Wake County school board member John Tedesco is warning he might not support the fall school bond issue.

Tedesco gave the warning during Tuesday's school board work session as he complained about this $925 million proposed list of projects. He's upset that the list doesn't include funding for renovations at two Garner schools and only a small amount to start work on Garner High School.

"Excuse me if this is not a priority list of bonds from somebody who's been a vocal advocate for our bond thus far, saying we need it, telling others that we need it extensively," Tedesco said. "This is not one that I could support."

The Wake County school board approved tonight placing enrollment caps at 17 schools for the 2013-14 school year.

The elementary schools that are affected are Brooks, Cedar Fork, Fuller, Holly Grove, Farmington Woods, Hunter, Joyner, Lacy, Mills Park, Underwood, Walnut Creek and Wiley. Caps would also affect the elementary school grades at Hilburn Drive Academy, and Apex, Garner, Heritage and Holly Springs high schools.

Unless that school is already capped for this school year, newcomers who still move in after this late date can get in for the rest of the school year. But you've got a big problem, unless you already live in the school's attendance area, if you want to begin attending this fall.

Enrollment caps, school budgets and bell schedules are among the things the Wake County school board will deal with today.

During the work session, this handout shows that school administrators will recommend placing enrollment caps for the 2013-14 school year on 17 schools. This is based on how crowded those schools are after the declaration of base, magnet school and first transfer application periods.

Nine of the 17 schools already at the cap figure, meaning families who hadn't moved in by a set date can't attend this fall. The cap would go into effect at the other eight schools when they hit their cap figure.

UPDATE

A revised document presented today shows that 15 of the schools are already at their cap figure. Only Farmington Woods Elementary and Holly Springs High aren't there yet.

Nearly two-dozen Wake County students are facing the impact of the enrollment caps that were placed on some schools for the rest of the school year.

Laura Evans, senior director of student assignment, said that as of Wednesday 22 students have been capped out of their base school for the rest of the school year. The information was shared during Thursday's joint meeting of the school board and county commissioners.

“It’s not something like we do, but we also don’t like excessively crowded schools," Evans said.

Seven of the 13 Wake County schools on the full-cap list have hit their figures to stop taking new students for the rest of the school year.

As this handout shows, Brooks, Conn, Davis Drive, Hunter, Lacy, Mills Park and Wiley elementary schools are now at the figure to trigger the full enrollment cap restrictions.  New families who move into the base will be given three other schools to pick from for this school year.

Originally, Davis Drive Elementary's full-cap target was 990 students. But Laura Evans, senior director of student assignment, said it was lowered to 970 — the school's current enrollment — after Principal Chip Mack said he couldn't take any more students.

Wake County's three new magnet schools and two revamped magnet schools will look to make a splash with parents for the 2013-14 school year.

As noted in today's article, staff unveiled at Thursday's meeting of the school board's student achievement committee the magnet programs that will be offered at the five schools covered by the federal MSAP grant.

Click here for a handout on the themes at the schools and where they'd fit in the magnet program pathways.

What would Wake County's magnet schools look like if they lost those programs and were only populated by the students who live near them?

That's a question that school administrators tried to answer last week for school board members reviewing the magnet program. This chart indicates that many magnet schools, particularly those inside the Raleigh Beltline, would have higher percentages of minority and free-and-reduced lunch (FRL) students if only populated by proximity students.

You can see a big demographic difference from the magnet population going to the schools and the base population being assigned out.

Which Wake County magnet schools, if any, should be worrying about losing their magnet status?

During Tuesday's school board work session, Deputy Superintendent Cathy Moore said the determination on demagnetization is a longer more drawn out process that they weren't going to discuss yet. She wanted the board to focus on the adoption of the magnet principles and which schools to include in the magnet grant.

But this color-coded chart showing how the existing magnets fare under the magnet principles could give an indication of which schools might be at higher risk. Green indicates strongly aligned with the magnet principles, yellow is moderately aligned and red and white both mean not aligned.

Wake County school administrators are dialing back their recommendations to have K-12 magnet feeders as part of the new student assignment plan.

As noted in today's article, the revised draft feeder plan list posted on Monday includes a number of changes requested by parents. Those parents mounted aggressive campaigns to keep their existing feeder patterns as opposed to being put in new ones that would have them go to magnet secondary schools.

Some of the most vocal opposition came from families at Brooks, Douglas and Joyner elementary schools. They wanted to keep their historic feeder patterns that had them going to closer non-magnet secondary schools.

Here's an abbreviated recap of today's update on the Wake County student assignment plan.

Staff is proposing splitting the magnet schools into three groups with varying level of magnet and application seats. Group one schools, largely those around Southeast Raleigh, would have 55 to 60 percent magnet application seats.

Group two schools in less high-poverty areas such as Brooks, Joyner and Underwood elementary schools would have 40 to 45 percent magnet seats.

SEE THE END OF THE POST FOR THE HANDOUTS FROM THE MEETING