The new Democratic majority on the Wake County school board is now in place following a packed swearing-in ceremony.

After being sworn in, the new members talked about focusing on improving education for Wake’s 146,000 students, listening to the families and trying to go beyond the 5-4 votes on major issues that took place over the past two years.

“If this board comes together with the common denominator of all children all schools, we’ll continue to have a very successful 16th largest school district in the nation,” said school board member Kevin Hill.

The Wake Community Network is accusing the Great Schools in Wake Coalition of making "dubious" claims in criticizing the way the Wake County school board hired Anthony Tata to be the new superintendent.

In a press release today, Joey Stansbury, director of the Wake Community Network, challenges the Dec. 23. claim from GSIW chairwoman Yevonne Brannon that the public met with prospective finalists in past searches.

This is a case where it may depend on what superintendent search you're discussing.

It looks like we can forget about calling them the Wake County school board majority for now.

As noted in today's article, four of the five members of the old Republican majority say the recent actions by board vice chairwoman Debra Goldman mean the coalition is dead when it comes to student assignment. They say that it will take next year's elections to bring about a new majority to implement community-based schools.

“Right now those who believe in forced busing and socioeconomic engineering have found a new ally,” said board member John Tedesco.

The 22 former Wake County school board members who gathered together today were officially diplomatic about the changes being made by the new board majority, but it was clear they were personally unhappy with what's happening.

The former members talked about wanting "to ensure an equal opportunity for a sound basic education for every child in Wake County Public Schools." It was clear from their two-page statement that they feel "equal opportunity" is based on keeping the school district's longstanding busing for diversity efforts.

"For over 30 years, the Wake County Public School System has been a model for school districts around the nation," according to the statement read at today's press conference. "Because research consistently shows that challenges to success for all students in high poverty and racially isolated schools are greater, we have worked hard to prevent the creation of such schools."

UPDATE

Click here for an article in the Independent that lists the statement read by the former school board members..

New Wake County school board member John Tedesco found himself on the hot seat at Wednesdat night's forum sponsored by WakeUP Wake County and the YWCA.

School board member Keith Sutton was the main speaker but Tedesco decided to attend as well as an audience member. But with Tedesco present, some in the crowd of around 50 people directed their questions at him instead.

Tedesco was not exactly surrounded by supporters at the forum.

UPDATE

Idenitifed who made the civil rights quote at the forum.

Critics of the new Wake County school board majority are in an uproar over Tuesday's meeting.

In a Wednesday column, Chris Fitzsimon, executive director of the liberal N.C. Policy Watch, says Tuesday's meeting shows the new majority is "committed to resegregating the schools as fast as possible."

In another Wednesday column, Bob Geary of the liberal Independent weekly says the new majority acted like "bullies." What's also interesting is he includes a conversation he had with new board vice chairwoman Debra Goldman, former board member Carol Parker and former board candidate Curt Stangler.

Fifteen former Wake County school board members have signed a joint letter that supports the diversity policy and urges voters to pick school board candidates Lois Nixon, Rita Rakestraw, Karen Simon and Horace Tart.

In the letter, it argues that Wake has no "bad" schools and that the "opposite of diverse schools is unequal schools." It says that '"community schools' means that 'you' can't come into 'my' community.'"

The signers include recent former members such as Rosa Gill and Beverley Clark. But you also've got names such as Tom Oxholm, Carol Parker, Susan Parry, Wray Stephens and Judy Hoffman.

Speaking of transfer requests, it still looks like families who appeal rejections will be dealing only with current school board members.

School board member Ron Margiotta has been pushing for the past few years to take advantage of a law allowing districts to designate third parties to hear transfer appeals. These hearings aren't pleasant affairs, with Margiotta comparing them with wakes.

Margiotta again made his pitch recently to have former school board members hear the appeals. The former board members would be able to hear the cases but could only make recommendations and not final decisions.