Imagine being told you have to return to the academically struggling school you left and also having to change your year-round track.

As noted in today's article by Ray Martin, Joni Duell's two kids were sent back to Barwell Road Elementary School after having taking advantage of their options last year under No Child Left Behind to transfer to a more successful school.

It's a double whammy for Duell, whose children were on track 4 at East Garner Elementary. Instead of starting the new school year on July 27, they were given a track at Barwell that started July 7, forcing them to start classes three weeks earlier than planned.

Will a new school district analysis of how far students live from school quiet criticism over the busing program?

As noted in today's article, the new report found that 86 percent of students are assigned to schools within 5 miles of their home and it's up to 99 percent when you increase the distance to 10 miles from home.

Supporters of the district are hailing the report as proof that busing complaints are overstated.

The school system could crack down on students who are illegally attending school in Wake.

School board members have asked that the policy committee review what steps should be taken if a student who is not living in Wake County is found to be attending school in the district without permission. Non-Wake residents are generally only in the district if they're paying tuition.

While some of you guys may scoff, there are a lot of people who live in the surrounding counties who would much rather attend school in Wake.

Wake's second chances weren't appealing for a lot of magnet applicants this year.

David Ansbacher, senior director for magnet programs, said 1,421 letters were sent to families offering them a second chance to apply for a magnet seat. But he said only 110 responded to amend their applications.

Of the group, Ansbacher said 68 were offered seats at the new school.

Here's a bit more discussion on how the Lost Colony deal came to an end at Tuesday's committee of the whole meeting.

Heading into the meeting, it looked like some school board members were all set to continue the relationship with Granville County schools to pay the $1,443 per student tuition for the Lost Colony students.

But things changed when the school board found out that bus service was already being provided to the Lost Colony area. This means service wouldn't have to be added if Wake kept the 51 students now going to Granville.

This probably shouldn't be a surprise, but the school board now won't vote on sending year-round consent forms before the state Supreme Court has one more chance to rule on the case.

The original timeline had staff going to the board on April 22 to ask for the forms to go out and to list traditional-calendar options for each school. But administrators told the board this week they'll now wait until May 5.

This two-week delay happens to come after May 1, the next date the Supreme Court could rule on the case.

You've got two meetings of note today, but only one is open to the general public.

The non-public meeting is at 12:30 p.m. when school board member Eleanor Goettee and Asst. Supt. Chuck Dulaney speak with the Raleigh Regional Association of REALTORS. Organizers say Goettee and Dulaney will "answer questions concerning REALTORS communication about schools and school policies to potential buyers."

The public meeting is at 6 p.m. when the Wake School Community Alliance holds its next meeting in Garner.

So Wake is saying that no one is assigned to a school 20 miles from home.

"I don't know of a single child assigned to a school 20 miles away — not one," said Asst. Supt. Chuck Dulaney in the latest issue of In Context, the weekly newsletter of the Wake Education Partnership.

That sure would come as a surprise to some folks. For instance, nodes 51.0 and 444.4.

This is not an April Fool's Joke.

Forest Pines Elementary School will not be on an enrollment cap for the 2009-10 school year even though that's what staff had recommended last week. It seems they made a mistake.

Asst. Supt. Chuck Dulaney told school board members on Tuesday that he had used the wrong cap number for Forest Pines in basing his recommendation.

The school board's discussion of funding Leesville Road Middle School's conversion to year-round saw some sharp words thrown out.

Beverley Clark kicked things off Tuesday by saying they need to base this year's budget on the immediate situation facing Wake. She said the growth now facing Wake doesn't demand converting LRMS, especially when several year-round middle schools are under capacity.

Clark said it especially makes sense to delay conversion because the state Supreme Court hasn't ruled yet on the year-round case. She expects consent forms will have to go out.