Wake County school board member Debra Goldman is going with an attack the messenger response to the coverage of the 2010 police report about her and board member Chris Malone.

Goldman broke her silence by issuing a statement today in which she charged the coverage "only serves to continue the newspaper’s history of attacks on me and my family" and is designed to "derail" her campaign for state auditor. She doesn't respond to any of the statements in the report or the story.

Here's Goldman's statement:

Wake County school board member Chris Malone is breaking his silence about the recent N&O stories on the 2010 incident involving him and fellow board member Debra Goldman.

In an interview today,  Malone said his attorneys advised him not to comment on the N&O story or details of the police report where he was implicated by Goldman as a burglary suspect and they gave conflicting statements about whether they had a romantic relationship. But Malone reaffirmed his intent to run and win the election for the state House 35 seat.

"There's no reason to drop out. I've already moved past it," Malone said. "I have faith that my constituents know who I am and why I'm running, so I'm just going to keep campaigning."

Goldman still has not returned calls requesting comment on the issue.

How much political fallout will there be over the publicity about Wake County school board member Debra Goldman naming board member Chris Malone as a suspect in a burglary she reported in 2010 and the conflicting statements they gave about their relationship?

As noted in today's article, the two face consequences in how it will affect their campaigns for state office. They also face consequences about how the controversy will affect them on the school board, especially if they don't win their elections next month.

As Andy Taylor, an N.C. State University political professor noted, people aren't talking now about the firing of Superintendent Tony Tata.

It's not every day that one elected official accuses another of potentially committing a felony and then both tell police about their relationship.

As noted in today's article, a Cary police report shows that Wake County school board member Debra Goldman reported in June 2010 that $130,000 was stolen from her home and that she named board member Chris Malone as a potential suspect.

Malone was able to satisfy investigators that he didn't commit the burglary. In the process, both board members gave conflicting statements about whether they had a romantic relationship.

It's looking less likely that the Wake County school board will push for a May 2013 school construction bond issue.

As noted in today's article, school board members Susan Evans, Jim Martin and Chris Malone all said after Wednesday's facilities committee meeting that a fall 2013 bond vote is more realistic. This comes after school board chairman Kevin Hill made similar remarks in Friday's meeting with N&O reporters and editors.

“There’s been a lot that’s gone poorly in the last few months,” Evans said. “The extra time will help us re-earn the public’s trust.”

After a week of tearing into each other, Wake County school board members finally found something they could agree on Thursday night.

As noted in today's article, Republican and Democratic board members unanimously agreed to scrap the 2013-14 draft assignment maps in favor of going to the 2011-12 base maps. The fact they were agreeing drew several mentions and jokes at the board table.

The change occurred when board member Jim Martin interrupted the discussion of how the draft maps would affect the percentages of low-income students next year.

UPDATE

The 2011-12 base address lookup feature is still up. Click here to view.

If you don't remember what the pre-choice plan maps looked like in 2011-12, click here to refresh your memory. The link puts you on Wake's school directory page. Pick a school and then click on its assignment tab. Under the assignment tab you'll find a link to a PDF map for the 2011-12 base assignment area.

If you live near Rolesville High, Rolesville Middle, Richland Creek Elementary's permanent campus off US 1 in Wake Forest near the Franklin County line or Abbott Creek Elementary's permanent campus near the North Wake Landfill you can expect you might be added to their base areas.

Also, if you live in Panther Creek High's base look for change as you're reassigned to Green Hope High since they're not using a standalone ninth-grade center for PCHS.

The board agreed with the stay where you start rules proposed in the draft plan so you'd be able to grandfather if you're an existing student.

No one in the Wake County school system is thrilled with the options but by the end of the day there should be a plan in place to deal with short-term overcrowding at Panther Creek High School.

Of the four options on the table, staff will recommend today that the school board approve a plan to install two additional modular units at Panther Creek and three at Green Hope High School. The projected cost is $6,944,600, which includes an assumed offsite budget of $1.5 million.

This option is being recommended over other more expensive options that would call for a standalone ninth-grade center. But while the modulars are cheaper, it means the loss of some athletic fields and mean fewer students would be able to attend the popular Panther Creek.

UPDATE

The school board unanimously approved the staff recommendation to put the modulars at Panther Creek and Green Hope high schools.

What seemed to influence several board members is that Panther Creek Principal Rodney Nelson and Green Hope Principal James Hedrick backed the option.

Click here for the link for today's handout.

It looks like Wake County Superintendent Tony Tata could be out of a job by next Tuesday.

After 3 1/2 hours in closed session today, the board came out into open session with Democrats trying to add a "confidential personnel item" to the agenda. While no one said what it was, Republicans roundly criticized the effort to vote today.

It required a two-thirds majority to get on the agenda today so it failed by a 5-4 party line vote. The Democrats voted 5-4 to recess the meeting until 3 p.m.  tomorrow.

It would again take a two-thirds vote tomorrow to potentially vote on firing Tata. But Democratic board chairman Kevin Hill could simply add it to the Oct. 2 meeting agenda, which is why GOP board member Chris Malone considered voting for it today to get it over with rather than stringing things out a week.

UPDATE

Click here for the online story.

The Democratic majority on the Wake County school board voted down, along party lines, a motion to discuss Superintendent Tony Tata's job performance in open session.

Thomas Goldsmith, who is out at the meeting, is reporting that Republican board member Deborah Prickett made the motion to make public the ongoing discussions on Tata. It was voted down 5-4, paving the way to go into closed session.

"I completely oppose a closed session," Prickett said.

UPDATE

The meeting was originally scheduled to end at 3 p.m. but it's gone well past that time. A cardboard box labeled "Fritos" was taken inside the board conference room, presmably for them to munch on.

This week marks what could be a potentially major week in the history of Wake County student assignment.

As noted in today's article, the school board's policy committee will meet Tuesday to begin discussion of rewriting the student assignment policy to reintroduce diversity as one of the components. On Saturday, the school board will go over the 2013-14 draft student assignment plan that could potentially be rewritten to reflect the diversity changes.

One of the questions the school board will face is how to word the diversity component in the assignment policy. Should it be a general statement, as proposed by staff, or a more explicit document that would have a variety of income and achievement targets?