You can take a glass is half empty or half full view of Wake County student assignment in the short term.

As noted in today's article, the good news for families in the immediate future is that the 2013-14 plan is expected to have relatively few reassignments. But it's very much a transitional plan with a new plan to be developed for the 2014-15 school year that's likely to include a lot more reassignments for things such as promoting balance in student achievement and socioeconomic diversity.

"We were looking at trying to give the staff and the parents a respite so we could have the larger discussion that it seems like we’re trying to have right now, that we could have the larger discussion to put together a sustainable assignment plan," said board chairman Kevin Hill.

Wake County's three new magnet schools and two revamped magnet schools will look to make a splash with parents for the 2013-14 school year.

As noted in today's article, staff unveiled at Thursday's meeting of the school board's student achievement committee the magnet programs that will be offered at the five schools covered by the federal MSAP grant.

Click here for a handout on the themes at the schools and where they'd fit in the magnet program pathways.

Should Wake County magnet school families have to apply to advance to a magnet secondary school or should it automatically be done for them by the school system?

Staff is recommending preassigning rising magnet application sixth-graders and ninth-graders from group one magnet schools without making them apply.

The group one magnets are ones where the majority of students are supposed to be magnet applicants and the primary role is to reduce concentrations of poverty at the school. Examples include Hunter, Poe and Washington elementary schools.

The Wake County school system appears likely to return to the practice of setting aside 10 percent of magnet school openings in the annual application process that would be filled on a random basis.

Wake used to set aside 10 percent of the magnet application seats for a more or less random lottery with the rest being filled based on selection criteria and priorities. That process was dropped this year under the choice plan.

But there was a consensus at Thursday's work session from board members to bring back the 10 percent seat lottery. if implemented, this change would most significantly impact families trying to get into high-demand magnet schools where there are for more applicants than openings.

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.

The Wake County school board will tackle the 2013-14 student assignment plan tonight looking at changes requested by the Democratic majority.

At Saturday's work session, which was only attended by Democratic board members, staff was asked to look at making changes to the draft plan, from elementary through high school. This could result in achievement-based changes and revisions to the middle school and high school feeder patterns.

At the same time, majority members said they don't want to move a lot of students next year and want to make changes over several years.

Democratic members of the Wake County school board were under the gun Tuesday to justify their decision to fire Superintendent Tony Tata.

As noted in today's article, Democratic members got far more explicit about their reasons for firing Tata than they did last week. At the same time, members of the audience and the Republican board members ripped into the board majority for its decision.

School board chairman Kevin Hill set the tone for the Democratic response during his opening comments.

Wake County school board member Debra Goldman is accusing the board majority of firing Superintendent Tony Tata at the behest of the Great Schools in Wake Coalition.

As noted in today's article, Goldman and other Republican board members were angry in their remarks about Tata's firing by the Democratic majority. Goldman used part of her time at the meeting to go after Great Schools.

"Now a partisan board majority is choosing to dismantle our school system to remove him from the Wake County schools," Goldman said of Tata's firing. "Why? You just heard not for cause, not for any documentable or viable reason. They didn't pick him. It's just that simple.

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?

Is Wake County Superintendent Tony Tata in danger of losing his job?

"It was brought to my attention this afternoon by reliable sources that Wake County School Board members, (Jim) Martin, (Susan) Evans, and (Christine) Kushner were making plans to to remove Superintendent Tony Tata from his position," Phil Matthews, vice chairman of the Wake County Board of Commissioners, wrote Sept. 11 on his Facebook page.

This is very concerning to me as a County Commissioner because Mr Tata has done an outstanding job for our school system. If this is true the citizens of Wake County will be very upset not to mention the majority of the Wake Commissioners. I will watch this situation very carefully!!"

UPDATE

The Hilburn Drive Academy PTA sent out this email this afternoon urging people to contact the school board to save Tata's job.

The email points to the positive changes that have been made at Hilburn since Tata became superintendent. On Sept. 11, Tata received an award from the school's PTA.