Was the Wake County school board's decision to only extend the dissolution of first-choice wait lists to July 18 the right call?

Some school board members talked last week about extending the deadline even further for all students, or least for those in high schools. But staff cited the need to lock in a date for schools to have their enrollment figures and to be fair to newcomers who will be moving in over the summer.

The waiting lists were going to expire on June 29. But after parents lobbied for more time to get into their first-choice school, the board told staff to look at a later date.

Is the Wake County school system's decision to play "Big Brother" a wise investment or money that could have been better spent elsewhere?

The school board's vote Tuesday to enter in a contract with Everyday Solutions to install GPS monitoring devices on all district school buses was hailed by supporters as an initiative that would save money and improve safety.

But opponents on the board called it a "toy," saying the $1.3 million expenditure in the first year could have been used for other areas such as more money for teacher assistants and assistant principals whose pay was cut last year.

Speaking of virtual schools, Wake County school administrators are looking to broaden the opportunities for high school students to take academic enrichment courses.

At last week's Wake County school board policy committee meeting, staff presented changes they're working on to the district's dual enrollment policy and its R&P. The policy governs how high school students can take supplementary courses at other secondary schools or institutions of higher education to get academic credit.

A big proposed change would be to end the monopoly on non-secondary schools having to be accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) for students to get credit from them. Wake would now say that accreditation could come from other regional equivalents to SACS.

Here's a running update on some of the votes from tonight's Wake County school board meeting.

The board voted 7-2 to pay $1.7 million over the next five years to install  GPS units on all the school buses. Only board members Susan Evans and Christine Kushner voted no.

The board unanimously approved extending the waiting lists for the school choice student assignment plan from June 29 to July 18. The board also unanimously voted to make the new career technical and education high school a full-day standalone model.

Over the objections of some board members, the board will go into closed session first to discuss whether to join the litigation against the N.C. Virtual Academy. Board member Debra Goldman was the most vocal critic, arguing they should have the discussion in open session to be transparent.

It looks like, at least in the near term, any use of teacher performance pay in the Wake County school system would be on a limited basis.

Wake County school board members debated the use of merit pay when reviewing the draft strategic plan last week. Some school board members support its use while others are adamantly against it or only support using it in limited cases.

Performance pay is already in limited use in Wake.

The impact of the new student assignment plan on Wake County's magnet schools and potentially adding more magnet programs to Eastern Wake are just some of the issues that have been put on staff's plate.

Wednesday's school board discussion on how well magnet schools are meeting their current objectives produced a number of comments and requests for more information from staff.

The information could help shape which schools get magnet programs.

It's looking like student achievement will be added as one of the new guiding principles to Wake County's magnet school program.

As noted in today's article, there was a good deal of discussion at Wednesday's Wake County school board meeting about a review of student achievement data at magnet schools. The focus was how at the elementary and middle school level, the magnet schools had wider gaps than the non-magnet schools.

If adopted into the guiding principles, it could impact which schools get magnetized. It could also impact whether some existing magnet schools change their program or are demagnetized.

Should the Wake County school system hold spots at specific schools for families who say they're leaving but intend to return?

If a guarantee can be given, should it be limited only to families citing sabbaticals from universities or professional leave to go on unique job opportunities? Or should there be no guarantee for any family that leaves with Wake saying it will try, space permitting, to put them back at the same school when they return?

Those questions formed the heart of a lengthy discussion at Tuesday's school board policy committee meeting on whether not having base assignments in the new student assignment plan requires development of a family and professional leave policy.

Some Wake County school board members want to have more of a direct say on proposed changes to the way grades are given to students.

Most of the contentious points of a proposed change in Wake's grading practices are in the R&P that administrators would use to implement board policy. That includes the banning of the use of extra credit, allowing retests to replace scores and limiting the penalty for late assignments.

But school board attorney Ann Majestic said today that the board could move items from R&P into the grading policy revision to determine what it considers to be the "non-negotiables" for staff to consider. That caught off guard administrators who thought the changes were in their purview.

How significant, if at all, is it that the gap has narrowed between the Wake County school system's graduation rate and the state average?

It was one of the points of contention during Tuesday's school board retreat as the board reviewed this draft strategic plan. Superintendent Tony Tata talked about how pg. 6 shows the state's graduation rate has risen since 2006 while it's dropped in Wake.

"That’s an alarming trend there where we are flat or marginally decreasing while the state is steadily increasing," Tata told the board.