You could soon see some major shakeups in the membership of the Wake County school board advisory councils.

The policy committee recommended on Wednesday a policy change that says members of the board advisory councils need to be reinstated after new school board members take office. It's a major change from current policy in which BAC members serve until their terms expire, which can run for up to three years.

The change is important considering the differences in opinions between most new school board members and their predecessors.

There's a healthy dose of skepticism among members of the Wake County school board majority to the idea that abandoning Forest Ridge High would cost $15.5 million.

As noted in today's article, administrators said switching sites now would push the opening back form 2012 to 2014. This two-year delay would lead to $10 million in classroom trailer costs, $4 million in inflated construction costs and $1.5 million in redesign work.

Unlike the old board, new board members are taking the staff info with more reservations.

At the first meeting today of the new Wake County school board facilities committee, members voted to recommend abandoning the Forest Ridge High School site in favor of looking at two alternatives in Rolesville.

But the committee recommendation, which could be voted on by the full board next week, came after staff warned that it could cost $15.5 million more to abandon Forest Ridge. You can expect to hear that number a lot before the board votes on the recommendation.

The biggest chunk, $10 million, is estimated to come from acquiring additional classroom trailers to deal with overcrowding caused by delaying the school. It's estimated that scrapping Forest Ridge for a new site would push the opening of the school back two years to 2014.

Today should be a long day for some Wake County school board members.

It will start off at 9 a.m. with the board's facility committee meeting. It will wrap up sometime this evening with the community engagement meeting at Holly Springs High that could end at 9 p.m. or later.

This will mark the first committee meeting of the new board.

Chris Malone, Lois Nixon and Cathy Truitt have filed their 2009 final Wake County school board campaign reports.

In Malone's final report, he reported raising $18,186 and spending $18,056.12 in his successful bid for the District 1 seat. He reported contributions from Take Wake Schools Back, the N.C. Indian-American Political Action Committee and the Northern Wake Republican Club.

How hard is the new Wake County school board majority willing to fight to keep the Forest Ridge High site from being used?

As noted in today's North Raleigh News article, members of the majority weren't swayed by a review group's findings that it would be more expensive and lead to delays to drop the Forest Ridge site. Board members poked holes in the findings and are still looking at alternative sites for the H6 high school project.

"It's time to move off (Forest Ridge), and yet they continue to push for it," said school board member Chris Malone, whose district includes the Forest Ridge site, in the article.

A GOP candidate is turning to members of the new Wake County school board majority for help in winning the party's nomination for a state House seat.

In a press release today, Tom Murry announced that new Wake school board members Deborah Prickett and Chris Malone are supporting his bid for the GOP nomination in District 41. Murry, a Morrisville Town Councilman, and Todd Batchelor, a former finance director for the N.C. Republican Party, have both announced they'll seek the GOP nomination.

"Tom Murry is a proven conservative leader committed to building strong neighborhood schools," Prickett said in the press release. "And families throughout Raleigh, Cary, Apex and Morrisville can trust that as their representative in Raleigh, Tom will be a strong advocate for their interests."

The new Wake County school board majority is flexing its muscles with the new board committee assignments.

Members of the new board majority are leading nearly every major committee. For instance Debra Goldman will chair the policy committee that will review the proposed changes to the diversity policy. She's also got the human resources committee.

John Tedesco will chair the student assignment advisory committee and the economically disadvantaged student performance task force. Deborah Prickett is chairing student achievement and Chris Malone has the facilities committee.

In what's becoming more of a regular occurrence, the four new Wake County school board members will be the guests of honor at tonight's Wake County Taxpayers Association meeting.

The meeting will start at 6:30 p.m. at the Barbecue Lodge, 4600 Capital Boulevard in Raleigh. In an e-mail message to members, WCTA President Russell Capps said the new board members "will be sharing their assessments and thoughts on what's happening with the new Board."

The new Wake County school board members will have their next round of orientation meetings today, including a review of the legal aspects from board attorney Ann Majestic.

One of the things that Majestic will discuss is the state Open Public Meetings Law. Some questions were raised based on the meetings the new members held before they were sworn in and during the recesses on Tuesday.

But the board could have a new attorney at the end of June.