Supporters of neighborhood schools are not wanted on the Coalition of Concerned Citizens for African American Children's listserv.

Calla Wright, the coalition's president, acknowledged that she recently "banned" from the listserv known supporters of neighborhood schools. This includes people from groups such as Wake CARES and the Wake Schools Community Alliance.

Wright said support for neighborhood schools goes against the diversity policy and providing educational opportunities for all children.

The question seems to be how much change is coming to the magnet program and how soon.

As noted in today's article by Thomas Goldsmith, the new board majority says it will keep the magnet program but will likely make changes as part of a review. One potential change would be the easing of rules that now say that only magnet schools can offer certain courses and electives.

Changes that, for instance, would let schools in western Wake or North Raleigh offer more magnet-like programs would be welcomed by some parents.

"We don't want the whipped cream — give us the crumbs," said school board member Ron Margiotta.

The NAACP, the Coalition of Concerned Citizens for African American Children and the Wake Voter Coalition are urging churches and "supporters of diversity" to fight the return to neighborhood schools.

In a Tuesday press release, the three groups warn that the new school board majority "will jeopardize our children's educational opportunities" and that Southeast Raleigh schools will "not have quality resources" as neighborhood schools.

The press release says that Debra Goldman's support for extending electives in Cary and Apex could eliminate magnet programs. They also blast the idea of a KIPP Academy in Southeast Raleigh, which has been favorably mentioned by John Tedesco and Chris Malone, as being "another segregated school" that won't provide equal education for students.

In a moment loaded with symbolism, school board chairman Kevin Hill took the unusual step of briefly turning the gavel over today to vice chairman Horace Tart to present the CUBE award to the school board.

Hill traveled to Texas earlier this month, just days after the board election, to accept the award from the National School Boards Association’s Council of Urban Boards of Education (CUBE). Wake got the award for its diversity efforts.

Hill, from the speakers' podium, called the receipt of the award "one of the proudest moments in my long career with the Wake County Public School System."

Another Mecklenburg County Commissioner is stepping into the Wake school board election fight.

Last week, County Commissioner Bill James praised the victory by neighborhood school candidates. But in a Sunday press release from the Coalition of Concerned Citizens for African American Children, County Commissioner Vilma Leake says neighborhood schools have been a bad thing in Charlotte.

Leake, a former CMS school board member, urges Wake voters to continue to fight for diversity.

Get ready for four weeks of heavy campaigning in the District 2 school board runoff.

As noted in today's article, Cathy Truitt expects to call for a runoff against John Tedesco. However reluctantly, folks who backed Horace Tart will likely turn to Truitt in hopes of staving off a complete sweep by the WSCA candidates.

"I'm hopeful that we can continue to talk with her about the need to continue to maintain diversity in our schools," said Calla Wright, president of the Coalition of Concerned Citizens for African American Children. "That's our glimmer of hope."

So what factors led to what all sides will agree was a historic school board election on Tuesday?

As noted in today's articles, it seems to depend on who you ask. Supporters of the current board blamed voter apathy while critics argued that change was on people's minds.

"Hunger for change was so great that no matter how much money the opposition was willing to spend, they weren’t going to stop that change from happening,” said victorious school board candidate Chris Malone in an article.

The "Friends of Diversity" are not going away.

A day after organizing Monday's pro-diversity policy press conference, the group is inviting the media to join tonight in watching the school board election returns.

Here's the group's press release:

The Coalition of Concerned Citizens for African American Children is formally making endorsements in Wake's school board races.

In a press release sent Sunday night, the CCCAAC said it was backing Rita Rakestraw, Horace Tart, Karen Simon and Lois Nixon because of their support for the diversity policy. The endorsements aren't a shock considering how the group's leader, Calla Wright, has warned that a victory by critics of the policy will lead to de-facto resegregation.

It looks like the joint press conference by the Raleigh-Wake Citizens Association and the Coalition of Concerned Citizens for African American Children is on hold.

Both groups, along with potentially some others, had been looking to meet Thursday to publicly back school board candidates who support the diversity policy. The latest word is that there might be a press conference, or just a press release, sometime next week.

We'll see if the groups try to make a last-minute election splash.