitute the new board majority, after two years of Republican control," Geary writes.

The Wake County school board has a lot crammed on its agenda today, including student assignment, school bus routing, the math placement policy and selling the Noble Road property.

That doesn't include the other items that may crop op, such as revisiting the mediation issue with the school board protesters and extending Superintendent Tony Tata's contract.

Let's start with the work session agenda, where we'll see if the new Democratic board majority heeds calls from its supporters to change the student assignment plan. Staff will give an update on the plan.

Wake County school board member Debra Goldman says she's taking on the role of board "watchdog."

During last week's board meeting, Goldman, a Republican, repeatedly raised concerns about the way she felt the new Democratic board majority was operating. She accused the board of committing several policy violations and not passing the "smell test" on email discussions.

"You’ve referred to me as the watchdog and I will pick up that mantle and go forward with it," Goldman said during the meeting.

The liberal/progressive Great Schools in Wake Coalition is being praised for helping oust the Republican majority on the Wake County school board.

In this week's issue of the liberal Independent Weekly, GSIW received one of the publication's 2012 Citizen Awards. The article cites Great Schools' various efforts over the past two years such as its white papers, community forums and having members speak at school board meetings.

"When the 2011 elections in Wake County resulted in a stunning defeat for the Republicans, with all five school board seats on the ballot won by pro-diversity candidates, GSIW was the major factor in the outcome," according to the article by Bob Geary.

Is the new Democratic majority on the Wake County school board too fragmented to be able to make changes to the diversity component of the new student assignment plan?

In an online article today for the liberal Independent weekly, Bob Geary writes that "the majority must come together," citing how they haven't agreed on changes to make to the assignment plan. Geary complains that the plan's "diversity pillar is weak to the point of collapse" and that the new majority "has taken no action to strengthen the plan since assuming office seven weeks ago."

"Looking over my notes from the two work sessions held by the school board on Jan. 3 and Jan. 10, I'm struck by the lack of cohesion among the five pro-diversity members," Geary writes. "They're clearly not on the same page. But that's not the problem so much as it is the fact that they don't seem to be making much of an effort to get on the same page — i.e., to reach a consensus among themselves about how to move diversity forward."

Bob Geary is urging the Wake County school board to go against the Great Schools in Wake Coalition's call to delay the implementation of the new student assignment plan by a year.

In an article today for the liberal Independent Weekly, Geary writes that he agrees with critics like Great Schools that the plan is "incomplete." But Geary writes that the school board can make adjustments for this year such as including setting aside seats at the high-performing schools and also make adjustments in future years.

Geary notes that Superintendent Tony Tata has "staked his reputation" on the plan. Geary writes that Wake should go ahead with the plan "unless the new board wants him gone — and contrary to Republican assertions, that's not the case."

"Tata's plan may not be what the new school board would've come with on its own given a two-year head start," Geary writes. "It may not be what it will come up with over the next four years. But throwing it out with little or no time left to fashion an alternative for the 2012-13 school year would be justifiable only if disaster was impending. And it isn't."

Who will be chosen the new chair and potentially new vice chair of the Wake County school board today?

It's expected that Kevin Hill or Keith Sutton will be chosen as chairman because they're the only members of the new Democratic majority with prior board experience. The new chair would serve until the annual meeting in June.

One theory being floated is that Hill will be chosen as chairman to finish out the term he never got to complete in 2009-10.

SEE UPDATE AT END OF POST