Whether or not you agree with the review, it looks like the Wake County school board majority's policies will face tough scrutiny from an accreditation organization.

As noted in today's article, AdvancED gets dozens of complaints a year about school districts but only investigates a handful. Mark Elgart, the president and CEO of AdvancED, said they felt the concerns raised in the state NAACP complaint and in informal complaints later filed by other critics of the board majority warranted an in-depth review of Wake.

"It is rare, and it is serious,' Elgart said of the pending Wake review.

The original somewhat general state NAACP complaint against the Wake County school system has now turned into a wide-ranging review of all the major decisions made since December.

A "special review team" from AdvancED, the parent organization of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, will be coming to Raleigh soon to review the complaint filed by the NAACP. They've asked for a wide range of documents.

For instance, AdvancED want to know who developed the new community based assignment initiative and what studies and info was used to justify the move from the socioeconomic diversity policy.

SEE END OF POST FOR ADDITIONAL LINKS, INCLUDING WAKE'S PRIOR RESPONSE TO NAACP COMPLAINT

Here are some assorted issues raised in the NC SPIN show on Wake County's school diversity fight.

Was the socioeconomic diversity unpopular with the public, as maintained by John Hood, president of the conservative John Locke Foundation? He pointed to the higher turnout at last fall's elections and the unfavorable poll results from the Democratic-leaning Public Policy Polling and the conservative-leaning Civitas Institute.

"The policy that the Wake County school board adopted a decade ago has never been popular," Hood said. "It has always been unpopular."

Jason Sutton says that opponents of the Wake County school board majority are using false charges of racism as political weapons in the fight over community schools and the old socioeconomic diversity policy.

In a blog post today for the conservative Civitas Institute, Sutton writes that opponents of community schools "know that the most effective means of defeating the plan is to delegitimize the supporters by casting them as racist." Charges of racism, both direct and indirect, have been hurled at members of the board majority and their supporters.

Here's a recap of today's Wake County superintendent search committee meeting.

The committee agreed to keep the list of applicants confidential until they come up with a list of finalists. The committee also allowed the search firm of Heidrick & Struggles to begin advertising for the position with a Sept. 1 application deadline.

The ad, which will have a preliminary job description, will go out before public and private meetings are held with groups about what characteristics are desired in the next superintendent. Among the groups getting a private meeting with Heidrick is the Civitas Institute, the conservative group recently named a provider of board training by the board majority.

UPDATED TO INCLUDE OTHER GROUPS GETTING PRIVATE MEETINGS

UPDATED TO INCLUDE THAT GREAT SCHOOLS IN WAKE IS A 501(C)3 NON-PROFIT

Cary voters seem to like the Wake County school board's move toward neighborhood schools and don't have a favorable view of the Rev. William Barber, president of the state NAACP.

In a flash poll released last week by the conservative Civitas Institute, 350 registered voters in state House District 36 were polled about the race. Based on Civitas' rating system, the Cary based District 36 is considered to be Republican leading but it's also a swing district.

Most of the questions on the poll were about GOP state Rep. Nelson Dollar's  campaign against Democratic challenger Robin Anderson. But two school-related questions were included in the poll.

Did state House budget leaders target the Wake County school system for dropping socioeconomic diversity in the student assignment policy?

The budget adopted Thursday night by the state House orders the State Board of Education to "take into consideration the extent to which the local school administrative unit's policies or expenditures have contributed to or is contributing to increased segregation of schools on the basis of race or socioeconomic status."

At stake is how much money each school district could receive from the state from the disadvantaged student supplemental fund. According to Bob Luebke of the conservative Civitas Institute, Wake received $3.4 million from the state's $76.2 million DSSF fund last year.

The Rev. William Barber ratcheted up the threat of legal action against the Wake County school board at tonight's state NAACP mass meeting at Martin Street Baptist Church in Raleigh.

Barber, president of the state NAACP, solicited donations for legal fees for a possible lawsuit, collecting nearly $1,500. He also got parents to give their names to lawyers as potential plaintiffs in any legal action.

“Lawyers might have to get in the courts,” Barber said. “Some of us might have to get in the streets. Some of us might have to go to jail. Forward ever, backwards never.”

Bob Luebke is again suggesting more cuts in Central Services before Wake County school leaders cut into the classroom.

In a blog post Friday, Luebke of the conservative Civitas Institute provides a breakdown by department and average salary for Central Services. He writes that "should additional budget reductions be necessary, such information should be carefully considered so as to minimize the projected impact of budget cuts inside the classroom."

The fallout over Wake County school board member John Tedesco's speech at the April 15 Tea Party rally isn't going away.

This time, the conservative Civitas Institute is complaining about the criticism that liberal activist Chase Foster heaped on Tedesco at last week's school board meeting.

In a blog post today, Bob Luebke asks whether Foster "has also lectured Kevin Hill, Keith Sutton, Ann McLaurin and Carolyn Morrison for their work with the Democratic Party of Wake County?"