Thursday night's community mass meeting at Martin Street Baptist Church dealt with the new Wake County student assignment plan, getting mediation for the school board protesters and assailing the conditions at Walnut Creek Elementary School.

As noted in today's article, most the focus of the meeting led by the state NAACP and the Great Schools in Wake Coalition was on complaints about the assignment plan. The crowd of around 50 people, mainly supporters of the old diversity policy, were urged to contact school leaders to change the plan.

"If you let the plane fly in the air and you don’t make those course corrections that you feel need to be made in order to make it a more successful plan for all students so we have a fair and diverse and well-funded education for all students, then shame on us if we don’t advocate for the changes to make it happen," said Patty Williams of Great Schools in Wake.

SEE UPDATE AT END OF POST

The Wake County school board appointed five principals tonight while moving four principals to assistant principal posts.

Gregory Butler was named principal of North Garner Middle School with a salary of $92,707.68. He has been an assistant principal at Southeast Raleigh High since 2009.

Carmen Graf was named principal of Banks Road Elementary School in Fuquay-Varina with a salary of $73,803.68. Graf has been an assistant principal at Timber Drive Elementary since October.

UPDATE

Click here to view the bio sheets.

The Wake County school board appointed four principals today.

Keith Richardson was chosen to lead York Elementary School in North Raleigh. He has been an assistant principal at Sycamore Creek Elementary since 2009 and will receive a salary of $64,560.

Cheryl Stidham will run Stough Elementary School in North Raleigh. Stidham has been an elementary school principal in Ohio since 2006 and will receive a salary of $77,512.

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Wake County Superintendent Tony Tata announced today the names of eight of the 10 schools that will get special academic programs for the 2011-12 school year to make them more attractive to parents.

Tata said that Hilburn Drive, York and Aversboro elementary schools, Carroll Middle School and Knightdale High School will receive STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) programs.

Tata announced that Timber Drive, Jeffreys Grove and Stough elementary schools will receive Global Schools programs that will include things such as greater emphasis on teaching foreign languages.

UPDATE

In case I didn't make it clear in my budget post, Tata said today that he has no plans to cut back on the new STEM schools and Global Schools even in the face of deeper than projected state funding cuts.

The Wake County school board has hired tonight principals for two schools that have drawn a lot of parental interest.

The board named Corey A. Moore to be the new principal of Walnut Creek Elementary School in Southeast Raleigh. Based on the demographic mix at Walnut Creek, where 81 percent of students are expected to receive subsidized lunches and half the students aren't passing state reading exams, a $7,000 signing bonus was offered.

Moore is an assistant principal at Middle Creek High and a former principal at Weldon High. Not including the signing bonus, his salary will be $78,102.

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CORRECTED TO SAY MOORE WAS AN ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL AT EASLEY ELEMENTARY

What steps can and should the Wake County school system take to help under-enrolled schools?

As noted in today's article by Chelsea Kellner, parents and staff at Hilburn Drive and York elementary schools and Carroll Middle School are pleading for the school system to provide equal resources that they hope will help their under-filled schools. Among the ideas being proposed by all three schools is to get magnet status.

"This is really an opportunity for leadership where there hasn't been any," Hilburn Principal Greg Ford said. "The time is right now to fix this."

Wake County Superintendent Tony Tata will meet with Hilburn Elementary School parents tonight as part of his efforts to assure them he's concerned about the situation at underenrolled schools.

The school board asked staff to help draw up recommendations to help underutilized schools. Staff was supposed to give an update on Tuesday but Tata pulled it from the work session agenda because he wants to address capacity utilization and the magnet school review as elements of the long-term student assignment plan he'll present by late spring.

Parents at Hilburn, York Elementary and Carroll Middle were the most vocal during this year's student reassignment process in lobbying for help to fill their underutilized schools. York and Carroll parents specifically asked for magnet programs.

New Wake County Superintendent Tony Tata made the rounds today, meeting with Gov. Bev Perdue and members of the General Assembly.

School board member Carolyn Morrison, who accompanied Tata today, said they were meet-and-greets with no substantive issues discussed. In addition to the usual politics of a superintendent meeting the governor, you also had the backdrop of Perdue having criticized the Wake school board for ending the diversity policy.

Today's meetings are part of an effort by Tata to spend a half-day with each of the school board members. The board members are taking Tata around to meet with various groups.

The Wake County school board hired a new principal tonight at Yates Mill Elementary School and named an interim principal at Carroll Middle School.

Anne Marie Johnson was tapped to lead Yates Mill after having been an assistant principal at Wildwood Forest Elementary since Aug. 2009. She will receive a salary of $82,002.

Diane Payne will fill in as interim principal of Carroll Middle through March 31. Payne was a longtime Wake principal who had led Broughton High for 13 years before retiring in 2004. She's receivng the pro-rated equivalent of a $115,153 annual salary.

Earlier this evening, Carroll parents pleaded with the board to appoint a strong permanent principal at the school and to award a magnet program. The principal search is ongoing but it looks like there won't be a magnet for Carroll this fall.

Supporters of community schools had a much better turnout at Thursday's student reassignment hearing at Garner High School.

As noted in today's article, it was sharply different from Wednesday's hearing at Southeast Raleigh High when the biggest group was supporters of the Wake County's old diversity policy. It was a lot more evenly mixed Thursday.

Wake County Commissioner Phil Matthews set the tone as the first speaker.

SEE UPDATE AT END OF POST