By a 5-3 vote, the Wake County school board has preliminarily agreed to go with the staff recommendation to open Walnut Creek Elementary School in Southeast Raleigh as a traditional calendar.

Keith Sutton, Anne McLaurin, Kevin Hill, Chris Malone and Debra Goldman voted to open Walnut Creek as a traditional-calendar school. John Tedesco, Deborah Prickett and Carolyn Morrison voted to open it as a year-round school, which was the original staff recommendation three years ago.

Supporters of making it traditional cited the childcare costs on the low-income families that will make up the majority of the families at Walnut Creek. Supporters of year-round focused on the additional capacity the calendar would provide.

SEE UPDATE AT END OF POST

The opening of today's AdvancED accreditation discussion turned into barb trading between Wake County school board members Ron Margiotta and Debra Goldman with each accusing the other of being "condescending."

Today's meeting, which is now in closed session, opened with a 5-2 vote to reject the agenda. Goldman voted with the Democrats.

Goldman's explanation was that as board vice chair she should have been consulted beforehand by Margiotta, the board chair, about what the closed session would be about. She objected to the agenda only saying going into closed session to protect attorney-client privilege.

Wake County school board member Carolyn Morrison has released a statement explaining why she will vote tonight against withdrawing from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, the local arm of AdvancED.

In her statement today, Morrison says that Wake should work with the accreditation review team and "not hinder them in their investigation." She lumps the potential loss of accreditation with dropping the diversity policy, eliminating Wake/Wacky Wednesdays, withdrawing from the N.C. Schools Boards Association, eliminating the requirement that the superintendent be an educator, giving speakers two minutes now instead of three at board meetings and cutting public comment to one meeting a month.

Here's Morrison's statement:

UPDATED TO MENTION CUTTING TIME FOR INDIVIDUAL SPEAKERS AT BOARD MEETINGS

Can and will critics of new Wake County Superintendent Anthony Tata be able to support him when he officially starts his new job Jan. 31?

As noted in today's article, vocal critics of the hiring such as school board member Carolyn Morrison and Great Schools in Wake Coalition chairwoman Yevonne Brannon say the community will need to rally behind Tata at some point.

For Brannon, that means when Tata is officially on the job. But for now, including today's board meeting, complaining about the search process and Tata's qualifications are still okay.

The biggest response from Tuesday's Wake County school board meeting may come from something that's not on the agenda.

A large turnout is expected of critics of the hiring of Anthony Tata as the new superintendent. During last week's meeting, a small but vocal crowd groaned at statements made by GOP members while cheering on Democrats who opposed hiring Tata.

If the board had passed Carolyn Morrison's motion last week, they would have delayed the vote until after Tuesday's public comment section.

The GOP members of the Wake County school board sure love new Superintendent Anthony Tata's military background.

As noted in today's article, board members who supported Tata repeatedly argued Thursday that his 28 years in the U.S. Army were a good match for the school district's needs. In contrast, Tata's critics on and off the school board said being a retired brigadier general wasn't enough to offset his relatively limited experience in the education system.

"Mr. Tata's experience as a military strategist will complement our focus on academic achievement and encourage the implementation of new initiatives for the betterment of the education of our students," said school board chairman Ron Margiotta.

The Wake County school board voted 4-2 today to hire Anthony Tata to be the new superintendent.

The four Republican board members (minus chairman Ron Margiotta who didn't vote becaue ther was no tie) backed Tata. The two Democrats present, Carolyn Morrison and Kevin Hill voted no.

A motion from Morrison to defer the vote to Jan. 4 to allow for parental comment was defeated by the same 4-2 vote.

As Debra Goldman made the motion to nominate Tata, an "argh" came from the small crowd of Great Schools in Wake Coalition people. The crowd cheered Morrison after she read her statement opposing Tata.

More to come later....

UPDATE

Click here for the online story.

Click here for a statement from Tata, who was not at the meeting.

Click here to view Tata's contract.

Click here to read a Great Schools in Wake Coalition press release criticizing the hiring of Tata.

Wake County school board member Carolyn Morrison says they "could do better for the parents, children, staff and taxpayers" than hiring Anthony Tata to be the new superintendent.

In this statement today, Morrison says that Tata is to "be commended for his service to the American people during his years in the Army." But she says can't vote for him because "nothing in his background of experience suggests that he is prepared to lead the largest school district in N.C."

Morrison says there are more qualified people to be superintendent, pointing to all the career educators. She says that Tata's 18 months as chief operating officer of D.C. Public Schools and his time in the Broad Superintendents Academy doesn't qualify him for the Wake job.

One question today is how much support will Anthony Tata get from the school board in being selected as Wake County's new superintendent.

It's likely Tata will get the support of all the Republican board members. Board vice chairwoman Debra Goldman has broken ranks at times but she's also the head of the search committee that recommended Tata.

Will any of the Democratic board members, who had all opposed efforts to let non-educators hold the job, vote for Tata? And what message will it send if the vote is divided?

UPDATE

The board is back after a 31-minute closed session. Keith Sutton is also not here so seven members are present.

Sutton, in an e-mail message, said he wasn't here because of the lack of ample notice about the meeting. The same reason was given by Anne McLaurin, who has medical duties today, why she couldn't attend.

The meeting was scheduled on Tuesday.

Even though Hill and Morrison voted against Tata, they said they'll throw 100 percent support behind him now that he's superintendent.

Wake County school officials have locked down today the dates and locations for the five public hearings on the 2011-12 student reassignment plan.

Hearings will be held Jan. 10 at Cary High, Jan. 11 at Millbrook High in North Raleigh, Jan. 13 at Heritage High in Wake Forest, Jan. 19 at Southeast Raleigh High and Jan. 20 at Garner High. The hearings will begin at 6 p.m.

The question is whether it's worth it for the public to go. For at least some school board members, the answer is no.